I just read Dinner With Dad.  I’m not sure how I got this book in the queue – must’ve read something about it somewhere.

It’s about a dude who was working twelve hour days, and was living to work, as opposed to working to live.  He wasn’t seeing his kids, and was barely seeing his wife, and wasn’t happy.  So he vowed to change.  And he did his best to do so, by vowing to be around for dinner with his family at least five nights a week.

In order to make good on his vow, he had to quit one of his jobs.  His family wasn’t as initially receptive to the idea as he was – they had gotten used to him not being around, and now here he was.  His wife even started getting sick of him being around all the time.  So there were challenges.   I think he even blogged what was happening while he was in the midst of his experiment.  I haven’t read it, but he references it a bit in the book.

I related quite well to it, which is probably why I liked it so much.  A lot of the discussion mirrors the thoughts that Anna and I shared when we considered moving out here (on both of our sides!).  It also mirrors some of my current thoughts about starting our family.

I think the most important thing in the book was that this guy found his life a lot more rewarding as a family man than as a guy chasing continual reward and additional cash.  It’s a thought provoking book, and I’m trying to get Anna to read it.

Of course, then I realized I was reading a book about kids and family – and then got kind of spooked – but I guess it’s better to read about this stuff now, when it’s easier to make changes than after the family’s already started.