A Conversation With My Boys, Ages 6 and 9

Asking my kids for a real life AMA

Each week, a menu of sorts, around a revolving theme. This week: interviewing my kids (and vice versa) for Father’s Day.

If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Suppertime! I promise to feed you only once a week, and never after midnight.

---

Course 1

A Word of Gratitude: Charcoal Grillin’

It’s been a long Father’s Day and I’m just wrapping up this newsletter before I go to bed. To celebrate today, I wore a tropical style shirt with baggy khaki pants, because I’m a father and that’s what fathers do. I combed my mustache to a bushy broom. I even put together a new charcoal grill last night.

The professional dad life creeps up on you. One moment you’re bar crawling with the boys through the back streets of Brooklyn, playing drunk wiffleball in late night parking lots, and then you blink and you’re watching Dale Earnhardt documentaries and yelling at the dog for chewing on your slippers (two things that happened tonight). Before you know it, you’re in the big leagues rocking a pair of New Balance 990v6, Nike Air Monarch if you’re a true silver slugger.

I love it, though. I have no grand illusions about where I’m at in life. I still feel like a kid, sure. But you remember how old your parents were when you were growing up. They were ancient. That’s how old I am. That’s how old you probably are. None of us are cool. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stop pretending. Just know that you are not that interesting, especially to anyone who is connected to interesting things. Don’t try to pickpocket Father Time. He’s celebrating this day too and all he wants to do is take a nap in his hammock without you trying to steal a Tiktok trend or a pair of flared jeans from his wallet on the counter.

So I’m fine with being a dad. More than fine. I love every part of it, even the messiness and the work of trying to navigate two boys towards adulthood. The world is a wild place, now more than ever, and so I hope I’m raising them to be wild in all the ways. Wild to love, wild to dream, wild to ask questions, wild to say f*ck it and carve their own path, especially if it’s one that everyone else says they shouldn’t do.

It’s so short, this time. My dad always said that time goes so fast when you have kids. I didn’t believe it, of course. But he was right. I no longer believe time is a fixed concept. It moves impossibly fast, years clicking by like an odometer at Talladega (I’m telling you, that Earnhardt documentary is good). I find myself fearing this one thing lately – the inevitable silence that will follow once they’re out of the house.

I want all of the chaos,
in layers,
in blankets,
in bloody knees,
in broken windows,
in baseball cleats,
in backseat fights,
in fever dreams,
in hugs as big as watermelon seeds,
in home run screams for hometown teams,
inside of my eyelids when I fall asleep,
my boys,
forever,
a part of me.

If you’re not a father, you should think about being one. And if you are one, be the best one you can.

I’m lucky to have had that in my own life, from my own dad to my father-in-law, to my uncles, to my grandpa. Good men are needed and are hard to find. I was lucky to find some.

And for that, I am grateful.

Course 2

The Main: Pizza, Of Course

I don’t know if this is a cool idea, or if it’s self-aggrandizing, or if it’s just flat-out boring. But I figured, what the hell, I’ll give it a try. I asked my kids to come up with a list of questions to ask me for an interview for Father’s Day, and that I’d do the same for them. I’m not sure a ton of thought was put into them, but I still think it was fun and interesting to see the world through their eyes. Anyway, if it sucks– I’ll be back next week stating all the reasons Baltimore is making the biggest comeback in America (so start looking at real estate now).

This is also the first audio version of Suppertime that I’ve ever done, so bear with me through any audio hiccups. It’s probably best to listen to this with earbuds since the mic wasn’t super great at picking up the kids’ voices, even at close range.

An interview with my 6- and 9-year-old boys, on Father’s Day (which is why this is going out at midnight):

Me: All right, so today I'm here with guest Jonas Reddinger. He's a six-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland. Almost seven, right? And we're gonna ask each other some questions for Father's Day. I told you you could ask me whatever you wanted to ask me. So this is gonna be a father/son interview.

All right, do you want to start?

Jonas: What does your life feel like?

Me: I mean my life feels pretty good. Well, it was until our dog is eating our broom. We just got a puppy and he’s trying to eat our broom apart because he's chewing on everything. A

All right, we're back. No guarantees that this dog isn't getting anything

So what did, can you ask the question again?

Jonas: What does your life feel like?

Me:I feel very happy almost all the time. I feel like I'm very grateful that I have a good family. Not a good family, a great family. And a good job. That we have everything we need. We have a house. We have food and I feel just very lucky because I get to hang out with you guys. And I just have a lot of friends too that are really cool. Do you like some of my friends?

Jonas: Yes, I love them. I love Andy. I love Mr. Mike and Luke.

Me: Yeah, they're pretty cool. Some good guys.

Jonas: Luke is one of my favorite guys. Yeah, he's a fun guy.

Me: But yeah, so I think all of those things mean that most of the time I feel pretty good. Sometimes I get sad though. Sometimes I get angry. But we all do, right? Does that answer your question?

Jonas: Yeah.

Me: All right, what's the next one?

Jonas: So, how do you, like, how do you feel when you pray?

Me: Well, I feel that it helps me calm down and clears my mind and makes me think of other people. Makes me feel thankful for the things I have in my life. And I think it just makes me think of something that's other than myself, you know? Because sometimes it feels like we think about ourselves a lot. And it's just nice to just calm down and think of other people and what you're thankful for. You know what I mean?

Jonas: Yeah. Um, so, when you eat something, how do you feel?

Me: When I eat something?

Jonas: Yeah, like how does your tongue feel? Your mouth feel.

Me: Let's see. Well, what kind of food?

Jonas: Like any type of food.

Me: Okay, let's see. My favorite food to eat is probably like a steak or something. Or a hamburger. Or a pizza. When I drink coffee sometimes, my mouth feels like I've just burned my tongue.

Jonas: I get the pizza thing. Yeah. And the shirt.

Me: Oh, I'm wearing a, yeah, a Ninja Turtles pizza shirt right now. But you love pizza too. When I eat something sour, like Sour Patch Kids or a Nerds Gummy Cluster, my tongue feels like, you know what that feels like, right? But it's good though. You know what though? When I was a kid, I didn't like a lot of foods, like anything healthy. Even steak or other things I didn't really like that much. But when I got older, I started liking more things. And now I pretty much like everything. Like I will eat almost anything and it tastes good to me. Next question?

Jonas: So, how do you feel when you run?

Me: I mean, I think running makes me feel awesome. When I run, I feel like it, like sometimes my mind feels super busy. Like there's just too much stuff going on in my head. And I'm always thinking about stuff. So sometimes when I run, it helps me calm down or it helps me think about things in the way that I want to think about them. So then I can have good ideas and good ideas come out. But then I also just feel good. Like I did something that day. I mean, sometimes I feel tired and hot and like I don't want to do it, but usually at the end I feel good. But you've run with me before. How do you feel when you run?

Jonas: I feel like thinking about stuff, like if I fall down or if the sun shines in my eyes too bright, I get blind.

Me: So you're thinking about just making sure something bad doesn’t happen or whatever.

Jonas: Yeah. But when we ran, let's see, we did a five mile race and I got a Pokémon card.

Me: Oh yeah. We did a five mile trail race and you guys got Pokémon cards. But now nobody can get Pokémon cards because there's so many adults buying them.

Jonas: Yeah. Remember that time when we bought Pokémon cards at that store and that guy was grabbing like a billion packs?

Me: Well, I think they spent like $400.

Jonas: You actually have more than that.

Me: Do I? Yeah, maybe.

Jonas: You just paid like $1200.

Me: For what?

Jonas: Like that, that Harry… that Home Alone thing.

Me: Oh, the Home Alone Lego set? Yeah. I think that was $300, $400 with the light kit.

Jonas: So that was $400 plus $500 equals $900.

Me: What was the $500 from?

Jonas: Nintendo.

Me: Oh, I didn't spend that much on the Nintendo. it was $150.

Jonas: How? What?

Me: I don't know. It's the market rate. All right, do you want me to ask you, or do you have any more questions that you thought of?

Jonas: Yeah, but basically the same thing. What do you feel when you walk?

Me: Well, my favorite walk in the world is when we walk to school in the morning. Because it's basically a mile, so it takes like 25 minutes to walk to school. But I like walking with you and Rye because we have good conversations. We see cool things. Remember we saw a whole family of ducklings the other day? That was pretty cool.

Jonas: Yeah, it was.

Me: For some reason, we see a lot of dead animals along the way.

Jonas: Yeah. Remember that time when you stepped on that dead rat?

Me: I'd rather not talk about it, but yes, I won't ever forget it.

Jonas: You were screaming like, AAAAH!

Me: It was the most disgusting thing that's probably ever happened to me. I don't mind disgusting things, but stepping on a freshly flattened rat is not one of the things I ever want to do again.

Jonas: Yeah, and the one eye popped out.

Me: I know. It was messed up. But that's my favorite thing is walking with you guys to school every morning or riding your bike. Sometimes we ride our bikes. Do you like walking to school in the morning?

Jonas: In the middle.

Me: Sometimes you do. When we play the animal game, you like that?

Jonas: Yes. We usually don't really play the number game anymore.

Me: The number game? I mean, yeah, sometimes we do. It's mostly just because we play the animal game. I feel like that's your favorite.

[We didn’t get to finish the segment where I asked Jonas questions because he came down with a fever right then and took a two hour nap.]

Me: Next up, we have Rye Redinger, nine-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland. You are–

Rye: I am nine and I'm about to go to fourth grade. And he already passed college [talking about me].

Me: A little bit ago. All right. Do you want to ask your questions?

Rye: Question one, how did you meet Thomas [my friend/boss/co-worker at Believe in the Run]?

Me: So when I first started running, he had a running group called the Faster B-word. Which you know, because that sticker on your bike that he gave you. So I started running with them because there weren't any cool running groups in Baltimore. And I didn't really know that he had started it, but it turns out that he did. So then I met him through that and ran with him for a while.

Then I start reviewing shoes, and then I started working at Believe in the Run. But that's how I met him because he started the Faster B word.

Rye: Did he convince you or did you just want to join the car?

Me: Did he convince me? No, I just wanted to join. I just wanted to run with cool people.

Rye: What kind of weather do you like to run in?

Me: I think my favorite kind of weather to run in... is probably when it's fall or spring, that's most people's favorite weather. Sometimes I like running when it's hot because it helps you prepare for when it's colder temperatures. But honestly, I really like it when it's cold out in wintertime. It's nice when you get warmed up, but at first it's cold.

Rye: I like the winter but kind of like fall. How does it feel to run?

Me: You know, Jonas asked me the same question, right? I told him this: It's like my mind's always busy and there's always crazy stuff going on inside. I have conversations in my head. I just imagine conversations all the time or scenarios where I’m always just constantly thinking. You can't shut it off. So it's nice running. I don't know if it shuts off while I'm running, but it helps just kind of chill out. And I feel... I feel good when I run. It just feels like I'm... not free, but... I don't know. You know what I mean? You know what it feels like when you run, right? Sometimes it feels bad, like at first, but then once you go, it starts feeling good and then once you finish, it feels really good, especially if you have something cool waiting, like snacks at the finish line.

Rye: Yeah. I love snacks. Is it painful? Running?

Robbe: Sometimes. I mean, especially when you're trying your best at the end of a race, or sometimes things go wrong in the middle of a race, sometimes you just have a bad day. It's good days and bad days, just like in normal life. I mean, I know you've had painful times though, right? During running sometimes?

Rye: Yeah.

Me: But at the end, do do ever think, “Oh, I wish I wouldn't have done that?” Are you proud that you did it?

Rye: Some of them are wish I didn't ever. Maybe like one of the 5Ks.

Me: Five keys are pretty terrible.

Rye: What is the farthest you've ever ran?

Me: Well, I did a 50 mile race before, so you usually don't run the whole time, but it's walking, running, hiking, whatever. I ran most of it, I would say. Other than that, I would say like a marathon is the farthest I've run really without stopping.

Rye: What's the smallest you've ever run?

Me: Well, when I was a kid, I think when I was in kindergarten, I did run the field day race at the end of the school year. I did win that one. That was short. Well, you've won a race before, right?

Rye: I destroyed Charm City.

Me: Yeah, you did great. That was awesome.

Rye: That was the first one I did, and I just beat the heck out of that kid. And then that one where I finished in third, and in the next one with nine and ten years old, because I was like still eight, I was the first boy there. The weirdest thing was, I just wanted to go in there because there's only two boys, and I think, yeah, three girls or two girls. So I was like, this doesn't matter at all. No matter what, I'm going to get like in third place. If they beat me by accident, I came back and got first. And overall, the girls were actually pretty fast, but I got third overall.

Me: That was a pretty good day, definitely.

Rye: Yeah, and then I was like, I kind of felt bad for the kid who was who was nine. He was just like way ahead of me. I was like, “okay, I'm going to get second place.” Well, guess what? I said, “Let's just not do this anymore. I'm in first.” So I just went like as fast as I could and I beat him, and I kind of felt bad. He was like, “huh, I'm just going to go slow now, II'm just going to beat them. I don't care anymore.” And so I'm like, just two different races, like opposite things.

Me: Yeah, you had that Cole Hocker kick. That was pretty good. That was awesome. Any other questions? You can ask me anything I'm giving you permission to ask me anything.

Rye: When you were a kid, what was your favorite subject? W

Me: Well, I loved reading. That's why I try to get you guys to read books all the time even though you just like reading comic books. Is that what annoys you the most, that I'm always trying to get you to read books and practice your piano?

Rye: No, not the piano, but books. That's that makes me want to die.

Me: I think that's because when I grew up I loved chapter books so much and I read them all the time. I liked reading the newspaper. I liked reading chapter books.

Rye: Yeah, how old were you when you did that?

Me: I mean probably your age when I would read the sports pages at least, not all the news but kind of the interesting stories I guess. But I loved reading books and my favorite subject was for sure English, but I liked art too. Just like you, I would like to draw a lot. I kind of wish I still did. Maybe I should start drawing again. That would be fun. You're a good artist though. Honestly, you're better than me when then I was at your age at drawing. If you practice a lot, I think you could be really good.

Me: All right, do you want me to ask you some questions? Okay, I'll make it quick. Why do you love to wear shoes that are destroyed? Like I have new shoes for you, but you wear the shoes that have holes in them. They’re insanely dirty and you look like an orphan from Charles Dickens novel.

Rye: It’s because they're like more the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn. They're just like crazy comfy, like slippers. Also, you don't have to tie them.

Me: Okay, that's fine, all right. I also don't understand why you can't put milk in your cereal.

Rye: I don't like it with flakes, like any kind of flakes, because it tastes horrible. It’s like five seconds and it's all soggy.

Me: What’s it feel like to be 9?

Rye: Even though I just turned nine, it feels like I'm all I've got already onto ten. I'm just kind of happy about that. I've always wanted to get to double digits.

Me: What's your favorite memory of us doing something together?

Rye: Probably like Colorado or Florida. To be honest I like Floriday better than New York. It’s hot and nice and there’s a pool and that’s where my grandma lives. Because like New York, it’s crowded, there’s Yankees fans.

Me: Agree. They’re the worst.

Rye: I just can’t do it. It's even worse that one of my friends Louise you probably never heard of him, but he’s a Yankees fan.

Me: That's embarrassing for him. What's something you think we should do together in the future? You said rock climbing, is there anything else?

Rye: Go to McDonald's again.

Me: I'm pretty sure we can do that. Okay, what's your perfect day look like?

Rye: I have all my comic books, like I have a whole collection of InvestiGators books. I’d just be reading them like first thing in the morning. Now I know how to do a rainbow flick [with the soccer ball], so like I'm really close to that, really really close. I have all my good Pokémon cards and later in the day we'd be doing something awesome like going to the carnival or something. And I didn't know, you guys would just surprise me.

Me: That's good to know. What do you want to be when you grow up?

Rye: Soccer player.

Me: Yeah, of course. Okay, if you had to pick something that wasn't soccer, what would you do.

Rye: Artist.

Me: Okay, I like that. How do you think you've changed in the last year?

Rye: Like different things like I don’t think I have stage fright anymore. It's also, just like talking to strangers. Not like, strangers, but like at the block party yesterday. LIke I aas at a table and these guys were like doing a game with flipping cups, like they just put wine in these cups and then flip them over. So then I was just sitting watching them and then they just started talking to me. I'm basically just doing that for 10 minutes.

Me: Yeah, you're good at talking to anyone. See, you always get on me about talking to people, but what you don't know is that someday that's gonna be you. You're gonna annoy your kids by having conversations with other people forever.

Rye: Well, I mean mostly it's kind of their fault. I was like, I just wanted to get out of that, like I wish this was the last word so I can get out of this and go enjoy with my friends. Sometimes they talk for so long. I'm like, you just wasted all my time.

Me: How do you deal with something if you're sad?

Rye: I come up in my room and close the door and throw something at that wall right there.

Me: Okay, hopefully not something too hard.

Rye: I mean I just throw like a hacky sack at it.

Me: All right, that's acceptable. Last question: how can I be a better dad?

Rye: I mean, you're a great dad, you don’t have to do anything.

Me: Are you sure? I appreciate that.

Rye: Like, if I ask for something and you're busy, look– I get that. Because you’re a busy dad. But yeah, you’re perfect.

Me: Thanks dude, I appreciate that.

Rye: Also, it’s Father’s Day - duh.

Me: You don't have to say that just because it's Father's Day. Yeah, I think that I'm always trying to do my best, but you know, it's like… humans we're all gonna fail and make mistakes, right? Yeah, obviously I've made some mistakes, I’m not perfect.

Rye: Yeah, so like sometimes when I'm like in trouble and I'm like “what would happen if I just ran out of the door and just did this and I'd be homeless for the rest of my life?” What if I just like, ran, like punch you in the face and just ran out of the door. Just grab all my stuff and leave. Like would I get caught by the cops, like what would I do? I could do anything right now, but I can’t. I kind of look into the future and I just don’t.

Me: So what if you ran away and lived on your own? What does that look like?

Rye: Probably just sitting somewhere, probably in an alley.

Me: So it doesn't seem like probably the most fun, right?

Rye Yeah. But I can get home from there, but I would be in big trouble. I could just go in the shadows.

Me: What keeps you from running away then?

Rye: Well, since I know something bad is gonna happen, I'm not gonna do it.

Me: Yeah, I think it'd be very lonely too. Don't you think don't you think you miss your family?

Rye: Yeah, but I could just go to my friends’ house. But when I’d get home I’d be grounded for like two years.

Me: Well, I mean I'd still want to know why you felt like you need to run away, but the good news is that you didn't do that. Do you feel like you are old enough to start exploring in the neighborhood more? You could probably walk to your friend's house. But you don't like to because it's annoying that people stop you all the time?

Rye: Yeah, it is very annoying That's why I never really want to walk to Highlandtown Market anymore because I know someone's gonna say something. But if I'm walking somewhere else like my friend's house, I don't care if people stop me from that.

Me: Yeah, we need to get some kids together and start roaming the neighborhood. Getting into some trouble. Like good trouble. You know, just doing kids stuff.

Rye: When I when I heard “get in trouble,” I just pictured a police car with eggs, like splattered eggs.

Me: Yeah, don't do that. But I mean, you know, I feel like just just figuring stuff out, you need that as a kid.

All right, any other questions? I think my questions are done. I just want to say that I'm super stoked to be your dad, I think you are you're an awesome kid. You're the best. I mean, you and Jonas are the best kids I can imagine, so I'm excited to see what else we can do in the next year, and after that. It feels like you guys are growing up way too fast. You're already halfway to being an adult.

Rye: Somehow I don't understand how mom looks so young and we're like so old. Cause nine years is long.

Me: She's blessed with amazing genes whereas I've been cursed to grow older to grow into a grandpa too fast. The good news is you have half of her genes so hopefully when you get older you will also still look young. But yeah, I love you and I couldn't have asked for a better kid.

Rye: Yes, okay, so I have one more question…

[It was a random question about sports so I’m not transcribing it, but you can listen to the end of the podcast if you want to hear it.]

Course 3

Dessert: A Repast of the Past Week

So yes, we got a dog last weekend. I thought it was a great idea, I still think it was a good idea, but in between I thought it was a horrible idea. I’ve come to realize that I don’t think of myself as someone who likes routine, but I really do like routine. It can have loose borders and be a little shifty, but I don’t like when something is totally disrupted. And a dog totally disrupts things.

All that to say, George (who is half lab, half Pyrenees), has been pretty great so far. He sleeps in his crate through the night and has only had a couple accidents inside. He’s for sure a good boy, it just takes a little bit of getting used to. I mean, it’s like having another kid pretty much.

As always, thanks for reading.

Other things I wrote or edited in the past couple weeks:

The Best Race Day Running Shoes for Any Distance // for Believe in the Run

Inside the Nike Victory 2 FK, the Custom Spike Made for Faith Kipyegon’s Breaking4 Moonshot // for Believe in the Run

I also contribute to The Drop, a weekly email from Believe in the Run, where I round up running news and stories in a generally sarcastic (and sometimes heartfelt) manner. You can subscribe here.

I’m also the co-host of The Drop running podcast, one of the top running podcasts in the country, where we mostly talk about things other than running that thousands of people seem to find entertaining. You can listen to this week’s episode here.

Ingredients List

🎵 : “Total Cinema” by Ken Yates // Sometimes an album just comes along that hits you in the moment you’re in. This album feels like a crossroads album, a transitory place maybe between adulthood and something else, which is kind of how I feel right now. Anyway, I pretty love this album from front to back, it’s been on repeat all week. Favorite tracks are Cataclysmic End, Superimposed, and The Great Resolution.

📺 : I’m not even joking, I can’t get over the Earnhardt documentary and how well it was done. The footage (some of which is own son didn’t know existed), the interviews, the history of NASCAR– the whole thing is a gem from start to finish. This should be no surprise, it was exec produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, two of the best in Hollywood. I can’t stop thinking about his insatiable hunger for winning that could never be quenched, something that seems to happen in a lot of elite athletes and performers. It’s their biggest strength and greatest weakness, equally awe-inspiring and depressing, for all the things they sacrificed and the people lost along the way.

You can find some of those songs and more on my ongoing Spring 2025 playlist.

END OF MENU

Thank you for dining with me this evening, I hope the service was acceptable. Tips (whether monetary or recommendations to others) are appreciated, but not expected.

---