What Am I Most Thankful for as a Dad? – #ThanksBaby

When a baby is born, a dad is born. This Father’s Day, Pampers celebrates that incredible feeling little ones bring to the hearts of dads through unconditional love. It sounds cliché and romanticized, I know, but it’s absolutely true.

Pampers has released a new #ThanksBaby video that captures the amazing relationship that is created between a dad and his baby when a baby is born and the beautiful journey of fatherhood begins. Check out the video below:

I found out in the waning winter months of my senior year in high school that I was going to be a father. And it terrified me. I struggled with the sudden realization that my post-high school dreams were not going to happen.

No college.

No military.

No career in criminal justice.

Not because those things weren’t possible now that I had a baby on the way, but because I knew my new focus in life from that moment forward was working and providing for my new family. As a new 18-year-old kid, it was daunting. I was confused, scared, and yet still determined to be an involved dad.

What I didn’t realize was how unimaginably difficult and at the same time, how breathtakingly mesmerizing, being a parent would be. My children range in age from 16 down to 7 and at any given time, one of them is putting us through the ringer. Don’t worry, kids, I ain’t mad at ya.

Being a dad has taught me patience, to have a greater level of compassion, and to love with every fiber in my body, unconditionally. But probably the thing I’m the most thankful for since becoming a dad, is learning how to live a life that would make my children proud to call me their dad.

The thing I’m most thankful for, that being a dad has taught me time and time again, is that life is best experienced when I live by the thought of, “What would my kids think of me?” When I’m on the verge of losing my patience with them, or faced with a tough decision, I try to remind myself to stop and think, “What would they think of me if I do this?”

Several years ago I was out of work. I had left a job of five years to take a chance on an opportunity that seemed like my dream job. Unfortunately, that happened to be right as the company was restructuring (Why they hired new people when they were about to restructure, I’ll never know) and as a result I ended up laid off after only two months at the new job.

For the next two years I was out of work and while shopping at a pet store during the holiday season, we found a wad of cash on the floor of the store. I picked it up and looked around to see if another shopper appeared to be frantically looking for something. There was nobody around and as I stood there, my mind racing with all the ways that wad of cash could help our family at that particular time, my oldest came up and said, “WHOA, DAD! DID YOU FIND THAT? WE’RE RICH!” In that moment I asked myself, “What will they think of me if I keep this?” I knew right then that I needed to return the money to the store manager.

As we left the store my oldest asked why I didn’t keep it “since finders keepers, right?” I explained that while I didn’t know who the money belonged to, I knew that the money wasn’t ours.

There are a number of examples such as this where the choices I made when faced with indecision and uncertainty, suddenly seemed clear when I asked myself what my children would think of me if I made one choice or another. I love my children and I want them to have a dad that they can look up to as an example of how to live a life of integrity, fairness, and humility. More often than I’d like to admit, that means showing them that a responsible person apologizes when they mess up, lose their temper, overreact, or forget something.

As a dad, I’m thankful for how being a father to my children has actually helped me grow into the kind of human being I’d want my children be proud to have as a dad.

Visit www.pampers.com to learn more about Pampers products, join the Pampers Rewards program, and find ideas and information to help your baby get the most out of love, sleep and play.

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Disclosure: I have partnered with Life of Dad and Pampers for this promotion.

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Daniel De Guia

I'm a dad, Certified Personal Trainer, Youth Fitness Specialist, 3-time end of the world survivor, geek, writer, and gamer from Santa Rosa, California. The posts on this blog will chronicle my personal fitness journey, which I hope will motivate other fathers to take charge of their own health and fitness.

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