Every game has rules.
Lines you can’t cross.
Things you can and cannot do.
Moments where someone has to step in and say, that was wrong.
In sports, that person is usually the referee.
They watch.
They call the foul.
They blow the whistle.
They hand out the penalty.
And for a lot of us, if we’re honest, that can become the way we parent.
Our kids mess up.
We blow the whistle.
They talk back.
We throw the flag.
They break something, disobey, lie, fight with their sibling, make the same mistake for the 3rd, 4th, or 20th time, and we immediately start looking for the right punishment.
The right consequence.
The right way to make sure they know they messed up.
And don’t get me wrong.
Kids need correction.
They need boundaries.
They need someone willing to say no.
But somewhere along the way, I think many of us can forget that our children are not players on the opposing team.
They are not trying to beat us or ruin our day.
They are certainly not trying to make us look bad in public.
They are children.
Learning and growing. Making mistakes, and trying again.
Maybe our job is not to simply throw the flag every time they fail.
Maybe our job is to help them understand the game.
Hi, my name is Ryan Guerra, and this is A Father’s Voice.
And today I talk with my good friend Jeremy Weiss.
Jeremy is someone I have wanted to have on this podcast for a long time. He is a storyteller at heart. Someone who loves books, loves conversation, and is one of those people who can take a story and find something deeper hiding underneath it.
He is also a single father of four daughters, now grown, and a grandfather as well.
His road to fatherhood was not straightforward.
Jeremy got married young. Very young. He and his wife were kids trying to build a life while still figuring out who they were.
And for a long time, much of his life was driven not by love, not by wisdom, but by obligation, and emotion. This idea that “THIS” is what a man is supposed to do.
But fatherhood has a way of exposing us.
Our habits.
Our lack of awareness.
Our anger.
And in this conversation, Jeremy is honest about all of it. He talks about growing up with a stepfather he loved and admired, while later realizing there were things from that relationship that deeply shaped him in unhealthy ways.
He talks about becoming a young father, making mistakes, yelling more than he realized, and eventually having to come to terms with the fact that the way he was raised had become the way he was raising others.
And then we talk about the day everything changed.
The day his wife left.
And not only did she leave him, but she left the kids too.
And almost overnight, Jeremy went from being one of the parents in the house, to being the only parent in the house.
Four daughters.
One dad.
No manual.
No clean plan.
No easy answers.
Just a man looking at his girls and saying, we are a team now.
And we are going to figure this out together.
This conversation is funny, painful, honest, and full of lessons I think many fathers need to hear.
He does not shy away from his part in this story. He openly admits throughout our conversation that he was in the wrong many times, and it absolutely caused some of issues that we hear about.
This story is not one of perfection.
It is one of growth.
I’m thankful for Jeremy’s friendship.
I’m thankful for his honesty.
I’m thankful that he trusted me with his story.
And so with that, I am honored to present to you my conversation with Jeremy Weiss.
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