8BitDad | Fatherhood On the Go, Part 4: Bring Your Child to Work Day

Editor?s Note:??Fatherhood On the Go? is the multi-part story of Remy Stevensen and his family. Please read Part 1,?Part 2?and Part 3. Also,?consider donating to this cause to make Remy?s ride a success!

I just wasted so much water, standing in the shower, thinking, thinking, thinking. I am hole?d up in the hotel bathroom with a million thoughts running through my head. As if riding all day left alone with nothing but my own thoughts, demons and dreams was enough, they persist into the down time. I hear and see so many things on the road but all I really have are my thoughts.

This trip is really like ?Bring Your Child To Work Day!? Yet, I don?t work in an office. No air conditioning until the next restaurant, grocery store or motel. I don?t crunch numbers or look at case law. I don?t paint. We ride. Every day I push out ?left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot? on and on. We eat, sleep, breathe and parent just to put one more mile behind us; to get one mile closer to the destination and to hopefully raise more money for people we will probably never meet. Our job to provide for those in need. Everyday my children are with us at ?work.? Everyday I worry about them as the temperature rises and each car passes. Everyday I wonder if Cait and I will be successful in this venture. Mile after mile, hill after hill, I think and worry. Everyday we work.

To those of us that care about our children the worries never end. Whether we be a stay at home mom or dad, or any other of the myriad possibilities of ?parenthood.? As Bryan said in Episode 23, we always have these things that we are told we ?have to do? as a parent. I, now a Daddy?, have realized a lot of the expectations are bunk or flexible but the worries never end. As Counsel lays in bed with Mommy and Melodious, refusing to go to sleep, I worry if I am doing the right thing. We can?t always get wrapped up in the worries. (It?s so easy to say but so hard to put into action.)

I want to be a good role model for my children and instill morals and values that will carry them through their toughest days yet I wonder if I am. Yes Bryan, plenty of people have told us we are doing things wrong. Sure they don?t outright say them in those words but their eyes, the inflection of their voices and the mannerisms speak loudly. People ask us what church we are with and seem astounded that we are doing this ourselves. Then we get looks as though we are crazy for subjecting our kids to this without any religious reasons. Not everyone thinks we are crazy; we?ve been called ?gutsy,? ?amazing,? ?interesting? AND ?crazy.? We?ve even been asked whether we asked the kids if they wanted to do this! What?s the matter with involving my children from the very beginning in helping others? Billions of people subject their children to their own religious beliefs and assorted mores, norms and other societal rights of passage from birth. What?s so big about a bicycle ride? I digress. We all, no matter what our background, seem to do something that others do not understand.

(Story continues after Remy?s Ride for Charity: Water Gallery)

I love my children. They are my reason for existing. All I want after a long hard day of staring ahead at the road is to see them smiling at me. When we pull up to a restaurant, all I want is to get some food for them and us (as in Cait and I.) When the road is done with us, I want them in our arms and in a bed instead of the confines of a seat. So much purpose and yet? so many thoughts. I just want to become a better man, for them, for my wife and hopefully for a lot of people in need. Is that so much to ask? Perhaps I will find the answer in another 900 miles.

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Editor?s Note:?Please donate to this cause?and make Remy?s ride a success!

?Fatherhood On the Go? is the multi-part story of Remy Stevensen and his family, who are beginning a nomadic lifestyle by biking across the country with two children and all the while, raising money for?Charity: Water. Their ultimate goal is to travel to impoverished nations to implement the infrastructure for which they?re raising money.?8BitDad?is proud to help Remy and family get the word out about this charity, and get closer to their goal.

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