Originally published in the Grand Rapids Business Journal, April 25, 2005.

Parenting isn't easy, and it often isn't fun. (This is news?) Yeah, yeah -- there's the sleep deprivation, the waves of clutter, the unholy smells, the persistent worries, and financial ruin. But that's not what I'm talking about. That stuff is, you know, just part of the gig. No, what I'm talking about is having to play the bad guy. Certainly it's something you have to do to establish and enforce boundaries, but like I said, sometimes it is neither easy nor fun.

By way of example: My daughter Natalina is a Lego-builder extraordinaire (which is French for "she has mad Lego skeeeels"). She can take the most complicated set and build it to specification, or she can take a pile of random bits and create incredibly thoughtful designs of her own. It's wonderful, and we do everything we can to encourage her. Well... not everything. We have a massive amount of Legos, but it is finite. And so, at a certain point, her TajMahals must be broken apart so she or somebody else can build anew. This is one of those instances where I play the bad guy. And if you know Lena, you know she doesn't make it easy: the eyes, the pout, the slumpy shoulders. But especially the eyes. You want to give her the world, but even if I could afford to indulge her with new Lego sets for every new build, I know that -- in the long run -- I wouldn't be doing her any favors. (I expect her future husband to thank me for this one day. Preferably with envelopes stuffed with cash.)

So we have in the city of Grand Rapids a city manager (Kurt Kimball) who for the past 18 years has had a big hand in building his own amazing creation: a very livable and functional mid-size Midwestern city. No small accomplishment. Kimball's prudent approach has always kept financial responsibility at the forefront, but also allowed for nice touches such as vibrant recreation leagues and city pools. Now, because of a perfect storm of state fund cutbacks, a collapsing manufacturing base, and tepid federal support, Kimball has the unenviable task of cutting all those nice touches with the hopes of keeping mainstays such as police and fire intact.

And that's where this week's comic came from. I read a quote in the newspaper where Kimball said (I'm paraphrasing here) that it sure sucks having to disassemble your own creation, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Both Lena and I can sympathize with that.