Brillant dad feature week 10
This week our brilliant dad feature is Richie from St. Louis USA. He is 30 years old, married and he has two children. A four year old daughter and a one year son and he blogs at http://StLouisDad.com
1. Have you always wanted to be a dad?
Absolutely. I have always wanted to have kids. I wasn’t always sure how many I would like to have, but after my first child was born I decided that I would probably put the stop at two.
When I was younger I was able to help my siblings with their kids. My girlfriend (now wife) and I took them all around town. It was a lot of fun spending time with them and little did we know we were gaining valuable experience along the way.
So now here we are with two kids, a girl (4) and boy (1) and we got this in the bag. Sure, there are definitely times when things are crazy hectic and you could swear these kids are possessed, but all in all it’s been great!
2. How did you feel when your children were born?
Amazing. Both of my children were a week early. Having our first child was a little crazy. We figured we still had another week so we did not have anything ready for the hospital.
I remember it being a beautiful day and it did not take very long for our little girl to enter this world. With our second child it was an easy birth, but things got very scary about 30 minutes later when my wife started hemorrhaging. The hospital staff did an incredible job taking care of her and they were able to go home with our baby boy in the normal 2 days time. We were super excited to bring him home.
3. What have been the most rewarding experiences been so far?
Seeing your child learn something new. Whether it is them learning to crawl, walk, talk, or even something as silly as learning the word metamorphosis.
The excitement and joy in their eyes when they are learning is incredibly heartwarming. Watching my little girl sing “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?” for the first time brought a tear to my eye. It was a beautiful thing.
4. What are some of the funniest moments to have happened to you as a dad?
There are so many that it is next to impossible to pinpoint one in particular.
Everything is hilarious, even tantrums. It makes discipline hard sometimes. So much of life is a good time, and then there are little parts of it that suck. I tend to not focus strictly on the funniest moments. I like to remember all of the moments. Even some of the more difficult ones. I believe it is important as humans to remember and feel painful emotions.
This helps me grow as a person. Sure I will be reminded of how painful something was, but I will also remember that moment. Which is what is important to me.
In my opinion, burying memories is like lying to yourself. It’s important to be honest with yourself, your friends, and your children.
Last year I created a video that compiles one second from each day for an entire year of my life. I started this project as a visual reminder for these moments.
Some days are pretty boring, but there are some very powerful moments captured. Such as my son’s birth and grandmother’s death. Watch it here http://stlouisdad.com/s/one-second-everyday-2014/
5. Have there been any situations with your children that you found difficult to cope with?
Not yet with my son. With my daughter I have been finding that getting her to eat is exceptionally difficult. Well, she will eat, however not what we want her to eat. She is going down the picky eaters road and I’m not exactly sure how to steer her back on course.
Another is that we have had the body parts talk with my daughter since she has watched us changing my son’s diaper and asked “what’s that?” We explained everything as best as we could in four year old English.
Last year my daughter would say hi to random strangers at the store, which might be okay since my wife or I am with her, but I don’t really want my daughter talking to strangers. When I told her that she shouldn’t talk to strangers she yelled at me saying that “THEY’RE NOT STRANGERS! THEY’RE PEOPLE!”. Needless to say we worked with her on this for a while.
6. What are your dreams and hopes for your children?
My dreams and hopes for my children are for them to be exactly who they want to be. Unless of course they want to be a serial killer or something like that!
I want my kids to grow up knowing that if they want to be an artist, doctor, engineer, teacher, or even a trash man/woman they can be. I want my children to be individuals and do activities they want to do. I do not have an interest in pushing them into something they’re gonna dislike. I want them to know that there is no such thing as a stupid question and most importantly I want them to know that haters are gonna hate and there is nothing they can do about that except be strong and not to feed the trolls.
Thank you to Richie for taking part in the brilliant dad feature.
