Brilliant dad feature week 56
Ross Longdon is the proud father of three fantastic young children and together with his wife (the enigmatic Mrs L.) is the co-founder of Team Fun.
By day, he’s a mild mannered radiographer (taking x-rays and stuff), but at night (and the weekend, or any time he’s not at work really) he becomes “The Best Dad Ever”, according to at least one of his children. He’s even got the socks to prove it and they don’t just give them away!
When he’s not doing Dad stuff, he enjoys fishing, swimming, sleeping, gazing wistfully into the middle distance and writing about himself in the third person.
He is an enthusiastic and light hearted blogger and you can read more about him and his family at Daddy Sphere. Thanks very much to Ross for taking part.
1. Have you always wanted to be a dad?
Ever since I can remember I have always wanted to be a Dad. I’m the eldest of four and my youngest sister is 12 years younger than me and so I had an almost adult’s perspective on what it is to be parent.
2. How did you feel when your children were born?
When each of the kids were born I felt completely overwhelmed. When my daughter (my eldest arrived) it was pretty frantic, and she needed to be rescuitated for about 10 minutes as she was very reluctant to breathe on her own. The second (my first son) had to be delivered via an emergency caesarean section, and for the youngest (another son) my wife had an elective caesarean. Each arrival was very intense in its own way, but each time I saw the helpless little baby for the first time, I was totally overwhelmed and in love!
3. What have been your most rewarding experiences so far as a Dad?
I can’t point to one particular incident, but whenever one of the kids says “I love you Dad,” there isn’t a lot which can compare to that.
4. What are some of funniest moments to have happened to you as a dad?
When my daughter was about 2, she and I used to have a “thing” where, when she would put her finger in my belly button I would shudder and shake. This was fine in the privacy of our own home, but she decided to do it as I was paying for something in a department store. As my daughter was so small, the shop assistantwas unable to see her. All she could see was a tubby, balding, middle-aged man shuddering (in the manner of a gentleman reaching the pinnacle of his sexual expression) as I gave her the money for the goods I had bought. She backed off and I hurriedly collected my shopping and left before she could activate the silent alarm. To this day I have yet to return to that particular shop.
5. Have there been any situations with your children that you have found difficult to cope with?
It’s never easy when your kids are unwell. Recently my youngest needed to be admitted to hospital as he had a suspected intussusception. He ended up having an enema an unpleasant enough experience) at about 2 o’clock in the morning, which resulted in him being in abject agony for about 45 minutes. It was absolutely heart breaking as there was nothing I could do to help him. About an hour previously I had sent my wife a text and told her that everything was ok. I really wanted to cry, but I felt I had to stay strong for our little one (and didn’t want to cause an embarrassing scene). This type of situation is probably more common with Dad’s than we’d really like to admit.
6. What are your dreams and hopes for your children?
Simply put, I just want them to be happy, successful and to fulfil their potential, but mostly just be happy.
2 Comments
Mainy – myrealfairy
March 31, 2016 at 7:52 pm
Lovely post expressing such loving feelings for your kids. Great to read:)
Mainy – myrealfairy
Nigel
April 9, 2016 at 8:22 pm
Thank you for comment it's a really great feature which I loved doing