As part of our inaugural series to meet as many different kinds of parents and caregivers as possible, here's mine!

Tell us a few things about yourself.

I’m Dan, co-founder of Great Job! I’m married to my best friend Emily and we have 2 daughters together: 12-year old Sidda and almost 10-year old Charlie.

I'm a designer, creative director, entrepreneur, and author. Outside of family and work time, you can find me trying to get better at pickup basketball and landscape photography.

When and why did you decide to become a parent?

I have a large extended family—my dad is 1 of 7 siblings and my mom is 1 of 4 siblings, so I have a lot of cousins—so having kids always felt inevitable to me, even if I couldn't explain why.

Around 2 years after we got married, Em and I were walking around our neighborhood of Fishtown, Philadelphia. After seeing a few teenage moms pushing their babies around in cheap strollers, we looked at each other and said, “If they can do it, we can do it too.”

What has been the toughest part of parenthood for you so far?

The toughest part of parenthood for me right now is deciding to care every day. When my kids were babies, it was really clear that I had to do things—feeding, burping, changing, comforting—to help keep them alive. With a 12- and 10-year old, they can do a lot of things on their own, so it’s easy to coast for a day or two and not spend much time with them. But I want to be in their lives later, and that starts by being in their lives now. I have to choose every day to keep them as a priority, and that’s tough as other urgent things enter into my life.

What are you looking forward to as a parent?

I love Yoda’s quote from The Last Jedi: “We are what they grow beyond. That is the burden of all masters.” I look forward to seeing my kids grow beyond all of my wildest desires and expectations of them!

What are you dreading?

That they grow so far beyond me that they forget about me.

What are you the most worried about for your kids?

Nothing. I see who they are every day and I get glimpses of who they’ll become. The world better watch out for them.

What has being a parent taught you?

One of my most important jobs as a parent is to help my kids become the best versions of themselves that they can manage. For me to help them with who they are, I have to know who I am. The more I discover my own identity, the better I can help them with theirs.

Do you have any plans for when your kids move out?

Not yet—or at least not very clearly—but, seeing as that may arrive as soon as a decade from now, I’m starting to work on that.

If you could go back and tell yourself one thing or give yourself advice before you had kids, what would it be?

Doing one meaningful thing with your kids each day is doing a Great Job!