HOME GAME: AN ACCIDENTAL GUIDE TO FATHERHOOD by Michael Lewis ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

It’s probably obnoxious for me to try and read every book on fatherhood I can now that I’ve got a little one to take care of (and ideally not ruin) over the next eighteen years. Home Game may be one of the best places to start.

Not everything can be a how-to book. I’ve found they all overlap about 35% of the time, and while informative, it’s impossible to know how accurate or helpful they really are until you’re in the moment, and by that point much of the information is gone in favor of gut instinct. I still find them invaluable just for background and general guidance, but books like Home Game are like sharing war stories with someone already out of the trenches. A deeper and more personal understanding of our trials and failures, and sometimes against our best efforts, our victories.

I didn’t expect the raw honesty, but god is it refreshing. And hilarious. If anything, it at least makes you feel like you couldn’t possibly be the worst dad in the world if this guy showed up to his first child’s birth hammered. And didn’t spend time with his third kid until they were seven-months-old and sick with RSV. Michael Lewis tells these stories with more endearment than incompetence or regret, and all of them have the tinge of a guy who’s just trying to do what he can. Even if it’s the bare minimum.

I’m only one week in, and it’s so incredibly relatable already. I like feeling that I don’t have to be a perfect parent, especially because I almost surely won’t be. None of us will. We all affect our kids in ways we can’t comprehend. Home Game is the comedic, you-can’t-make-this-up reality check to counter the floods of influencer parents hiding the mess we all know is there. I’d rather hear the horror stories and dad mistakes told with humor and heart than anything else. I should probably follow his lead and start keeping track of mine.