Brilliant Dad Feature Week 105

This week our brilliant dad feature is David. David is a 32 year old stay at home dad from Colchester in the UK. He took six months shared parental leave at the end of last year and decided that given their circumstances he would not return to work straight away. David blogs over at Little guy and I. You really should check it out. It’s an awesome blog with fantastic posts!

Thank you very much to David for taking part.

1. Have you always wanted to be a dad?

Most definitely. I think it’s one of those life goals that I had. Having the opportunity to bring up a child and pass on a little bit of myself to the future is pretty amazing.

2. How did you feel when your children were born?

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be at the birth. It was pretty scary. My wife had been prepped and rushed into the operating theatre. I was able to go in with her, however, they then had to put her under and I was therefore taken out of the room. It was at this point that I was left in the birth room, on my own for a couple of hours. Not knowing whether my wife or son was OK. Thankfully, everything was fine and I got to see him at around 1am. I was so relieved that everything was OK. He remained in NICU for 5 days because of the traumatic birth, but I knew from then that I had a new job in life.

3. What have been your most rewarding experiences so far as a Dad?

There’s a few here, but the main one was when I regularly went to a local baby group and was the only Dad that went. Over time, I got to know a couple of the Mum’s there and one day, I was invited to come along to the sensory room with them. It might not seem like much, but when you’re the only Dad in a room full of women, week in, week out, and then you get invited to join them separately. As a Dad, that’s massive!

Away from this, the day that I managed to get him to “walk” up and down the stairs, just holding my hands. That was pretty awesome as I’d been trying to get him to do it for a little while.

4. What are some of funniest moments to have happened to you as a dad?

I’ll go for two here, with picture evidence.

One of the funniest moments…Yoghurt. You know when you’re trying them with different foods and you come up with the great idea (at the time) of letting them feed themselves yoghurt. The aftermath of this is both hilarious and also alarming at just how much mess can be made in 2 minutes.

The other? That day that we were playing in the garden during the summer. Every now and then he would want to go back in the house. He then decided to start pushing his face against the glass and we ended up with this particular moment.

5. Have there been any situations with your children that you have found difficult to cope with?

Shortly after starting my shared parental leave, I decided to take Chase to my old work for our team Christmas lunch. The journey should have taken about 45 minutes. However, Chase wouldn’t settle in the car. I was on my own with him and, as a new “at home” parent, decided to stop constantly to try and settle him in the car. I think I ended up stopping at almost every lay-by on the main road. It ended up taking me about 2 hours. It was by far the most stressful drive I’ve ever done in my life.

6. What are your dreams and hopes for your children

I hadn’t really thought about this until I saw the question. I think the most important thing for him would be happiness. Also, to be more comfortable in himself than I am. I’d hope he gets a good education and finds a job that he can really enjoy and love as opposed to a job just to earn money.