Being A Girl Dad

Being a father of a girl is a new experience and one that comes with a huge amount of responsibility.

When I was growing, I didn’t really think about much. From keeping her safe to setting her up for success, I have figure out each life lesson as I go.

My daughter is the love of my life. Everything I do is to protect her and to make sure that she has a happy childhood, full of adventures and opportunities to fail safely and be given room to recover and keep going.

I always feel the need to protect her but, in that runs the risk of being a helicopter parent. Nobody teaches you that there’s a tightrope that every parent has to walk every day. Will buying her an ice cream from the truck that stops outside her school give her a cavity or an uncontrollable sweet tooth? Or is it going to be a fun core memory that she can share with her own child when her time comes?

A growing girl needs to understand that the world isn’t always going to work in her favor and as a father I have to be able to teach her valuable lessons without scaring her. Where’s the guide that tells me I need to prepare her for the world? Having said that of course she is still a child and so it is up to me as one of her parents to decide when the time is right to start to stay at her in the right direction.

Fatherhood is far more complicated than I could’ve ever imagined, I thought it would be a lot of playing dolls and being silly and brushing teeth and bedtimes but it’s more than that and that’s the scary part for me. I worry a lot of the time that I’m not going to do a good enough job raising my daughter however I feel that in the act of worrying I am pushing myself to become a good father, if I wasn’t worrying I would never improve.

Being a Dad is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I hate to be the one who makes her laugh and scoop her up when she falls I get to be the silly monster that chases her around the playground and give her a high five when she catches a frisbee. I know she looks to me for approval and when she does something that she’s proud of. She knows how much love I have for her because I tell her many many times every day and I think that’s so important.

I used to be shy about showing my emotions and being open about how I feel about people especially those I love but she has taught me that telling people I love them especially her and her mother is a fantastic thing.

Every day I learn a new lesson alongside my daughter. My eyes have been opened up to a complex and truly wonderful new role and I’m forever grateful, even if she wakes me up at 6am on a Saturday.