The Best of Us: MBB Dad Derrick Barnes

We just don’t get enough credit for being the fantastic parents we are, so MyBrownBaby is dead-set on giving credit where credit is due. A round of applause for MBB’s Dad of the Week, who is also the brains behind the children’s book series, “Ruby & The Booker Boys,” and the generous donor behind MBBs first contest. To find out how you can win an autographed set of Barnes’s books, click here. And then come back and find out more about MBB’s Dad of the Week.

My name is… Derrick D’wayne Barnes

I live in Kansas City, MO, but my roots are firmly planted in Mississippi.

My brown babies are Ezra Langston, 8, Solomon Matthew, 4, and Silas Nathaniel, 2

I make a living making up stories, places and people to hopefully inspire brown babies all over the world.

The last time my kids cracked me up my 4-year-old was brushing my 2-year-old’s hair, and I heard him from down the hallway tell his little brother, “Hold your head up high, Black man!”

The last book I read with my kids was “Uptown,” by Bryan Collier; real good brotha.

My favorite place to take them is The Children’s Museum in St. Louis; we always have a great time there.

My proudest dad moment was when both of my big boys received academic accolades at their school ACECC (Afrikan Centered Education Collegium Campus) last week on the same day. I was a beaming brown daddy!

My most embarrassing daddy moment was the time when I locked my eldest son, then around eight months, in my truck with the engine running. I scaled the walls of our apartment, climbed through the patio door and found the extra key. I was embarrassed and terrified.

The thing I most want my children to know is God is real in everything that we do and everything that we see, and that all things in life are possible.

The one family tradition I hope my kids continue when they grow up is having dinner every night, in the kitchen or in the dining room, without the presence of a TV, with their families every night.

If I could invent one thing to make being a dad easier, it would be wait, it already exists–a personal chef. Everything would run smoother if we didn’t have to worry about what’s for dinner.

The best invention for kids ever is books.

The kid snack I'm most likely to get busted eating is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fruit snacks.

The most important life lesson I want my kids to learn is It’s never over, it’s never done. Get up and look forward to tomorrow.

The one thing no one knows about me is I love, love, love an album from a 90’s British band called the Sundays, entitled “Static and Silence.” You gotta check it out.

The thing I lost as a dad that I wish I could get back is my sense of invulnerability. As a very young man, you feel as if you can break bricks and bend iron; fear is not a part of your vocabulary. But when you have children, it is no longer about you. Invulnerability becomes a very tangible care and concern, and ultimately, you become hopelessly, helplessly vulnerable.

My I'd Rather Be bumper sticker would say in Barbados with my fam!

Find out more about Derrick Barnes and his series, “Ruby and the Booker Boys,” here.