And in that time, I lost my dad and had kids of my own. It was like, OK, I get it now. I know what fatherhood is all about. And you look at your parents differently.

Reiser reflects on a common generational pivot: only after becoming a parent—and especially after losing one’s own father—does the emotional and moral weight of fatherhood fully register. The quote captures how lived experience converts abstract appreciation into embodied understanding: parenting reveals the daily vigilance, sacrifice, and imperfect love that children often overlook. Grief intensifies this recognition by removing the possibility of further explanation or reconciliation, prompting a retrospective re-reading of one’s upbringing. The final line points to a shift in perspective: parents cease to be merely authority figures or sources of frustration and become complex individuals shaped by their own limits, fears, and hopes.