The song is about parenting and what parents can and cannot do for their children. It starts out with Brooks singing as he remembers the growing pains of childhood. These aren’t major struggles that a lot of people won’t be able to relate to…they’re the things which every kid growing up has to go through, which makes the song very poignant. As the song progresses into the second verse, the singer realizes the same things about parenting that his father knew, which are related in the chorus.
“You can cry for them; live and die fir them
You can help them find their wings but you can’t fly for them
Cause if they’re not free to fall then they’re not free at all
And though you just can’t bear the thought of letting go
You pick them up, you dust them off
And you send ‘em on down the road”
The production in the song is beautiful. The vocal work is beautiful, everything we’d expect from Brooks, everything we hoped for when his comeback was announced. It instills a lot of confidence in what’s to come on Brooks’ new album. You can hear in the song so much of what made Brooks so popular in the 90s.