Tales from the Trail

Barack Obama has a storied resume but the job he says is the hardest may surprise you: being a father.

The U.S. president, who has drawn headlines for pushing dads to be more involved in their children’s lives, returned to the subject on Monday.

“Over the course of my life, I have been an attorney, I’ve been a professor, I’ve been a state senator, I’ve been a U.S. senator — and I currently am serving as President of the United States,” Obama said at an event celebrating Father’s Day.

“But I can say without hesitation that the most challenging, most fulfilling, most important job I will have during my time on this Earth is to be Sasha and Malia’s dad.”

The First Dad said he had made plenty of mistakes as a father — including spending too much time on the job.

“I’ve lost count of all the times when the demands of work have taken me from the duties of fatherhood. And I know I’ve missed out on moments in my daughters’ lives that I’ll never get back, and that’s a loss that’s hard to accept,” he said. 

“But I also know the feeling that one author described when she wrote that ‘to have a child…is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body’.” 

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Obama)