Letters to your kids about who they are before you have to leave them. You’ve probably thought about it. Maybe you started. Sunny Dhillon started writing his because a racist incident at a playground in Ottawa scared his daughter in kindergarten, and he knew exactly what she was about to carry.

When Sunny was growing up and racism arrived, his response was to hide. Watch for the moment someone might notice his skin color or the food his family ate, and disappear before it happened. He writes about this because his daughter is five years old and already noticing the same things he noticed as a child. He can see every observation she makes. He made them first.

His first trip to India was supposed to answer questions about who he was. It didn’t resolve the way he expected. What actually moved something was writing it down, sitting with the question he kept avoiding: what would I want on the page if I’m not here? That’s the question worth asking before you think you have time.

Topics: letters to your kids, children of immigrants identity, racism brown skin Canada, Hide and Seek Sunny Dhillon, dad advice children

GUEST: Sunny Dhillon

Originally aired on2026-02-25