“It’s hard to raise a kid anywhere, but especially in the city. ...

“It’s hard to raise a kid anywhere, but especially in the city. There’s just so much coming at you all the time. Look at this—we have one little dirt patch to play ball. And I have to be a navy seal just to get him to Randall’s Island on the weekend for his baseball games. It’s a lot of stress. He was born right before my job started going downhill. I’d just lost everything in my first divorce. I wasn’t hitting my numbers at work and nobody wanted to hear any excuses. I was getting pissed off at everybody. It got so bad one day that I grabbed his arm really hard. It was like a giant wave of stress just broke on top of me. It was summer and he wasn’t listening and he was acting crazy and I was trying to put together a sales pitch and it was the end of the month and bills were due and I just lost it. It was a wake up call. I had to learn to compartmentalize the stress. I’m better now. I’m a lot more present. I just wish I’d been this way with his older brother.”