Discover Your Strength Through Them

During an almost unbearable challenge, Men’s Health US executive editor BEN COURT learnt about self-care from his three-year-old son.

- Ben Court

Director Vincent Singleton with his five-year-old daughter, Sophia (and her doll), in their Chicago home.

NOTHING REALLY PREPARES

you for the snotty-nose, ear infection, stomach-bug fest that is toddler daycare. My son, Henry, went to a most excellent hippie-dippy learning centre where the kids were ushered outside to play and get dirty at every opportunity. Every day seemed like a bout in the germ Thunderdome. Around the time Henry was leaning into the terrible threes, my wife started battling a recurrence of breast cancer, enduring multiple kinds of chemotherapy and other treatments that destroyed her immune system. The doctor’s orders called for a clean and germ-free house and for peaceful nights conducive to restorative sleep. Our lives at the time were in chaos, yet from this challenge came a surprisingly settling force: Henry. In taking care of him, I began taking better care of myself.