19 Stories That Show What Being a Truly Devoted Dad Looks Like

“Went to buy some groceries and never returned,” “picked up the wrong child from daycare,” — these stories about fathers are all over the Internet. And although they do take place, there are good dads too, but these days many people still perceive them as some kind of a miracle. This article will tell you about how difficult it is to be a father sometimes.

• When I became a stepdad, I promised myself I’d never force anything. But last month, my stepdaughter had a fight with a friend and locked herself in her room. I didn’t know how to help. So I went and sat down in the hallway, my daughter beside me, and we just started talking—about nothing and everything. After a while, I started telling silly stories from when I was their age.
  An hour later, the door opened. She didn’t say a word—just sat between us, holding both our hands.
• 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 re-packed it. It’s one of my best winter memories. © deluxe_polar_bear / Reddit
• My stepdaughter had this big science project. Said she was gonna work on it with her real dad. On Monday, I see her trying to glue random foam balls. I asked what happened. She said, “He forgot. He said he’d make it up to me.” So I went to the store, grabbed some supplies, and said, “Let’s do it together.”
  We stayed up late. Painted each planet. Labeled everything. Even made tiny rings around Saturn out of fishing line. She ended up getting an A. But more important, she told her teacher we built it together, and she called me her dad without even thinking about it.
  It’s not about who’s in the photos or on the birth certificate. It’s about who shows up when it matters. Every time.

• I am divorced from my wife “June,” we have one daughter together, “Clare”. We divorced on bad terms after I lost my job. Came home to an empty house and a note saying she needed someone who could “give her the lifestyle she and Clare deserved.” I didn’t see Clare for a while after that.
  However, I’m now in fantastic financial shape. I now have 50% custody of my daughter and am trying to make up for lost time. This means, since the world has opened up again, as long as Clare does well in school and helps with her chores, the weekend she’s with me, we will do whatever she wants, usual things like museums, movies, near-by national parks, festivals in our city, etc.
  Yesterday I went to pick up my daughter from school and June and her husband were waiting there and asked to speak to me. They said that the businesses he used to run took a massive hit and have never recovered, and that it’s meant they’ve had to scale back their lifestyle significantly, including June getting a job. They then informed me that June was pregnant, and they didn’t want my spoiling Clare to affect the relationship between the 2 kids, as they couldn’t do the same for their baby.
  I told them I had no intention of changing how I raised Clare because she was a great kid and deserves to be rewarded for her good behavior. The conversation devolved from there, with June finally screaming at me that I was just some “Disneyland dad using his money to get back at her.” © DecisionInfinite6688 / Reddit
• The daycare called and said my daughter’s eyes were sore. Everything was fine in the morning. Okay, I took her to the doctor, and he said that she should stay at home for a week due to conjunctivitis. I offered my husband to stay with her, and he agreed — he thought it was like a holiday, all he had to do was just stay at home and drop medicine into the child’s eyes.
  In reality, on the first day, our daughter had a toothache. He took her to the dentist, who pulled 2 baby teeth at once. On the second day, the child started coughing. My husband had to treat her throat, teeth, and eyes. On the third day, my daughter said, “Daddy, my ear hurts!” Again the father and the child went to the doctor who prescribed drops for the ear. And then it was necessary to take blood tests and X-rays.
  For 2 weeks, my husband treated the child and ran to doctors. I’ve never seen him so happy running back to work. © ***ve***da*** / Pikabu

• When my son was in the hospital, it made so much more sense for my husband to stay with him because he doesn’t drive, I could get there in 20 minutes, but it would have taken him over an hour and only one of us were allowed to stay. The entire time, he was either questioned whether Mum was involved or ridiculously praised for staying with him.
  When our son was born my husband stayed with us from when we went in until kicking out time on the ward, they literally couldn’t believe he hadn’t gone home yet. I mean, his first child had just been born, and he wanted to be involved whilst I recovered from being sliced open, and a tiny human yanked from my womb. The next day, the nurse came to me and said they’d never seen a dad stay as long as he did in 20 years of working on maternity. © thegrimrita / Reddit
• When my daughter and I go out, it’s always a problem to go to the toilet together. So, I go straight to the accessible toilet. If someone suddenly asks me why I go there, I surprise them with the counter question, “Which one should we use then?” And while they’re trying to come up with an answer, I’m off. © efkz / Pikabu
• I’ve got an 8-month-old son and my partner has been really struggling with postnatal depression, and she has a lot going on, so for 8 months I have been doing the majority of the looking after and caring for our son. Don’t get me wrong, she does a great job, she’s just struggling mentally a bit currently. I end up doing everything.
  Whenever we go to see people or whatever, and I change his nappy people are always like, “Oh, you’re on nappy duties, that’s good” and I can sense that they think I’m doing it because we’re out, and I’m trying to look good. My partner will get the “you’re doing an amazing job as a mother!” And I’ll just get the classic, “Dad’s doing a good job too” as if they almost forgot about me. © Unknown author / Reddit

• About 7 years ago, my wife confided in me how much she was depressed because she had to give up her career. She spent all her time with our kids. And I said, “Okay, I’m now a stay at home dad. Go get a job and show them what you’re made of, baby.”
  And everything seems fine, but all these 7 years, men have been coming up to me and saying stuff like, “Your wife left you with the kids again, didn’t she?” or “What did you do wrong that you deserve this, mate?” And women would kick me out of parents’ room and treat me like I’m worthless.
  And single mothers all think I’m a single dad because there’s no other reason for a man to be a parent. Except my kids love having me around. I’m a good cook, and after running a landscaping crew, I can handle 5 kids and still get the housework done. © TheManRedeemed / Reddit
• When my daughter was 10, she wanted to try out for a community theater version of Beauty and the Beast. She got nervous, though, and almost backed out, because she was so sure she wasn’t going to make it. My husband, who did some acting in high school, stepped in and said that he would also audition, even though he knew he was never going to make it.
  He wanted to demonstrate to her that it’s okay to audition for something that you don’t think you’re going to make. She ended up not only just making it, but she got the part of the Chip. My husband got the part of Maurice, Belle’s father. He didn’t even want to be in a play. © chipdipper99 / Reddit

• My wife has a 10yo daughter. Her bio dad was always inconsistent with visits. She was with her bio dad when I got a call from her asking me to pick her up. I got there and saw her sitting on the curb, soaked from the rain, clutching her foot. She said they went hiking earlier and she twisted it badly, but he told her to “walk it off” and wouldn’t take her seriously.
  I asked him why he hadn’t called my wife. He shrugged and said, “She’s being soft. It’s not broken.”
  I carried her to the car myself. X-rays later showed she had two fractures in her ankle. I was the one holding her hand while they put on the cast. I was the one helping her brush her teeth at 2 a.m. because she couldn’t stand.
  He may share her DNA, but I’m the one she calls when it really counts.

• I lived with my mother and stepfather. My stepdad was like a father to me since I was 3 years old. At the age of 15, I started to slip seriously in my studies, I partied 24/7.
  My stepdad tried to sort out the situation, and we ended up fighting. He tried to reason with me, and I in my youthful maximalism yelled at him, “You are not my father!” That’s how a 15-year-old girl brought a 40-year-old man to tears. I’m still ashamed. © Overheard / Ideer
• I divorced my husband. After a while I started having fights with my daughter who kept saying that her father was good, and I am a monster and do everything wrong. I sent her to live with her father and thought that after a month they would both cry from each other. But it’s been a year!
  The daughter feels happy there, they don’t fight. She has even started getting better grades at school, and the ex got back in shape — they go to the gym together now. I visited them recently, their house is clean. Although, they both only made a mess when we all lived together. © Overheard / Ideer
• My husband was refused entry to the pool. My daughter is 4 months old, and my husband stays at home with her. He wanted to join the infant swimming group, but they wouldn’t let him, saying, “Our mums will feel uncomfortable around you.” © OTVERTKA / Pikabu

• I remember working at the reception desk in a gym, and a father and his daughter came up to me asking where they could change. I was confused, of course. There were no family changing rooms at the time, so I had to send them to an empty solarium. © Ananazig / Pikabu
• I was having a terrible day. Kids were sick, wife was sick, I just started a new job and it is super demanding, house falling apart, dogs muddy from the rain and need a bath. I was barely hanging on as I was doing bedtime by myself which is a tough task with a 1 year old and 2 year old. As I started singing a song I had made up for my sons, my oldest started singing along and knew all the words. I kept trying to keep going but it was making me cry because him singing meant that my music meant something to him. I love being a dad more than anything I’ve ever done, but I’m tired all the time. © Trouty213 / Reddit
• When I met my now-wife, she had a 3-year-old daughter. I always made it a point to treat her as I would my own kid, and we became close pretty quickly, when she was around 4 she even started calling me daddy. Her biological dad comes in and out of my stepdaughter’s life, she calls us both dad but when she’s with my wife and me, she refers to him as his first name.
  Well, last night she was visiting with her bio dad when I got a text from my stepdaughter wondering if I could pick her up. Well, I got there, she was sitting outside with her bio dad holding her arm. She came over to my car and told me she was messing around with a skateboard and fell on her arm, her arm was bruised, swollen, and hard for her to move.
  I asked her bio dad, why didn’t he call my wife. He said, “I don’t think it’s that bad, she’s just being dramatic.” My stepdaughter just looked at me and said, “Dad, can we just please go, I’m in a lot of pain.” As she was getting in the car I told her bio dad see this is why I’m her real dad, not you... I actually care for her and her well-being. The daughter actually did break her arm, and I’m the one who was in the ER with her until 1 a.m. © HopefulAd1737 / Reddit

• I came to the pool and saw the following: at the entrance to the women’s shower room, 2 little girls, 3 and 5 years old, were standing holding hands, afraid to go in. There is no door to the shower room, and around its corner stands their father, shouting, “Go, don’t be afraid, ask any woman to turn on the shower.” I thought then how inconvenient it is for fathers — they can’t change clothes together with their kids and those are out of their sight for a long time. © citis / Pikabu
• My wife and I had a daughter. I work remotely. So when my wife started going crazy on maternity leave, I let her go back to work — part-time at first. But in the meantime, our baby girl was growing up and demanding more attention. I had to take more and more time off work.
  Meanwhile, my wife’s career took off, and she started begging me to let her work full-time. I was angry, but I realized that I didn’t want to deprive my significant other of this chance. So I officially went on paternity leave.
  For 6 months that I’ve stayed with the baby, people around me divided into 2 groups: many of them supported me, but some of my friends didn’t approve. However, when I carry my daughter from a walk, who now weighs almost 30 pounds, and also grocery bags, even I find it hard. So, I think I made the right choice. © SoldatovVA / Pikabu

Get ready to meet 12 people whose stories prove that real love doesn’t follow the rules—it writes its own.