Eddie's Kids Think He's Stupid Now — Here's What Happened
Every parent eventually hits the moment their kid stops thinking they're a superhero. For Eddie, that moment came courtesy of a high school class project.
The Question That Started It All
Eddie's 18-year-old son, a senior, had a class assignment that required him to ask his parents a question: do you think reading older books is more important than reading newer ones, and why? Eddie, always the guy his kids come to with questions, started fumbling through an answer about older books being foundational to newer ones. His son cut him off before he could finish, telling him to just write down that his dad doesn't read books. Eddie agreed that was probably the more honest answer.
It didn't stop there. Eddie admitted he's also helped his younger kids with math homework, only for them to come back with a failing grade because he'd solved the problems the "wrong" way — right answer, wrong method, no work shown.
The AI Workaround
The team had a fix for the homework problem: take a picture of the homework and run it through an AI chatbot, but do it away from the kids. The trick isn't just asking if the answer is correct — you can ask the AI to break the concept down in the simplest possible terms first, so you can actually explain it to your kid like you knew it all along.
Why Read a Book vs. Just Reading Online?
The conversation shifted into something a little more reflective when the group tried to explain what actually separates reading a book from reading articles or emails all day. The consensus landed on books requiring a different kind of focus — building a picture in your head, following a story, blocking everything else out. One person compared it to meditation, saying it's the only time they can really shut out everything else. Losing track of time while reading came up too, with someone describing the feeling of looking up and wondering where the last hour went.
The advice for anyone intimidated by starting: forget committing to a full book at first. Ten to fifteen minutes a day is enough to make the whole thing feel a lot less daunting.
The Takeaway
Eddie's not vowing to become a big reader overnight, but the team made it clear the point wasn't to shame him — just to point out that his kids might actually enjoy seeing him with a book in hand every now and then.