Ken Schroeder

Ken and Gayla with our four children, Kendal, Melissa, KeriBeth, and Travis

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” This routine question posed to virtually to every child gets cliché responses ranging from “fireman” to “professional baseball player” to “teacher.” In Richard Scarry’s children’s book, “The Bunny Book,” he explores that question. The book walks the reader through various career options for a baby boy bunny—policeman, circus clown, lifeguard, doctor, farmer—before landing on the baby bunny’s most important vocation—a daddy rabbit. The book concludes as daddy rabbit tucks his children into bed at night, providing an appropriate bookend.

Though putting our children to bed may seem like a simple, nightly ritual—separate and distinct from the daily grind in the workplace—such a routine act aptly demonstrates the normative, formative impact that father has on all we do. The act of putting our children to bed serves as a daily reminder of where responsibility ultimately rests and how value is ultimately defined.

Surely the bunny in Scarry’s book will be more than a daddy. All of that provision must, after all, come from somewhere. But this type of build-up and conclusion serves as a helpful illustration that, although the world around us may be telling us to achieve x, y, and z, many of us are called, first and foremost, to our families. Happy Father’s Day! “Do your job!”