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When we had Connor, I learned the meaning of hard work. Having a baby means showing your love through sleepless nights, changing diapers, and altering your life. I remember changing his diaper and in the middle of cooing at him, he peed-guess where his pee ended up? In the short five years I’ve spent as an older dad, I have discovered that my own experience validates the things I teach parents as a psychologist. My children have taught me the following rules of fatherhood.

1. The Rule of Squaring. If you have more than one child, don’t add the numbers, square them. When there was only Connor, I could clean up his pee without another child tugging on my shirt. Raising one child did not prepare me for having two children under the age of 2. Don’t get me wrong; I love being a dad to two bright and energetic kids, but together they need more than just double the energy of one. Younger dads probably know this rule, but it might not be as important to them as it is to an older dad. After all, younger dads have more energy to spend on being a dad. But as an older dad, to be a good dad to my children, I have learned the importance of the rule that “One is one, but two is four.”

via The 7 Rules of Being an Older Dad | Psychology Today.