Father’s Day is just around the corner. It is such a special day, dads around the world are celebrated and they get to spend quality time with their families. Father’s Day allows dads to reflect on everything they have achieved with their family and count the beautiful moments and all the years of being an awesome dad.
Just like becoming a mom teaches you a little bit about yourself, being a dad also teaches you a little bit about yourself through your kids. Without doubt, your children share some of your personality traits and it’s always reflected in their actions so much that when you observe their behavior, you can see that your kids are in so many ways a lot like you.
Beyond that, you also learn a lot about who you are when you are under stress from your day job or other life responsibilities. And you learn to put yourself in check and not bring that home thereby separating and insulating your kids from your life stressors to create a healthy and positive environment at home.
As you think about being the best father, you have to get down to your kids individually, to know what a particular child needs from you at a particular moment. It takes a while to get to a position to get out of your feelings and pride to figure out what’s going on with your child at a specific moment and what they really want from you. It could be a moment of reflection, a moment of pain or a moment of sorrow.
I recognized that with each one of my children being different, it makes you to become adaptable to each one of them. The reflection of personality traits helps you know each of them and allows you to put yourself in their shoes by understanding exactly what you needed when you were in that kind of situation as a child.
Being a dad means you have to be there for your kids. You have to give up a lot and it takes a while but you have to realize that you have to cut down some of the fun things you used do with your buddies, because your priorities shift and now your family is your number 1 priority.
The role of both moms and dads in the parenting journey is very different. As dads, our contribution in parenting is somewhat minimal compared to what a mom does (like bringing a child into the world!). However, we are needed as a support system. Though your kids might not really miss you as they do their mom, they definitely require your presence.
In conclusion, it’s a blessing from God to be a father as you accept the tremendous responsibility of bringing children to the world and raising them as productive members of society. Whether you are in a happy marriage or single parenting because you are not able to make it work with your child’s mom, be the best presence and support system that you possibly can. We are all on our own parenting journey and you should give it your best shot.
Milton
