16 Stories That Prove a Dad’s Love Is the Most Powerful Magic in the World

Without a doubt, moms are an integral part of a child’s life, but the most vivid and crazy childhood memories are often associated with dads. They’re like those heroes who appear out of nowhere and bring adventures along. If a father decides to make his son or daughter happy, nothing can stop him—neither the weather, nor fatigue, nor common sense. And sometimes, it’s those very moments that warm our hearts for a lifetime.

• We moved to another city. It hardly ever snows here. The kids really miss all those snowball fights and building snowmen. When our 8-year-old son started complaining again about wanting snow, my husband sat for a minute, then dressed up and went out.
  He was gone for half an hour. Then, a massive truck pulls up at the house. 2 guys get out and unload a machine that makes snow! I’ve never seen my children this happy! © Overheard / Ideer
• Whenever Dad got his paycheck, he would always come home and joyfully throw a wad of cash into the air so it would rain down across the room. My brother and I would run to collect it. Because of this, I thought we were really rich as a child, although it wasn’t like this. Dad just wanted to make us happy. © Tatyana Fomenko
• One year when I was in elementary school, we got several feet of snow for winter break (unusual for where I lived). My dad took an entire day to pack all the snow next to our porch into a snow slide. It started from our porch and went around the corner of our house.
  My brother and I played on the snow slide all day, getting occasional pushes from our dad as he continually repacked it. It’s one of my best winter memories. © deluxe_polar_bear / Reddit

• I’m 23 years old. Married. I used to work as a nursery assistant in a kindergarten. There was a very shy boy in my group who didn’t have any friends.
  As it turned out later, he was from an orphanage. I would often read him stories, play with him, and spend a lot of time with him. It so happened that an orphanage worker couldn’t pick him up, and it was getting late.
  My husband and I decided to take him home to spend the night. They ended up talking and became friends. And suddenly my husband says, “Let’s adopt this boy!” Now they play with cars, shout, and laugh. I am happy! © Overheard / Ideer
• I was a curious child, and my dad is a universal genius. I’m 40 today, and I still believe that to be true.
  I used to come to him with a question about physics or something like that, and one hour later I’d leave with 50 questions answered, but more importantly I’d leave with 10 more questions and an urgent need to figure it all out. He would encourage and inspire me to understand.
  He made me want to research things, and the end result is that I have a lot of knowledge today that others lack that I got when others were playing Nintendo and I played “use the library.” For fun. You can’t put a price on that. © 3770 / Reddit
• My dad raised me alone. When I was at summer camp, he would bring me treats every other day. At the end of the season, he came to pick me up, but he seemed tired. In the car, he said, “There’s a surprise waiting for you at home.”
  When I walked in, I was stunned! He had swapped our rooms (mine was smaller) and beautifully renovated mine. Turns out, he spent nights after work wallpapering and rearranging furniture all by himself. Plus, the trip to camp took 3 hours.
  I was so happy! To this day, I can’t understand how he managed it. Sadly, I will never be able to tell him how much I love and miss him.

• At 17, I left home to study. Every time I came back to my hometown, my dad would pick me up from the train station or airport, even though it was a 40-mile drive for him. Sometimes he’d come after a night shift, very tired. I told him, “You don’t have to, I’ll get a taxi or take the bus!” But he’d simply said, “You’ll have plenty of time for that later!”
  Now he is seriously ill, and his days are limited. I arrived at the city and made my way on my own. I entered the house. When my dad saw me, he said, “See, dear, now I can’t come to pick you up.” I’ve been crying all day. © Overheard / Ideer
• My dad was a doctor, working from dawn to 10 p.m. most of the time in a pretty demanding neighborhood (understand: quite poor). 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, taking me to a bar, or even 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
• When I was about 5, I was very scared of the dark and would go to sleep with my head covered. But doing it that way, I would toss and turn for a long time because it got stuffy under the blanket, and I couldn’t get enough air.
  Then my dad started to cover me himself before bed. He would take the blanket and make a kind of hood out of it, like when you swaddle a baby with its head covered. He said it was a secret way of covering up, one that all monsters feared. I still remember that feeling of calm when my dad tucked me in. © DeMarika / Pikabu

• I was probably 14 or 15, watching a romantic comedy with my mom. Dad walked through the living room. I said, “Dad, do you believe in love at first sight?”
  He turned and said, “Well, I never did. And then, your mom had you. And from the moment I laid my eyes on you, I loved you more than I could imagine. So... yeah, I guess I do.”
  In the years since, our relationship has dissolved and disappeared. But no matter what happens, no matter how bad things get, I still have that memory — the memory of a father who loved me. © hgielrehtaeh / Reddit
• When I was about 5 years old, my dad gave me a stuffed animal—a pink elephant with striped ears. I was very curious about why the elephant had striped ears.
  Then my dad came up with a story about an elephant who really wanted to be pink. When it was painted, it happily ran through the jungle, waving its pink ears, with the paint still wet on them, and the branches brushed against the ears, leaving stripes. © Overheard / Ideer
• My dad passed away before I turned 6. Shortly before this, he was preparing a birthday gift for me—a wooden bench he was crafting himself. He designed the patterns, painted, varnished it, and burned the inscription “My little daughter is 6 years old” on it. The bench is still in my mom’s house.
  Recently, I realized that the bench is already 30 years old, and when I visited my mom, I carefully examined the bench, its patterns, and touched its smooth side. I cherish all the memories connected with my father. They are like precious stones to me: sometimes I take them out, sort through them, marvel at their facets in the light, and then put them carefully back.
  Once, I had a headache. And my dad said, “Pain is like a thread! And you can catch it, pull it out of your head, and roll it into a ball.” He pretended to roll it up and then added, “I’ll take your pain bit by bit.” After a while, the pain subsided, and Dad pretended to throw the ball away. © TatyanaMongina / Pikabu

• When I was 12, I put down “Liquid Nitrogen” as a joke on a Christmas list. Come Christmas, my dad takes me out to the car, opens the trunk, and what do you know, there’s a 10-gallon canister of LN2. We just froze random things for the next couple weeks. Definitely the “coolest” thing, literally and figuratively. © aeflash / Reddit
• As a child, I needed to have an electrocardiogram. I was so frightened that I felt sick.
  Dad gently took me aside and told me, like to an adult, that I needed to calm down. Then he took me to the cafeteria and then to a toy store. There he bought me a huge toy truck.
  After that, I ran to the cardiology department with joy and a sparkle in my eyes. There Dad took off his clothes instead of me and lay down on the couch. He calmly talked to the doctor, smiling. Then he said, “See, I had the examination. It’s not scary.”
  Then he laid me on the couch and placed the new truck against my chest. Overwhelmed with emotion, I lay very still for the entire 10 minutes. Everything was fine. © Dilmurad Yuldashev
• Dad was always the organizer of all the adventures in my childhood. He taught me to swim, ski, skate, and ride a bike, as well as play checkers and chess. And he did it with a lot of fun.
  Dad would attend parent-teacher meetings at school and go on trips with my classmates. My sister and I were lucky to get that much love and attention in our childhood. I love and miss him. © Nadezhda / ADME
• In grade 4 or 5, my dad woke me up and told me school was canceled for the day because of the heavy snowfall we’d had all night. He let me sleep in, and when I woke up again, he made me his super amazing French toast, and for the rest of the day, we played in the snow and drank hot chocolate and watched The Fifth Element.
  Later on in the day I found out school wasn’t canceled at all, despite the snowfall (it’s Canada; you get 10 feet of snow and they tell you to dig your way to school). My dad was aware of it all; he just wanted to let me have some fun in the snow. © AReallyHoopyFrood / Reddit

And the older we get, the clearer it becomes: it is these small heroic actions by our fathers that made our childhood so special. They linger in memory as a reminder that love often manifests itself in the most unexpected and touching acts. Surely, you have some great stories about your dad too. We look forward to hearing them in the comments below.