Today I had to look into my little boy’s eyes and say something no parent should ever have to say:

“If an adult ever tells you to keep a secret, that’s not okay. You can always tell me. Always.”

And it broke something in me.

Because why did I have to say that in the first place?

Why is the man who helped bring him into this world teaching him to hide things from me instead of teaching him to be safe, honest, and protected?

Who is this man?

I don’t even recognize him anymore. And maybe that’s what hurts the most — not the distance between us, but the distance between who he is and who our son needed him to be.

But I’ll keep having the hard conversations. I’ll keep protecting him, even when it makes me sick that I have to. And I’ll keep showing him what love and truth really look like — even when others fall short.

Because my son deserves that.