730 Days: A Retrospective Cléo turned two yesterday. Today, we went back to the hospital where she was born for a quick check-up. Standing in those hallways, it hit me: I have officially been a dad for 730 days. I don’t have a single "lesson" to share today. Instead, I want to look at a few questions I’ve been asking myself about the last two years. What part of the "old me" had to die? Before Cléo, I lived with a "tropical" mindset. In the tropics, food is abundant, the weather is always...
8 days ago • 3 min read
There is nothing harder for a man than standing in a room where he cannot fix the problem. Aurélie came back on Saturday after being away for a week of training. That night, she hit a wall. She couldn't fall asleep, and for her, sleep isn't just an annoyance. It is a deep-seated fear. She has spent years trying everything: sleep doctors, therapists, hypnosis. As she says, when she can’t sleep, her whole life feels like a mess. My first instinct was to fix it. I did what we usually do: I gave...
15 days ago • 2 min read
Aurélie is away this week for a course, so it is mostly just me and Cléo. Between daycare runs and work, I have been thinking about how we spend our energy. A mentor once told me there is a difference between speaking from experience (what you read in books) and speaking from experiences (what you actually do). I’m reading a parenting book called Good Inside, but I’m going through it slowly. I don't want to give you a book report. I want to talk about something I actually did this weekend...
22 days ago • 2 min read
I’ve been building Rooted Dad for more than two years now, and I’m starting to notice a pattern. It seems that men in general—and dads in particular—are drawn to learning how to make money or how to get fit. That is the primary motivation. A man will drop $5,000 on a business course or spend hours at the gym, but when it comes to investing time, energy, or money into family connection? Silence. I’ve seen others in my niche pivot away from this. They started out wanting to help fathers be more...
30 days ago • 3 min read
Last night, Aurélie went out dancing while I stayed back to put Cléo to bed. I had been with her for an hour, and she was right on the verge of falling asleep. Just then, Aurélie came home. She wanted to come in, say goodnight, and give her a kiss. My instinct took over. I shushed her and waved at her to leave. Later, we had a conversation about how that made her feel. It reminded her of a time at the airport in Romania where I told her to "shut up" because I was focused on getting our...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Since I left the military nine years ago, I haven’t been in the same place for more than six months. Aurélie has been the same; for most of her life, she’s been moving around too. You could say we are a family of travelers. Explorers. Maybe even "unsettled" or "undecided." But we are in a different moment now. We have a daughter, we’re considering more kids, and we have a short window before she starts school to decide where we are going to plant our roots. It’s a tough decision. When you’ve...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
80th letter from Mihai Tue 23 Feb, 2026 Colmar, France Hey Reader, Today I went to an inflatable playground with Aurélie and Cléo. At some point, I hear a dad yelling at his daughters. It breaks my heart each time I see that happening, because I know how damaging it is for everyone. And I also know there's a better way. The dad wants to pass his message across, but all he achieves is to make his kids afraid of him. It creates more disconnection and misunderstanding. The kids are having a...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
79th letter from Mihai Tue 17 Feb, 2026 Bangkok, Thailand Hey Reader, I don't have a big story this week (though you can read my daily realisations in Cold Showers), so I decided to share some behind-the-scenes of the Rooted Dad. About a year ago, I committed to sending you a letter each Tuesday. It's been a challenge, but I kept my promise. 80+ letters prove I am committed to sharing what helps me stay present as a father and husband, and not to lose myself in the middle of it all. What you...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
78th letter from Mihai Tue 9 Jan, 2026 Bangkok, Thailand Hey Reader, I’m writing this from a rooftop bar in Bangkok. Yep, I'm not in Kansas Colmar anymore. On my 11-hour flight here, I selfishly watched a lot of movies and documentaries, something I used to do more often before becoming a dad. I didn’t plan it this way, but at some point I realized everything I chose to watch circled around the same kind of story. One of the documentaries followed a young man who decided to cross the Alps...
2 months ago • 2 min read