Austin Dads Blog, Father's Day{We are 4 days out from Father’s Day 2014 and to honor the men in our lives, we are turning over the blogging reins to some pretty special dads this week. Check out all of our dads this week as they share their joys, regrets, and journeys to fatherhood with Austin Dads Blog.}

Meet my brother-in-law, Jonathon. Jonathon and my sister met in late 2011 through eharmony.com and fell head over heels in love. They were quickly married and moved almost immediately to London, England. Then, they went from Texas to Arkansas and then to Prague in the Czech Republic with their 6 month old daughter, Evelyn Kaiya. Read about his whirlwind intro to fatherhood.

“My ideals about fatherhood and my ability to be live up to the “Best Father in the World” t-shirt had unraveled.”

JWilsonFatherhood

When my daughter was a month old, I stuck her head into a moving fan. Well, actually it only hit the sconce. But the moment was enough to terrorize me at the thought of potentially decapitating my new and fragile child. Already I felt like I had failed as a father. I was supposed to be her protector, and here I was causing her unnecessary pain with my own clumsiness. My ideals about fatherhood and my ability to be live up to the “Best Father in the World” t-shirt had unraveled. Thankfully, my wife was not home to witness my mishap, and I only confessed it after she had accidentally allowed the baby to pop out of the grocery cart and onto the aisle floor.

If you think we’re negligent parents, you just haven’t had kids yet. I discovered that every parent has made some sort of blunder with his child.

Once you share your own shortcomings, the stories start pouring out of other parents inJWilsonTLGym a flurry. Someone locked his kid in the car in the REI parking lot; another father watched helplessly as his stroller hit a curb and tossed his toddler onto the sidewalk. It’s like that movie What to Expect When You’re Expecting when the experienced fathers list out their foibles to the shock and horror of the expectant parent. Fatherhood is not a Hallmark card with a new dad cradling his baby in the perfect football hold, nor is it always the moments from Norman McClean’s “River Runs Through It” when fathers and sons wade into the river and cast their lines together—though I look forward to those. Instead, it seems to me, to be a series of downs and ups, and some giggles and smiles that make me feel more up than I’ve ever felt before.

JWilson&EVByTrainMy wife and I recently traveled Europe with our daughter: she had a job overseas so I became the temporary caretaker (yet I despise the term “Mr. Mom” and curse the makers of that Michael Keeton film). One of the clearest memories I have of the downs and ups to being a father occurred on our trip to Budapest this past May. We had to take an overnight train from Prague. So far on our venture abroad, we had tackled planes, trains, and rental cars, but this overnight excursion was to be a whole new dragon to slay. Since my wife was pregnant with our second child and since she would be the one working and giving the presentation in Hungary, I volunteered to hold the baby in my cot on the train. The bed was more of a side-less coffin hanging off the wall of the cabin. My ten-month-old seemed to have an octopus-amount of limbs, but that were all knees and elbows and in constant movement throughout the night. Because of the ceaseless start and stop of the train, the noise in JWilsonEVSleepingthe halls and by the conductor, plus the strangeness of the environment itself, she decided to thrash and turn until morning, which means I counted every second of every minute of every hour until we arrived at the station.

While the evening was a definite down moment, the rest of the day was an up. We put the baby in her first swimsuit to take her to the Szechenyi Baths, the 18th century collection of indoor and outdoor swimming pools famous in Hungary for their therapeutic powers. Needless to say, the place was a hotspot for senior citizens, and I discovered that babies are only chick-magnets if you’re aiming for the over 65 crowd. Our daughter was hesitant at first to enter the water. She had never been to a swimming pool, and she clung to my neck and shoulders as though I could save her from any and all danger. Although I quickly tried to calm her down, I cherished being her guard and guide to this new experience. Within minutes, she made me proud, splashing and playing, letting me whirl her around and show her off. She looks at me in those times, and I know that she knows I’m her father.

JWilsonEVinPragueEven if everyday is not full of such smiles and laughter, I’ve seen it and heard it. I remember it. The love of my daughter in those moments surpasses any ideal I ever had of being a father. Which is why, on Father’s Day, I don’t need that “Best Dad” t-shirt. I just need my daughter.

Thumbs up for a father who loves being a “daddy”

 

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