Dad for a lifetime

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As he approached the end of the writing, the 55-year-old once was asked by his wife, "What do you really hope the book will accomplish?"

"I said to my wife, after pondering a while, that I hope this book is successful in the US but I really think I am writing this book for China," he says.

While living with his wife Marina and children Sasha, Christian, Daniel and Nicholas, in Hanover, New Hampshire, Slayton has been traveling a lot around the globe. He usually calls his family twice a day, even from business trips.

"I am personally very familiar with the dilemma (of striving for success in work and spending time with family). It just comes down to priorities. You have to make sure that your family is the priority," he says.

The book begins by outlining the importance of fatherhood and explaining why being a father is perhaps the hardest and most important job in the world. Statistically, most of the boys, even though they don't like to "be like their father", grow up to be like their fathers.

"It is not hard to tell that China, too, is in great need of fathers' presence in families, we also need to know about tools or skills," says Huang Yikun, chief editor at digital publishing center of CITIC Press, which published the best-seller's Chinese edition in May.

Now the book is waiting for its second printing. "It reflects on real families seeking right methods of communicating between fathers and their children," Huang adds.