How do you handle disciplining your kids? I know there’s a wide age range in this group but if there a certain point, we all need to tell our kids had a behave. Anybody have any tricks for keeping their cool in these situations?

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the end of my journey here. Not in a dark or morbid way, but in the way you think about the end of a journey when you’ve reached the end of others before. I’ve finished contracts. Finished life on ships. Finished college. Finished living in the country I grew up in. I know what endings feel like. What’s interesting is that most endings aren’t as final as they seem. There’s often a way back. Sometimes I’ve gone back. Sometimes I haven’t. But endings still force a reckoning. That’s what this is. When people talk about worst-case scenarios after death, they usually jump straight to hell. Fire, brimstone, endless suffering, eternal punishment. Strangely enough, that doesn’t scare me as much as it probably should. There’s something almost workable about it. You could prepare for suffering. You could build mental toughness, discipline, endurance. You could learn how to carry weight without reward. I’m not defending hell, but I understand it. What scares me more is something quieter. Imagine being sat down at the end of your life and shown a highlight reel. Not a judgment. Just a record. Your life, as lived. And as you watch it, the overwhelming feeling isn’t horror or pain, but disappointment. That’s it? That I spent my time chasing easy pleasures. Sitting on the couch. Avoiding discomfort. Numbing myself. Ignoring things I knew mattered. And now it’s over, and there’s no fixing it. No tools left. No strength to summon. No second attempt. That, to me, feels like the real worst-case scenario. The ancient Stoics had a phrase for this. Memento mori. Remember, you must die. Marcus Aurelius didn’t mean this as a threat. He meant it as a lens. Let the fact of death shape how you live, how you choose, how you act today. And if I’m honest, I haven’t been doing that. Somewhere along the way, I started conflating pleasure with reward. Comfort with meaning. Relief with progress. And they are not the same thing. Pleasure isn’t evil. It isn’t the problem. The problem is unchosen pleasure, the kind you fall into when you’re under-aimed. When you don’t know what you’re moving toward, your nervous system grabs whatever makes the moment quieter.

Good morning Father's and welcome to 2026! Hope you've had a night that either celebrated a great year or commiserated one you're glad is over. I know I've got a lot of thinking to do but how about you all? What's your big focus of 2026?

Dads! How long does the trip need to be for you to do the old "here's a gift from my trip"? I just did an overnight in London and didn't bring anything home for the family. Where's the line?!

Morning Fathers, I've been thinking about something I'd written in the mission of this community. Whether or not we'd ever thought about fatherhood prior to having kids I'd bet we'd either had big vision for our life or big plans for the type of dad we'd be for our kids. I know I get caught up in doing all the things I have to do for my son to have a roof over his head, food in his belly and a story at bedtime. I don't think a bad dad by any means but I'm not the dad I want to be for him. I want him to look at me and see what's possible with hard work and clear vision. That's what made me realize that my dreams are no long things I want to do. They're things I HAVE to do. Not because I want him to be spoiled by things but to be spoiled by choice. Not because I haven't made a good life for my family but to make the life I'd envisioned for them. Your dreams aren't something that need abandoning. Focus, clarity and effort. What's your dream?