The Power of Dad

Earlier this year I read an article on Scientific American called “The Power of Dad.” Like the author of the article I grew up with an amazingly awesome dad. He is a baby whisperer and can calm any child. He played with us. Read to us. He cooked for us. He honored and respected our mom. He was an awesome dad. And that is what I learned dads were supposed to be like.

So when I was looking for a dad for my children, I was looking for someone with similar qualities. And I found one. Brett is an awesome dad to our daughter. He plays with her. He reads to her. He puts her to bed every night. She flosses every morning because she sees him do it. How many 1-year-olds do you know that floss? If he’s home then she needs to be with him and I just won’t do. And I take absolutely no offense to that. The only thing he hasn’t done for her since she was born was breast feed (but there are stories).

And I trust him completely to take care of our children. I don’t micro-manage how he does things because his way is dad’s way, he doesn’t have to do it mom’s way. He does not “babysit” our daughter because he’s not the babysitter.

There might not be a lot of research yet on the importance of fathers, but it is coming. In the mean time I have a lot of anecdotal evidence of just the kind of positive power a good dad can have in the lives of his children, a super power both my dad and my husband share.