We can all agree parenting our kids is hard and none of us want to be left in the position of parenting alone. But life and circumstances don’t always go to plan.
One dad in the US has written a touching post revealing his journey as a single dad and sharing the lessons he learned to cope with his daughter’s arrival.
Richard Johnson, 21, from Las Vegas shared his post on Facebook page Life of Dad this week, which detailed the highs and lows of being the single parent to his daughter, Peresphone.
“Her mother left about a month after she was born. We still don’t know exactly why, but we suspect post-partum depression played a part.
“I was so nervous and scared about being a father in general, but now I was a single father and had to fulfill two roles.
“I wasn’t sure I could do it.”
Mr Johnson continued to share how the Facebook page and other single dads supported him as he learned to cope with his new daughter.
“I had read every ‘new parent’ book I could find and clocked in over 1000 hours in YouTube videos from everything to braiding hair and painting nails to theories on how to deal with common parental issues.
“We’ve come a long way, my daughter and me, and we definitely owe part of that to this page and the people within it.
“So from both of us, we wanted to thank you.”
The post has been liked nearly 17,000 times and sparked supportive comments from other parents as well as interest from the US Media.
In a follow-up post, Mr Johnson thanked the group for their support and recalled the moment his daughter began to crawl and an intimate moment that helped him keep going.
“I spent more than a few nights holding my little girl as she slept weeping because I wasn’t sure I was going to be a good enough father for her.
“She came to me and laid her tiny little hand on my cheek and stared into my eyes.
“I took it as ‘Come on Daddy, we have a lot to do.’
“So I told her no more crying for either of us and we were going to fight to be happy. We’ve kept true to that promise.”
Mr Johnson encouraged other single parents like him to look at their children and tell them they love them when life seems overwhelming.
“For any single parents out there, if you ever feel like the load is to [sic] much or you’re just not good enough.
“Look into your amazing child’s eyes and just tell them you love them.
“You’d be amazed to see how much strength you have when someone else is counting on you and loving you more and more for what you’re doing.
“You’ll find strength where you thought you had none.”
