My son said the most Father-ly thing to me without realizing it

My son plays soccer and I told him that I would pass on going to his soccer practice today because I don't feel well. I came down with a cold this weekend and this morning I woke up feeling horrible and dizzy. I moved on to my desk to work and decided to take a nap. I set up an auto reply email. Around 4:14PM I woke up and checked my email and found that my boss had responded to my auto reply saying that I was a good dad for letting him know I couldn't make it.<br><br>I decided to go home as I wasn't feeling any better and I wanted to hang out with my son before his bed time. My son usually spends 1 hour doing his homework at 5:00PM, then we work on a new word to learn for 15-30 minutes, then we play a game from 6:30PM to 7:00PM and finally dinner. I told him we would squeeze in some gaming before his homework and told him what we were going to do. When we were getting ready to eat, I said I was sorry I had to skip practice and that you know dad doesn't feel well. I also told him I am sorry I wasn't able to spend more time with him as I usually do or that I wasn't feeling well to spend more quality time with him.<br><br>My son then said "My friend has an older dad and he never hangs out with him at all because he is always at work. He said he goes to whole sports tournaments and his dad never shows up." When he said that, I could feel my heart melting because I realized that this kid is very aware that I am making time for him and that we are living the moment we have together which I realized I have to make count. It made me reflect a little about my life and I made a promise to this young man that I would be there for him no matter what and that I will always put him first.<br><br>So we are working on him counting to 100 by 10s, I will admit that I am being very patient with him and understanding. It is tough and he is a bit of a perfectionist, but he doesn't want to give up. I love my son.