Brilliant Dad Feature Week 91 

This week our brilliant dad feature is Greg. He lives in the UK with his wife and fifteen month old twins, Saoirse and Cillian. He has been a stay at home dad since September, but before that he spent ten years teaching in secondary schools. He loves sci-fi movies and obscure beers. He blogs about being a dad to twins at Game of Twins Blog. It’s an awesome blog and a fantastic read!

1. Have you always wanted to be a dad?

Yes. Being a dad was always something at the back of my mind and my wife and I had discussed it long before we got married. However, it was something I definitely wanted to avoid in my 20s, I would not have been ready in any way, shape or form.

After getting married, we were very lucky and got pregnant straight away. As our twins were five weeks premature, we get the occasional raised eyebrow when people add up the dates!

I never seriously thought about being a stay-at-home dad, but when we looked into the cost of childcare for two kids it started to look like a good option. I feel very lucky to have been able to do something many men do not get the chance to.

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

Terrified! Though our birth was far from the most traumatic, having to watch three heart monitors whilst my wife was poked and prodded made me very anxious. I had convinced myself something was going to go wrong and when Cillian came out silent save for a strange grunting noise, I could not help thinking the worst.

Once the babies had both been delivered, Cillian was taken to special care and his sister sent to the ward with my wife. Going between the two through a maze of lifts and security doors on a baking July day felt very strange. It took a few hours for everything to sink in.

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

The twins have just started to walk which has been incredible. Their relief at finally being free from the shackles of assisted walking is so infectious that it is hard not to laugh. The fact Saoirse currently takes teeny-tiny steps compared to Cillian’s massive strides makes it even funnier.

I also really enjoy reading to them and cooking for them. It always feels like an achievement when they don’t wander off mid-book or spit out what I’ve made.

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

Like every parent, we have been subjected to a lot of funny-in-hindsight incidents regarding bodily fluids. Probably the “best” of these were the early poos which my wife nicknamed the ‘meconium sausage factory’.

The funniest recent thing has been Cillian’s interactions with the television. He has worked out how to change the input settings and particularly enjoys changing it to static when we’re watching BBC Breakfast. He then grins at us mischievously as if to say “I turned your program off”. I would never have thought a fifteen-month-old would have the wherewithal to play pranks.

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

The twins are difficult at some point nearly every day. It is hard to do simple things like going to the toilet and making their lunch whilst keeping an eye on them. This is becoming especially hard now they spend so much time walking in different directions.

The hardest thing though is ‘Mommy Guilt’, which definitely a condition men can suffer from. I’m constantly worrying if they have ate enough, slept enough and, worst of all, are developing fast enough. “Am I doing enough with them?” I constantly ask myself. If I spend two minutes reading about the Trump/Clinton debate when I could have been stacking cups with them, does it make me a bad father? Rational me says no, but it’s hard not to feel guilty.

 6. What are your dreams and hopes for your children?

I guess I just want them to be happy. Which means my job is to give them skills necessary to be happy, whatever that means to them. Though education is a big part of this, I think there is a lot more to it than just teaching them to speak and count. It also means loving them, caring for them and telling them ‘no’ when necessary.