“The joy of being a father is being able to see yourself in them. The joy that they have and the smile on their face when you got ‘em a home and food on the table is real. That’s setting a really good example for the kids. It just brings joy to me and it puts a smile on my face when I see them smile.

The other side of it comes with the discipline. They get mad at me, of course, because I won’t let them do this or that at one or two o’clock in the morning. For the most part, I’m happy to be here to see this. If you’re a parent and you have an opportunity to be in your child’s life, do that because they may not say anything about it, but it’s instilled in their head that their parent is in their life. That’s something that they’ll never forget it. They’ll never forget that you’ve been to one of their games or at their graduations.

The challenge to fatherhood is to try not to let my kids feel my pain. As a father, that doesn’t mean that we get a get out of jail free card. We got bills that have to be paid and loss of work because of an illness or something. That’s heavy on a father’s mind when he’s head of household. “How are we gonna get this done? How are we gonna get that done?”. I’ve been through it and I ain’t gonna say that I haven’t. The challenge of that is to never let your kids see you break because they’re looking to you as strength. So, if you can hold that without snappin’ on them and keep being a role model, you’ll be a good parent. That’s what gets me through.

I don’t ever put no negative activity in their face. I party, have guests over and stuff but they don’t see any of that. That’s what I do, I’m grown.” - Silk, pictured with his Son, Sayvon in Park DuValle