subject: Roosevelt Tillman - Father [print this page] The dad who likes National Public Radio and never understood Pokemon was on the couch with his four sons the other day watching "Dragonball Z" on 1V. One of the boys looked" over at him and smiled.
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The dad who likes National Public Radio and never understood Pokemon was on the couch with his four sons the other day watching "Dragonball Z" on 1V. One of the boys looked" over at him and smiled.
"He said, 'Dad, you're cool,' " Roosevelt Tillman recalls.He said I was cool for hanging out with them and watching their favorite cartoon. My heart melted."
When Roosevelt Tillman's baby daughter was born three weeks ago, he bought her roses and a pair of diamond earrings, but extravagance isn't a hallmark of Roosevelt Tillman's fathering.
Mostly, he spends time - gathering the kids in the kitchen for build-your-own-pizza night or taking them all fishing.
"You should know your own kids, know their interests," says Tillman, 37, a Grand Rapids entrepreneur. "Being there is what matters. That, and hugs. I hug my boys all the time and kiss them on the forehead. They need to feel that love."
He says he's figuring all this out on his own. Tillman, born and raised in Grand Rapids, never knew his father.
"I prayed to God and asked him to help me be the best father I can be," Tillman says. "That's all I can draw from. There is no greater challenge in life than that of a father striving to be the best father he can be with no father to have taught him."
His wife, Tanya, is an accountant and owns the Divine Divas hair salon. They share the child-rearing equally, he says, in a simple arrangement.
"If I'm not there, she does it. If she's not there, I do it," he says.
As he drives the boys to St. Stephen's school in the morning, Tillman listens to NPR during the first half of the drive, and then switches to the kids' favorite rap station for the second half.
He does most of the cooking, mostly because he's better at it, he says. Neither parent has slept much lately, catering to the always-hungry newborn, Madisyn.
"It's crazy, but we make it happen," Tillman says. "Raising kids is just beautiful. I'm blessed to have five children. My wife says, 'how do you do all this?' If it's something you love doing, you just do it.
"The biggest thing I've learned is that there's always tomorrow to make a deal," Tillman says, "I could stay in the office till 8 o'clock every night, but for what? I want to be home."
