Dads, one day your children may be able to tell you just how grateful they are for everything you have done and continue to do for them. One day, they may write their own thank-you note to you. But today, I’m writing one on behalf of all of us at Baby Chick.
Moms can admit that we sometimes take you for granted. In the rush of everyday life, we may be quick to notice what still needs to be done and slower to recognize all the things you do right.
So this is a big thank you to the dads who show up, love hard, help often, and pour themselves into their families in ways both big and small.
A Thank You Letter to All Dads
To all the great dads out there,
Thank you for being by your partner’s side when you both became parents. Together, you two figured out how to care for a newborn, shush a crying baby, and soothe a sobbing mommy. Thank you for fetching whatever she or the baby needed while she was feeding the baby or pumping. Thank you for changing diapers, clipping baby’s tiny fingernails when mommy might have been too nervous, wrapping the best swaddle, and being a true partner as you both added to your family.
Thank you for being fully engaged. It fills every mother’s heart to see her children’s father reading, cuddling, dancing, or fishing with their kids. Moms’ hearts swell to hear you share a bit of wisdom or a childhood memory, to listen to you make up a song, especially for one child, and to hear you offer a well-earned compliment to your children. Your way with your kids is different from hers, and mothers really appreciate that, and someday, your kids will, too.
Mothers watch you fly the baby through the air or swing the baby to the moon, sometimes making their stomachs lurch, but they know it’s important for their kids to have another way of experiencing life. First bike rides, building towers and forts in the living room, and experiments with exploding baking soda all give your kids a part of you, and that makes your partner smile.
She loves you for doing all those stinky jobs like picking up dead bugs, crawling into the attic, cleaning up kids’ throw-up, and lugging everything in from the car after a weekend away. And she loves you for doing all those precious things that make your house a home, like cutting down the Christmas tree, lighting a cozy fire, and doing small repairs and big projects while teaching the kids pride, respect, and how to use a screwdriver.
It’s amazing how you can engage kids in any task at any age and teach them life lessons while they’re having fun. They grow up beside you and know without a doubt that you love and value them; they know that their Dad believes in them and likes being with them. What an incredible gift.
You set positive examples, big and small. They know that men can cook, clean up, fold laundry, and clean toilets (every now and then), and there are no rigid definitions of what girls and boys can or cannot do. Your children witness you treating your partner with love. They have a model for how to love and for how to expect to be loved. You show them daily that Dads are nurturers, boo-boo healers, snugglers, disciplinarians, jungle gyms, and joke tellers.
Your partner may even thank you for teaching your kids to burp letters, make sounds under their armpits, take a half-hour to poop, and for laughing whenever the word “fart” is uttered. Seriously? Still? Every time?
Thank you for taking over all the times you’ve arrived home from work to hear, “I’m DONE! Here, take the baby, child, or teen. I need to be alone!”
Thank you for those days, still, when she’s at the end of her rope, and you swoop in with calm patience to manage a cranky kid or feisty teen. She marvels at how you can make a chore they dread into a fun game or how you can redirect a bubbling, bickering match into a drawing contest.
Thank you for figuring out the new way to do math so your partner doesn’t have to, for coaching the team, and for driving a forgotten assignment to school… again. Thank you for cheering for the whole family, whether on the courts, fields, stages, classrooms, or boardrooms. Your support and encouragement lift all of them higher. Their lives are better in every way because of you.
Your family is proud of you. Your partner is grateful for the life you are building together and the love you pour into your children. You may not always hear it in the middle of the busy, messy, everyday moments, but you are seen, appreciated, and deeply loved.
With love,
Nina, The Baby Chick®
