“Daddy, can I be in one of your book videos?”

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Our daughter Evelon (named after one of the main characters of the book) has been asking for MONTHS to be in one of “Daddy’s book videos.”

She’s also done drawing after drawing (I’ll share one with you in a sec), wrote her own book about Evelon and Cass, and said one day she wants to make ice cream sandwiches, based on the characters, to give away to people for free.

Yeah, she’s pretty awesome.

So last week, she was begging me to be in one of my videos. As always, I told her no (Steph agrees). It’s not because I don’t want her in the videos with me. Are you kidding me? I would LOVE to have her by my side. She’s goofy and energetic (wonder where she gets that from), and we have a BLAST together.

However, there’s just no way she has a deep enough understanding to consent to having her face on the internet for everyone and forever. We all know plenty of grown adults who don’t seem to comprehend how the internet works.

Anyway, when I went to record my videos, Evelon started to pout. Not in a “I didn’t get my way” type. But that she felt excluded from something that she loves with someone she loves, like when her little brother Levi says he wants to play alone. It’s a mortal wound to her.

As her eyes filled with tears, I felt a tug on my heart as memories surfaced.

I grew up working alongside my parents. My father even put me in some very low-budget, poor-quality commercials he did for his fitness and billiards company. I LOVED working with my dad. I felt important because he wanted me to be a part of his business. And while I was by no means an aspiring actor, getting to help him with his dream was like a dream come true for me.

“Am I a hypocrite?”

Here I am, telling my daughter she can’t partake in things I deeply cherished with my father. It was probably confusing to her too, because we watch music videos from Brandon Lake like “KIDS” and “Daddy’s DNA” which feature his kids and others. We love those videos. We think it’s awesome to watch the kids who submit videos or are guests on Mark Rober’s CrunchLabs, too.

Wondering if I was perhaps overthinking it, I went to Reddit to ask their thoughts, and well… that was a HUGE mistake.

Friendly advice: don’t go to Reddit to ask for their opinion on something (anything?), because apparently “opinion” on Reddit translates to saying some really colorful things about me/my parenting. Two people had an entire comment thread about how I just wanted to exploit my children for money, but all I did was just ask a question. Like what?

On OTHER platforms that are not orange-themed, we also had some families share stories about how their kids are a wonderful part of their business, mission, or even inspiration to others.

Ultimately, Steph and I prayed and just decided to stick with keeping our kids’ faces/bodies off camera.

What do you think? Am I a hypocrite? What would you do?

Also, reply back with “Evelon’s Nightmare” to see the cutest drawing of a horrific monster from the book, courtesy of Evelon.

~Robert

P.S: Publisher confirmed we’ll have the ARC copy back by June 5th, which means the target date to launch the ARC program is June 9th. I’ll send a special email on how you can get involved. <3

Disclaimer: this is a copy of the newsletter. Actual subscribers get all the prizes, votes, and exclusives.