Happy Memorial Day weekend, dads.
Andrew here. Summer is officially knocking on the door, and if your household is anything like mine, that means the schedule is about to get weird. School’s wrapping up, the days are getting longer, and suddenly everyone wants to do everything all at once.
More activities. More plans. More pressure to make it the best summer ever.
But here’s what I’ve been sitting with lately: some of the best moments I’ve had with my kid weren’t planned. They weren’t Instagram-worthy. They were just… there. A slow morning. A walk that went nowhere. A conversation that started because we weren’t rushing anywhere.
This edition of the DadGenda Dispatch is about that. Doing less on purpose. Being more on purpose. Present over perfect.
Alright. Let’s get into it.
And if you’re new here, welcome to The DadGenda Dispatch. You picked a good weekend to show up.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day. A day off, a cookout, the unofficial start of summer. But before the burgers hit the grill, this week’s challenges ask you to sit with something heavier and more important. What does sacrifice actually mean to you as a father? And does your kid even know why they have a day off tomorrow?
Today, take a quiet moment, before the weekend gets loud, and think about sacrifice. Real sacrifice. People gave their lives so we could have ours. That’s not a small thing. It’s the whole thing.
Then turn it inward. What are you willing to sacrifice for your kids’ future? Not in a vague, feel-good way. Specifically. Comfort. Time. Money. Pride. Your ego about how things should go. Write it down. One thing. Name it out loud to yourself.
Fatherhood has always been about giving something up so someone else can have more. Today’s a good day to remember that and own it.
At some point today, ask your child a simple question: “Do you know why we have a day off tomorrow?” See what they say. Then tell them.
Talk about Memorial Day. Talk about people who gave up everything, not for money, not for fame, but for the people they loved and the country they believed in. Keep it age-appropriate, but don’t water it down so much that it loses meaning. Little kids can understand that some people are very brave and make big sacrifices. Older kids can handle the weight of it. Teenagers can sit with the moral complexity of it.
Gratitude isn’t something kids arrive at on their own. It’s taught. And this weekend is one of the best opportunities you’ll get all year to teach it.
The DadderUp app drops a fresh Phoenix One daily. Download it and start tomorrow.
From our conversation with PJ Britton (popularly known as OvertFlow)
PJ is a content creator with over 3 million followers, a FaZe Clan member, a Forbes 30 Under 30, and one of the original Call of Duty creators who helped build gaming culture on TikTok. He’s also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, an achievement that took him 15 years and put him in the rare company of 20,000 students at Gracie Schools in Vegas.
Oh, and he’s about to become a dad of twins.
When we asked him which jiu-jitsu principle he’s carrying into fatherhood, he didn’t overthink it. Consistency. Showing up. A persistent commitment to getting better, even when the progress is invisible, and the work feels repetitive. That’s what the black belt taught him. And he thinks it’s the same thing fatherhood is going to require.
The thing that hit closest to home for me, though? He’s watched millions of young guys grow up following his content, gaming, fighting, building a career from nothing, and now they’re about to watch him become a dad in real time. He talked about what that responsibility feels like. Not pressure, exactly. More like an opportunity. To model something they haven’t seen much of in their feeds. A man who shows up. Every day. Not perfectly. Just consistently.
This week, whatever the dad version of the rep is for you, show up for it. Even when you don’t feel like it. Especially then.
“My kids are growing up fast, and I feel like I keep missing it. How do I slow down?”
— Dan, dad of two, DadderUp community
Most of us aren’t missing our kids’ childhoods because we’re bad dads. We’re missing it because we’re moving through it too fast. Rushing bedtime. Half-listening at dinner. Already thinking about tomorrow while today is still happening right in front of us. The moments are there. We’re just not in them.
Slowing down isn’t a time problem. It’s an attention problem. What changed things for me was getting intentional about the small stuff. Not the birthdays. Not the big milestones. The random Tuesday night stuff. The weird thing they said at dinner. The new thing they’re into this month that they weren’t into last month. When you start paying attention to that, something shifts. You stop feeling like you’re always a step behind because you’re actually there.
And presence doesn’t require hours. It requires focus. Tell your kid: “You’ve got me for the next thirty minutes. What do you want to do?” They will always have an answer. And that thirty minutes of locked-in attention is worth more than a whole distracted evening on the couch.
You don’t need more time with your kids. You need to actually be in the time you already have.
Sheraz thought he was doing everything right. And honestly? By a lot of measures, he was.
He was providing. He was showing up. Everything his kids needed was there. So when the DadderUp 30-day challenge pushed him to slow down and actually sit with his kids, really sit with them, what came back surprised him.
Dad, you don’t have patience with us. You don’t let us finish our sentences. It’s always your way.
That’s the kind of feedback that most dads never hear, not because their kids don’t feel it, but because nobody ever creates the space to say it out loud. Sheraz did. And what I respect about him is that he didn’t deflect it. He took it in, got curious, and started asking his kids what they actually needed instead of deciding for them.
Here’s the thing about that: You can’t improve what you’ve never listened to. A lot of dads are working hard for their families, but building in a direction their kids never asked for. Sheraz caught that early. He slowed down, opened up the conversation, and let his kids lead for once.
Providing for your kids is important. But listening to them is what makes them feel seen. He went looking for what was missing. Turns out, his kids had the answer the whole time.
What does “being present” actually look like for you this summer?
The full conversation. Overtflow opens up about fatherhood, legacy, and what it feels like to go from gaming icon to dad of twins.
I break down why the limited time single dads have with their kids isn’t a disadvantage and how to use it as fuel.
We’ll keep showing up with the emails. All we ask? If this landed for you, share it with a dad who’d get something out of it.
