10 Dads Who Went the Extra Mile to Make Their Children Happy

Being a dad isn’t just about fixing things or giving advice, sometimes, it means dancing in the living room in a tutu or learning how to braid hair like a pro. These incredible dads prove that love shows up in the little things, the silly moments, and the quiet support that sticks around when it matters most.

• When I was in 3rd grade, I was sitting in class when I got called to the principal’s office. I got worried because that never happened.
  
  When I got there, my dad was standing in the office. It was a big deal because I hardly ever got to see him. He worked nights, 6 or 7 days a week so we could get by.
  
  He told the school there was an emergency in the family—not a major one—but that nobody would be around to take me home, so he needed to pick me up now.
  
  He signed me out, and we headed down to the car. I asked him what was wrong, and he responded, “The Mets are playing, and it would be a sin to let these tickets go to waste.” Then he handed me a ticket, reached into the car, and pulled out my very first Mets jersey and a brand-new baseball glove. © ADIDAS247 / Reddit

• My dad is an automotive engineer. When I was in elementary school, there was a Halloween costume contest. He made me a fully functioning robot costume out of scrap materials from his garage. It had working buttons, lights, and everything. I won the contest.
  © Unknown author / Reddit

• My dad worked from home at a time when working from home basically never happened. He was a salesman of industrial equipment, and his territory covered three states. He was literally the only employee of the company within 500 miles.
  
  I was having problems in school, and the school didn’t want to deal with it because, when have they ever cared about a student being mistreated?
  
  My dad eventually went high enough up the chain to speak to someone at the district, but that person kept dodging him. He’d schedule an appointment, arrive, and—oops—according to the secretary, the admin had to leave early to take care of something else.
  
  Once is unlucky, twice is a coincidence, but three times is enemy action.
  
  So my dad gathered a bunch of work he could do in his car, waited until the admin pulled into their parking space in the morning, and... blocked him in. My dad checked in with the secretary and said he’d wait in his car for the admin to return, indicating which car was his. And so he sat in his car—from around 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. And then he finally got his meeting with the admin because, shocker, the admin wasn’t out of the office attending to an emergency.
  © Astramancer_ / Reddit

• When I was 12, I jokingly put “Liquid Nitrogen” on my Christmas list. Come Christmas morning, my dad takes me out to the car, opens the trunk, and, lo and behold, there’s a 10-gallon canister of LN2.
  We spent the next couple of weeks freezing random things.
  
  It was definitely the “coolest” thing he ever did—literally and figuratively.
  © aeflash / Reddit

• My dad was an M.D., working from dawn to 10 pm most of the time in a pretty demanding neighborhood. He never had much time for himself or his family, and didn’t make that much money for the wicked hours/human distress he endured.
  
  However, he always took the time, once a week, to spend a whole evening playing video games or pinball with me, or buying computers or gaming systems for that sole purpose. That was our time, just the two of us. He was tired, struggling with money and personal issues, but never did I hear him complain. Not once in all these years.
  
  My father was my silent hero. Nothing shiny. He was just there for me, no matter the cost, with a smile on his face despite all the problems he had to face. In his own very modest way, he might be the bravest man I’ve ever known. I wish I knew how lucky I was at the time. © sanktuaire / Reddit

• I went to school about four hours away from home. I’d been dating this girl for just about two years when I found out she had been cheating on me for the past few weeks. I ended the relationship and told my friends and family what happened.
  
  I called my dad, and he asked if there was anything he could do. Being a broke college student, I said I’d really just love a good meal. He said he was tied up but told me to check my account after class because he would send some money.
  
  Skip ahead four hours, and there’s a knock on my door—it’s my dad, standing there to take me out for dinner. If I can be half the father he is, my kids will be alright.
  © Philbo_andthe_Ents / Reddit

• When I was turning 10, my dad gave me one of my most memorable birthdays. He woke me up at 8 a.m. on a school day and said I didn’t have to go to school and that I should throw on regular clothes. We got into his truck, and he drove me to McDonald’s for breakfast.
  
  We then stopped at the local hockey rink—turns out he had rented the ice for an hour. We played shinny together, just me and him. But the day still wasn’t done. When we got back in the truck, he put his Boston cassette in and started driving. About an hour later, we arrived at a frozen lake. He put the truck in 4-wheel drive and drove onto the ice.
  
  We stopped after a few minutes and got out of the truck. I was very confused. He pulled a giant drill out of the back of the truck and started drilling through the ice. That afternoon, he taught me how to ice fish. We sat there for hours, catching a few fish, eating a packed lunch, and listening to the radio.
  
  Amazingly, the day still wasn’t done. On the way home, he asked if I wanted to watch the Oilers play that night. I said “yes” without thinking much about it—I assumed we’d watch the game on TV like always. But a while later, we pulled up to the Coliseum, and amazingly, he had gotten tickets. It was my first NHL game.
  
  That, by far, was one of the greatest days of my life, and I really wish I could relive it all.
  © LuckyCanuck13 / Reddit

• My Dad is the stoic, Clint Eastwood type. One summer when I was in my early teens, we drove up to Cape Cod to visit family. He dropped me in North Falmouth with my Mom’s family and headed out on the Cape to visit his brother. In one week, I had one of those life-changing summers where I met girls, camped out, and bonded with a group of young teens like myself.
  
  When the week was over, the whole crew turned up at the general store to see me off. When my Dad pulled up, I put my suitcase in the trunk and stood at the driver’s side door and told him what a great time I had. He sized up the situation, reached into his pocket, and peeled off some twenties. He told me to stay another week and take the bus home. My friends were astounded by his coolness, and the second week in paradise was just as good as the first. © patmcgroin / Reddit

• My father is a construction worker with an education that goes only as far as 6th grade. He drives a bulldozer and has for my whole life—waking up at 4 in the morning, stumbling home at 5 p.m., and falling asleep by 9 p.m. He never really had anything to do with raising us (I’m the youngest of 8), if only because he was too damn tired.
  
  When I was about 12, Madonna was ALL THE RAGE, and all the girls were wearing those black rubber bracelets. My sisters and I wanted them more than anything, but we could never afford them.
  
  One day, my dad came home with a bunch of O-rings he took from the mechanic in all different sizes for us to use as bracelets. They were covered in oil, and most of them were way too small to fit on our wrists, but it was SO SWEET of him that we forced them around our wrists until our hands turned blue (and black with oil) and proudly paraded around the neighborhood.
  © MrsMudskipper / Reddit

• Back when I was a freshman in high school, I had a penchant for reading books in class instead of paying attention. On Parent-Teacher Night, my dad went to the conferences with my mom, and when speaking to my social studies teacher, she mentioned how she’d like it if I didn’t read in class anymore. He responded with, “Well, maybe if your class was more interesting, he would stop reading.”
  
  My dad stopped going to Parent-Teacher Night after that. © dewey-defeats-truman / Reddit
  

Moms can be just as generous as Dads, as you can find in our 15+ Stories That Prove Moms’ Love Tank Never Runs Empty collection.