In a first-person point of view, Ben Folds feels terrible about how horrible he was as a father. In the line, "You're so much like me, I'm sorry," HE apologizes for how much of a bad influence he was for his children, hoping that because he divorced his wife, possibly went to jail, yelled at his kids, became an alcoholic, etc., it became a lesson on what NOT to do when they grew up.

Having realized his mistakes, he watches his kids go through the same exact thing that he experienced at their age, and he wants them to get as far away from him as possible so that they'll stop being like him.

"You'll try, and try, and one day, you'll fly away from me."