DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR OTHER DADS? BRENT: Be as encouraging and as positive as you can, because kids respond to positivity. Kids respond to encouragement, and the more that we can encourage kids and not set them up for unrealistic expectations or, set them up for what we want them to be, and just encourage them to go along their way, that’s probably the best advice that I could give. I don’t always follow it, but parent them with a positive attitude. Also, find a good partner. It’s very hard to do this alone, so having a good partner and having that support is super helpful. RAPID-FIRE QUESTIONS Favorite date night… dinner anywhere. One word that best describes your family… cohesive. Favorite movies or television shows… Ted Lasso and any Star Wars film. Favorite food… cheeseburger.
you want to set them up for as much success as possible. The hard part is sometimes that life gets in the way and they have to work for it. So we try to teach the work. I don't know how well we're doing with that sometimes, but they’re getting to the ages where you’re not given everything. There’s a scoreboard and there are wins and losses. You have to learn how to win and you have to learn how to lose. You have to learn that sometimes people don’t practice and yet they’re still better than you, but you end up working hard. The more that you can practice and get better, the more the end result tends to be a positive one. You hate to see your kids fail, but that’s part of life. So you try and be as positive as you can, and hopefully they learn from their failures. WHAT’S SOMETHING YOUR CHILDREN HAVE TAUGHT YOU? BRENT: Patience is the easy answer. I’m very structured and routine oriented. I like having a plan. I like having a day-to-day goal. Noth- ing makes me happier than you sending me a calendar invite to know when it’s going to happen and that sort of thing. Kids aren’t that way. They have helped break in some of that “go with the flow” mentality. I’m not always
great with that, but when they want to go do something, it’s let’s just go do it. Let’s go and figure it out and see what we can do. That’s what they’ve taught me: Sometimes life isn’t about schedules and routines. DO YOU HAVE ANY FAMILY TRADITIONS? BRENT: We like to travel as a family. Typically around Thanksgiving, we leave just the four of us and go somewhere where we get out of Louisiana and travel. It’s a fun tradition that I enjoy.
IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND TALK TO YOURSELF A WEEK BEFORE YOU BECAME A DAD, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY? BRENT: You don’t have to have all the
answers. Sometimes they don’t know that I don’t know what I’m doing. That's probably the best. The best example is that your kids have no idea, particularly when they’re ba- bies. They have no idea that you have no idea how to parent. So give yourself some grace and enjoy the ride because it goes by pretty fast. Take more pictures. I'd probably say one thing I don’t do is take pictures. I have memories in my head, but I would probably tell myself to take more pictures, too.
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