Last night my wife showed me an excerpt that my daughter had written in her daily camp journal. It read "Sometimes my dad doesn't listen to important stuff. What should I do?"

OUCH - I feel like I've completely failed her in a very important area!

Day camp finished up about a week ago, and I wasn't aware they'd be encouraging the kids to write things in a journal - but I'm very glad they did, or I might not have known that I was missing the mark with her.

At work, I'm big on performance evaluations, and (not to toot my own horn) I usually receive good comments on a job well done. I've been a software developer for over 13 years, and I know how to excel in the workplace. But I clearly still have a ways to go on the home front.

Performance evaluations are hard to swallow when they reveal areas that need improvement; especially when they come from your child, who your poor performance has deeply hurt.

I've been reading story after story in Tim Russert's new book "Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons", about things father's did or said to their kids when they were even younger than my daughter. Each story is told in vivid recollection of their father's impact in their life at even that very young age. I too can distinctly remember certain childhood events as if they happened just yesterday.

Reading my daughter's journal entry was a real wake-up call for me. I hope I can improve my listening skills and discover what the "important things" are to her, so that she knows how much I truly care for her and love her. And I hope that those are the memories she'll hold onto; instead of the day she wrote a sad entry in her camp journal!

That's the thing that's so hard about failing as a father. It feels so permanently etched in time and in your child's memories.