Submitted by Patrick Hickey, Jr The other day I was thinking about the fact that my dad had 12-year-old twin boys at my age. My parents spent their 20s working to provide for our family and raising my brother and me, while I spent my 20s going to college and establishing my career. Now in my early thirties, Josie Ann, my first child, is only five months old. My parents taught me so many valuable lessons, and I hope that I am able to teach my daughter a lot of them too. As my wife and I raise our little girl, we want to try to give her as many opportunities as we can while instilling some strong values. We want her to know that ... There will never be a shortage of passion and perseverance on our end. Our home will be a haven for her soul, a place where it's OK to daydream and imagine. We will do whatever we can to help her dreams come true. One of the reasons I wrote my new book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews with Cult and Classic Video Game Developers is that I wanted my daughter to be proud of me. I wanted her to understand that you can take your love for something, in my case, writing, education and video games and turn it into something that does good in the world and inspires other people to do wonderful things of their own. I wanted to set an example for her so that she could see that she can do anything she wants to do if she's willing to work for it. Right now, I wear many career hats; author, educator, and journalist are a few of them. One of the things I'm currently focusing on is helping to create an ecosystem among authors who write about video games, so that we can all share best practices and more success. Just last week, I was able to interview Leonard Herman, one of the fathers of video game journalism. It was a thrill, and the results of that interview are featured on my Review Fix web site. The day after I posted the story, Leonard let me know that he'd sold some books the previous day, and that he could only attribute the increased sales volume to my story. It was great that he shared his success with me, and it made me realize that the hardest part of being successful is finding people to be legitimately happy for your success. People like Leonard are the reason why I work so hard, and why I'll always be there for people that have that fire in their belly to affect people in positive ways. As a parent, I know that my daughter has many of my features, my eyes, my silly smile, but if I can give her one thing, it's that ability to put her head down and shatter any obstacles in her way and do things in a way that makes her happy and the world a better place. Over the last five months, I've realized this is my new chief objective in life. When we all work together toward common goals, we're able to offer each other authentic enthusiasm and reinforcement, and we share in each other's successes. My wife and I want to be able to celebrate our daughter's successes with her and to teach her how to celebrate others' successes with them. We expect that our career experiences will be one source of the lessons we plan to pass along to her.
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7 Comments
Lind dalton
8/15/2017 06:11:43 pm
I think you are truly am amazing man. Your a great husband and a wonderful father. Enjoy every moment. You work hard and you share your knowledge. I will never be tired of seeing or reading your posts. Thank you for being such a great guy. Xo
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Patrick Hickey Jr.
8/15/2017 07:08:20 pm
Thanks Linda, Hug :)
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Yvonne Scott
8/15/2017 06:46:39 pm
Dear Patrick, I am so impressed with you. Not for being an author, nor a professor. I am proud that you are a man who is not afraid to show your feelings for your daughter. No matter what a person chooses to do with his life, being a parent is the hardest. You must not only show love, but you must always be in tune with what your child is thinking and feeling. You must be the one that builds her self esteem and self worth. No easy task. You have to always put her actions and emotions before yours. Sometimes you have to be strong enough to hold back your anger, your disappointment, or any other feelings within you so that you can always be that voice that teaches, encourages and understands. This will be your greatest accomplish of all. Love her, guide her, be soft when you have to and just as strong when you have to. You both have many years and circumtances yet to come. Be the man in her life that she knows will always be there for her, protect her, love her and show her that she can fly as high as she wants to, but keep her feet firmly planted on the ground at the same time. It's the hardest job you'll ever love. Stay that man that walks hand in hand with his daughter, no matter where you are, or what age she is. She may act embarrassed, but she will secretly be proud.
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8/15/2017 06:52:47 pm
Yvonne, maybe you have a story or some advice to share? We'd love to share your experience with our readers. You can submit them any way you want (i.e. via phone, voicemail, in writing). Check out the "Submit" link at the top of the Working Parent Stories web site to review the super easy process. We're parents helping parents! Thank you!
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Patrick Hickey Jr.
8/15/2017 07:08:51 pm
Thanks Yvonne :) Hope Florida is treating you well :)
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Tara McCormack
9/29/2017 06:11:38 pm
So proud of you !! Keep up the great work
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Susan Backhaus
3/9/2018 03:22:43 am
Dear Patrick,
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