24 Hours: Dad finds joy in staying home with kids

Patrick Killoran was patient. So patient.

His son, Parker, 4, wanted to swim in the inflatable pool set up on the back deck. So Killoran kept an eagle eye on him, sometimes even playfully tossing him in — to the little boy’s delight.

Next, Parker wanted to play a new game he’d just invented.

With plenty of help from his dad, Parker climbed onto Killoran’s shoulders. He was so tall! He could see so far!

He climbed up and got down, again and again.

Then, Parker wanted to play a game where he and his dad jumped the short distance from the deck to the grass below. Killoran obliged, spinning and twisting on the way down.

Once. Twice. A third time. Again!

Parker loved it. His face was covered in a wide, joyful grin.

Killoran wore a pretty big smile, too. The 35-year-old Richland man cherishes being a dad.

And he gets to spend a lot of time with Parker. Killoran’s wife, Leslie, works as an attorney, and Killoran stays home with the little guy.

Killoran also has a stepson, Will, 9, whom he adores. Will joins in the fun when he’s not in school.

“I love it. I wouldn’t trade this time for anything,” Killoran said, standing on his deck, shielding his eyes from the 11 a.m. sun.

Killoran grew up in Alaska. He went to college as a pre-med/chemistry major, “but then I was kind of exploring, as you do in college,” and he realized acting was his passion.

He earned a degree in theater and then moved to Los Angeles, where he hit the ground running in the entertainment industry.

He booked commercials, found work in film and became part of the Screen Actors Guild.

While he was there, tragedy struck his family back home. Killoran’s father, John, died suddenly.

“It was a blood clot,” Killoran said. “He’d just retired, and he and my mom were moving out to a house on Big Lake. He was getting a hot tub delivered. He was sitting in the front yard, in a chair, with his hands behind his head. That’s how they found him — eyes closed, face to the sun.”

That was 2005.

A couple of years later, when Killoran’s mom, Nancy, became sick with cancer, he left L.A. and moved back to Alaska to be closer to her.

He’s so glad he did. She got to know Leslie, whom Killoran met and fell in love with after returning home. And she got to know Will.

“Will was like 3 back then. Leslie, Will and I would go out to the lake every weekend, and we’d spend time with her. Every weekend of the whole summer, we’d spend time with her. She was like, ‘Leslie, you’ve got my blessing,’ ” Killoran said.

Nancy died in 2010.

Killoran’s parents were wonderful people, he said. And even though they’re gone now, he feels their influence in the way he parents.

“They let me explore. They let me fall down and lift myself up. That gave me balance, literally and figuratively,” he said. “I try to do that, too.”

Killoran and Parker keep busy.

During the school year, after Leslie goes off to work and Will goes off to class, they hit the gym, or do yard work, or tackle projects around the house, or ride bikes, or go to the park, or play with Lego bricks, or learn about shapes, or do science projects, or read, or work on the alphabet, or have play dates with friends.

The guys become a dynamic trio when Will is on summer break. Will’s father, Ryan Lawrence, lives in Seattle and is close with the family.

The Killorans moved to the Tri-Cities last summer. Patrick quickly became involved in the local theater community.

He’s already performed in Othello and Company, with a starring role in the latter that earned him raves.

Next up is a turn as Antipholus of Ephesus in The Rude Mechanicals’ fall production of The Comedy of Errors.

On that morning in May, Killoran watched Parker play in the pool.

Being a stay-at-home dad isn’t something he expected. “But I am very fortunate to be in the position to stay at home with Parker,” he said. “My favorite part is seeing him grow, seeing him develop, seeing him learn, seeing him hear something and maybe he won’t apply it right away but you can see the application of it later. It’s really fulfilling.”

Parker will start preschool in the fall. When the boy is in school full time, Killoran plans to go back to work.

“Eventually, (Parker) will go off to Harvard or Yale, and all those little science projects we worked on that seem mundane now will have made a difference,” he said with a laugh.

Seriously, though, “it’s important to me to let Parker explore the world. Let him find things and see things and not to say, ‘no’ every time ...,” Killoran said.

“Parenting,” he said, is really fun. I like it a lot.”

Parker ran up to his dad. He wanted to play the climbing game.

Killoran grabbed his hands and helped the boy onto his shoulders.

“I’m up here!” Parker yelled. He was so tall. Just like his dad.

Killoran helped the boy jump back down.

“Again!” Parker said. “Again!”

This story was originally published July 29, 2016 at 7:31 PM with the headline "24 Hours: Dad finds joy in staying home with kids."