Brilliant dad feature week 29
Hi, my name is Ben and I’m a single dad from Wellington, New Zealand, with shared parenting care of my super awesome three year-old daughter. I run a blog called 1 Player Dad where I write about my journey becoming a single dad, and how I faced some of the challenges along the way, or, to put it another way, how I learned (and am still learning!) to play the two player parenting game in ‘1 Player mode’.
1. Have you always wanted to be dad?
I always knew I’d be a dad at some point, and that I’d aim to be the best dad I could be when I became one, but when it was actually happening it was a strange experience that I could only fully understand once my daughter entered this world!
2. How did you feel when your children were born?
When my daughter was born, that’s when the feeling of being a dad really hit me. Until then, it didn’t quite feel real. I understood the idea of being a dad, but didn’t really feel it until I held my daughter in my arms. It’s an amazing combination of a number of things, awe, responsibility, a bit of fear of the unknown path ahead and whether I’m up to the task, a bunch of other things, but mostly an overwhelming unconditional love, the type that I had never really experienced before.
3. What have been your most rewarding experiences so far as a Dad?
I have my daughter four nights a week, so it’s really rewarding just to see my daughter when I can and have those moments of love between us that make up our experiences together. To see her grow over these past few years, especially as i’m parenting on my own when I have her, from crawling to walking and talking, just being able to be there for all of that is rewarding to me.
4. What are some of funniest moments to have happened to you as a dad?
To be honest, every day with my daughter is an adventure where she makes me laugh and learn in new ways. I can honestly say i’ve never smiled as much as I have when I became a father, and my daughter has such a cheeky personality that only gets more mischievous by the day!
5. Have there been any situations with your children that you have found difficult to cope with?
Being a single dad for the last two and a half years while working full time and travelling for work has been the biggest challenge i’ve faced so far, but my daughter is so awesome that she makes it all worth it. If she wasn’t so awesome, it would probably be much more of a chore, but she’s generally a very well-behaved, positive, happy, cheeky bundle of energy 95% of time (and when she’s not, she’s still pretty good).
6. What are your dreams and hopes for your children?
One of the things I want to teach my daughter is logic – I figure if I can do that, that’ll probably take all of my efforts! :-p But in all seriousness, I hope that she continues to grow on the path that she is right now to become a happy, cheeky, confident, grounded, caring, loving person. I think I remember hearing somewhere that your children should grow up to be better than you, and that is your job as their parent (or I made it up somewhere along the line) – but if I can pass on my experience and knowledge to her so that she can use that in her life, then i’ll be happy.
Thank you to Ben for taking part in the brilliant dad feature.
2 Comments
Mrs Tubbs
September 12, 2015 at 8:16 pm
I love this feature, it's great to see dad bloggers getting some airtime and to find out more about the person behind the blog. #binkylinky
Nigel
September 12, 2015 at 8:57 pm
Thank you I have loved doing this feature 🙂