By Nick De Leeuw
When I was a kid, my father would call home from work every single day. Not because there was anything particularly exciting to report from the job, but because you never knew what kind of excitement was going on at home.
Moderately well known Nick trivia – I’m the eldest of 10 children. My saintly mother lovingly produced the team, one at a time (twins or triplets would have been taking the easy way out) over the span of just 16 years.
There was never a dull day on College Avenue back in Grand Rapids, and I remember even as a preteen, it making all the sense in the world that Dad would call each afternoon just to check in. You never knew who might have missed the bus home from school, driven mom to drink, or tried to accidentally to start the neighbors new truck on fire with leftover 4th of July fireworks.
(I exaggerate. We almost always caught the bus, and my world's-best mother keeps a dry establishment. My brother Casey really did once slingshot a lit firecracker onto the neighbor’s pickup, but considering I once set my bedroom floor on fire with a pack of black cats, the truck really wasn’t that big a deal.)
Still, turns out I didn’t understand Dad’s phone calls as well as I thought I did. As a relatively new dad myself, I’m learning from experience.
Here at Resch Strategies, we’ve always placed a premium on striking the right work / life balance. That starts with our founder, Matt Resch, who is himself both a veteran of the political wars and a (relatively) young father.
When the kid has a program at school – or we want to catch an afternoon Tigers game (pitchers and catchers report in just 18 days, thank God!), it’s no big deal, as long as the work is done and the client’s needs have been met.
That kind of flexibility and understanding is worth more than gold to a young dad like me, and in the firm’s formative years, that even meant spending most work days at the home office.
Well, the last year and a half have been a time of incredible growth around the office, as we’ve welcomed new staff, and seen both the portfolio and our capacity expand at a breakneck pace.
I’m spending more time than ever at the central office in Lansing, and Dad’s daily calls have taken on a whole new significance.
The nice part about living in 2017, we've got more than the old rotary phone at our disposal. Afternoon updates are multi-media, and often hilarious, like this one from earlier this week.
This is Carter. He’s 3 and he’s got a future in this business. Nonstop, all day, every day. Born storyteller, this boy. Or a born ninja. Depends on his mood.
“When I was younger I was a ninja and I SMASHED THE BAD GUY!” “A long time ago I actually was a soldier with big guns and I would SHOOT THE BAD GUYS!” “Once upon a time there was a zombie and he ate brains and I BLASTED HIM!”
Most of his sentences include a crescendo and an exclamation point.
In this case, he was unsuccessfully trying to convince his mom that he was plenty old enough to watch Ghostbusters. (The one with Bill Murray. You didn't really have to ask.)
Technology is awesome. And it’s keeping us better connected than ever before.
That’s my beautiful wife Sarah, by the way, with Carter and Asher, our oldest, on a fall donut run. Another middle-of-the-day update from the home front.
Thrilled not to miss moments like these.
Turns out maybe Dad wasn’t worried about us. He missed us.
And, OK, yeah, maybe he worried a little that we’d stumbled across a stray box of sparklers.