| ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
|
Seeking Excellence
Seeking Excellence provides people with the purpose, direction, and motivation to relentlessly pursue their God-given mission in life.
This community is about becoming fully alive through living a life of excellence.
We will discuss all things excellence including fitness, mental health, relationships, personal finance, Christianity, and social/cultural issues.
Join us here if you're ready to be your best!
This community is about becoming fully alive through living a life of excellence.
We will discuss all things excellence including fitness, mental health, relationships, personal finance, Christianity, and social/cultural issues.
Join us here if you're ready to be your best!
Interested? Want to learn more about the community?
Nathan Crankfield@nathancrankfield
November 19, 2025
Kids spell love T-I-M-E
This is one of the hardest parts of parenting, and I do believe it’s especially hard as a one income household.
When I was a kid, I went to school and both of my parents went to work. I never really thought much of it.
I missed my parents mostly because my dad worked 15 hour days six days a week and my mom also worked a lot of weekend overtime.
We go through this on a regular basis. Emily will be talking through their plan for the day, going to the library, a playdate, or maybe a picnic at the park, and Jordan will inevitably ask, “Daddy, are you coming too?”
It makes Saturdays so awesome when I can finally say “YES I am!!”
But man, it’s hard on those other days. “No, Daddy has to go to work” is our frequent reply.
Emily has tried to drive home the connection between my effort outside the home and our ability to have a home, toys, experiences, food, etc.
And Jordan will someday understand, but his desire for my time over toys is a really great reminder. This is a powerful parenting truth that the most ambitious among us can easily forget (myself included).
Kids spell love T-I-M-E. Yes, they need our example of hard work. Yes, we should strive for excellence in the workplace and be successful.
But man, it’s easy to overdo it. We say yes to so many unnecessary things in order to please a boss or a coworker while breaking the hearts of those who love us most.
It’s a tough thing to balance. Almost nobody can get it perfectly right. But I am constantly trying to remind myself of what matters most - both to me and to my children.
Interested? Want to learn more about the community?
What else you may like…
Videos
Posts
Articles
"My daughter was really offended by your talk last night." 😅
"My daughter was really offended by your talk last night."
Someone dropped this bomb on me unexpectedly after daily mass this past summer. Although I can sometimes be a bit dicey and bold in my presentations, I was pretty shocked to hear it.
I had given a talk to middle schoolers the night prior on how our faith can help us in managing sadness, anxiety, and stress.
After mass the next day, I was walking in the convention center and was stopped by a woman who asked if I spoke to the middle schoolers the night prior. I responded in the affirmative.
"My daughter was really offended by your talk."
In a flash, I try to recall what I said that might have been the trigger for offense. Nothing came to mind. So I inquired, "Interesting. What was it that bothered her?"
"She said that you told the kids that if you experience anxiety, you can essentially pray it all away. And she has been clinically diagnosed with severe anxiety so it upset her."
"AH okay, I see the misunderstanding here" I ...
00:56:59
I am a Charlie Kirk, not a George Floyd
Over the last few days, I've taken a lot of time to reflect on the importance of this moment for our nation and for the Church.
Here are further reflections on these recent events and what I think we ought to do from here.
00:36:22
The Lion and the Lamb - What We Can Learn from the Life and Death of Charlie Kirk
Yesterday, we lost a legend in the Christian movement in our country and world.
Charlie was a great force for good.
We remain here on earth to continue fighting the same mission - advancing truth, beauty, and goodness against the evil forces who work against us.
I encourage you to battle the temptation to hate or become cowardly in the face of hate. More than ever, we need love and courage to guide our words and actions.
00:34:02
A Lesson From the Good Thief
Sometimes you just luck out to end up in the right place at the right time. God’s providence gives you an opportunity you didn’t earn and you don’t deserve.
But that still isn’t enough most of the time.
This Sunday, we celebrate The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
The Gospel reading is the story of the Good Thief. The tale of the man who rebuked the other thief for mocking Jesus and spoke those words of repentance and faith from the cross. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
That man is known as St. Dismas. Yes, he’s actually considered a saint in the Church. And he’s the patron saint of prisoners, the condemned, and funeral directors (there’s always one random one in there right??).
These two thieves who are crucified next to Jesus give us one incredible example of the choice of salvation in the final moments of the Passion of Christ.
Both men were justly condemned by their own admission. One openly mocks the Son of God and...
I agree with Billie Eilish
I never thought I’d say this, but I think I might actually agree with the radical leftist singer, Billie Eilish. Let me explain.
Recently, a video of Eilish giving a speech after receiving an award went viral in conservative circles online. Eilish is speaking in a monotone, lifeless fashion, which is so very common amongst those who have rejected Truth for the sake of serving the gods of our times.
I couldn’t name one of her songs. I actually only know her from seeing a previous video of her screaming in favor of abortion during one of her concerts. So all of this was setting up for me to agree with the criticism she was receiving from the political right.
Here is what she had to say:
“We’re in a time right now where the world is really, really bad and really dark and people need empathy and help more than kind of ever, especially in our country. . .Love you all, but there’s a few people in here that have a lot more money than me. If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give ...
You Get to Choose Your Attitude
I lost 20lbs in the first 21 days of Ranger School. The next three weeks, known as the Mountain Phase, are the most physically demanding part of the course.
I knew halfway through those three weeks that I was going to “recycle”, which is a term we use for failing with an opportunity to try again.
Some quit after they fail a phase. Others rejoice at the opportunity to rest, heal, and bulk up before the next phase begins.
The break between phases can be anywhere from a few days to six weeks. The six-week break only happened once per year, and I was in that unlucky group that had to endure that.
It’s not six weeks back at home to see your family for Easter, sleep in your own bed, and spend time with friends. It’s six weeks stuck at Camp Merrill in North Georgia where there is nothing but Ranger School.
I got to go to mass one time in 12 weeks while at Camp Merrill. We were occassionally allowed to use half-broken pay phones to call family. And we were able to read, exercise, and ...
Happy Halloween from the Seeking Excellence Team!
What Is the Real Value of Stay-at-Home Moms?
Addressing the extremes of what society claims this vocation is worth
According to Investopedia, the real income of a stay-at-home parent exceeds $200,000. But is that based on reality?
For context, my wife stays home full-time with our children. We are very pro-stay-at-home moms around here—that should already be well known.
However, I am very opposed to skewing the numbers to make a financial point. The Investopedia article does precisely that. I have two significant issues with it.
First, it’s simply dishonest (which I’ll explain in a moment) and therefore unhelpful for those trying to decide whether to have a parent stay home full-time.
The second issue is that the article is materialistic in nature, focusing primarily on a financial argument for a decision that is fundamentally human, formative, vocational, and, for many, spiritual. It prioritizes money over the two most valuable aspects of having a stay-at-home parent, both of which are priceless.
Let’s address the dishonesty first. As you can see in the screenshot below, the article accurately assigns national average costs to the general work done by a stay-at-home parent.
This part is true: that's what you'd pay individuals to do those tasks. The problem, though, is that only the top 1% of society actually hires people to do that work. My wife doesn’t save us money by doing our laundry, cooking our meals, cleaning the house, or driving the kids around.
Why? Because if we both worked, we wouldn’t pay anyone to do those things. In most dual-income households, people end up doing all that work ON TOP OF their full-time jobs. Full-time working and parenting is an absolute grind, there’s no doubt about it.
My wife does save us money on childcare, but it doesn’t come anywhere near $130k per year for two children, unless I were hiring private trilingual tutors at the highest end of the cost spectrum.
Some two-income households have family members watch their children or other arrangements that cost $1,000 a month or less, so the $130k price tag to cover 14 hours of childcare per day is just absurd.
Now, I understand why people do this. It’s an extreme reaction to society’s growing distaste for traditional family values. When the world rejects the value of motherhood, we try to amplify it using the one measure the world respects most: money.
But money isn’t the best way to measure the value of the stay-at-home parent lifestyle and their contribution to the family. My wife would be the first to tell you that the most valuable part is the extra time she gets to spend with our kids.
By the time our children are 5, Emily will have had almost an extra 10,000 hours with them that she'd otherwise have missed out on. That has a massive impact on their character formation, familial bond, and education.
What’s in it for me, the provider? Besides the satisfaction of those extra 10,000 hours for my wife and kids, it’s the massive increase in leisure time I get because someone is managing the home full-time.
No, this doesn't mean I never help out around the house. But I don’t have to split cooking meals, doing laundry, and many other chores because she handles the majority of them while I’m working.
Then, when I come home, I'm able to enjoy the meal she's prepared and take over the kids for a couple of hours before we tag-team bedtime. I get to play with the kids every evening instead of washing dishes or cleaning the house. It’s a win-win: she gets her much-needed break from the children, and I get my precious time with
them.
That said, becoming a one-income household is definitely a financial decision. The problem with Investopedia’s math is that it distorts the financial bar of entry.
Most approach the financial
aspect of one parent leaving their job
through a simple equation:
Only for Supporters
To read the rest of this article and access other paid content, you must be a supporter
Seeking Excellence News!
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
|
