How a movie about time travel made me a better Dad

Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams in About Time released in 2013 and written and directed by Richard Curtis.

My wife is adventurous when picking what movie to watch and one night she took a chance on a delightful romantic comedy called About Time. To my great surprise, it was a romantic comedy sci-fi movie that involves a man who can travel back in time to memories he has had. I won’t spoil the movie, but one of the lessons he learns is to live each day twice. The first time, he experiences the day as it is with all the anxiety, stress, happiness, pain etc. and then each night before bed, he travels back in time to the start of the day to relive it again, this time knowing what happens and really enjoying the small things he missed the first time.

Each morning when I wake up, I do the same thing. I pretend that I am waking up to the second time of that day, and my job is to find all of the little things that I missed the first time. Obviosuly this is rediculous but it’s a fun game I play that increases my awareness and makes me much more patient with my kids.

Typically, when I snap or blow up at my kids over some stupid little thing, I will think about this movie and try and learn for the next time.

So tomorrow morning when you wake up, try living like it’s the second time and look for all the small things you missed the first time. Did it work?