20 Stories That Prove Dads Raise Children in Their Own Way

With the arrival of a child, men have to try on a new role. And to cope with it properly, they have to learn new skills. For example, how to throw the baby up to the ceiling to make them laugh, how to braid their little princess’s hair or how to tell bedtime stories. Dads raise children in their special way and it’s great.

• They called me to the principal’s office. The reason was that I had dyed my hair blonde from my natural dark color. So, I’m standing there with my father, and the principal is berating me for starting to dye my hair so early. Then my father turns to me and asks surprised, “Isn’t that your natural color?” © _kitana_8
• Since I was 16, I wanted to have a tattoo, but my dad was against it. I didn’t want to spoil our relationship, so I didn’t rebel. Also, I didn’t know what kind of inking I actually wanted. I decided to put the idea on hold for a few years.
  Now I’m 19, I’m taking my driving test. I asked my dad to tutor me in theory. When I failed to answer the same question again, my dad said with a sigh, “I think you should get a tattoo after all. Write on your arm, ’Priority to the right!’” © Overheard / Ideer
• When I was in primary school, my dad would meet me after school, and we would walk home together. We would often see crows sitting in the trees, and they would caw very loudly. I was curious as to why they were cawing so loudly, and I asked my dad about it. He looked at the birds and said, “It’s because they are desperate: their bottoms itch, but they can’t scratch them with their beaks!” © Overheard / Ideer

• When my mom was pregnant, she found red lipstick on my dad’s collar. Didn’t say anything. A couple of days later, she found foundation marks on his hand and picked up a fight. He confessed that he attends makeup courses, after which my mom freaked out even more, like how can you lie so brazenly?!
  Instead of excuses, my dad just called me and gave me really cool makeup! So dad proved his point and said, “I have a grown-up daughter, a daughter who is 6, and a third one coming up. I have to be a good dad to them and be able to do everything!” © Ward #6 / VK
• Dad comes home from work. He comes in to see me and my mum, and says seriously, “Do you know who I just saw?! I was walking, it’s dark, only one lantern shines. Suddenly, a huge hare jumps out of the bushes.”
  My mum and I look at each other in surprise, and my dad pulls out a big chocolate bar and adds, “So this hare asked me to give you a chocolate bar!” I’m 24 now, and I still fall for that hare joke like I’m still 6! © Overheard / VK
• I gave the little one a bath yesterday. Washed him, handed out a full set of rubber duckies, left him soaking and playing in a big bowl. Playing usually takes no less than 15 minutes. Before that time, there is no way you can make him leave the bathroom.
  But this time I hear him calling me from the bathroom “Daddy-daddy” in 5–7 minutes. I go to the door, asking what’s wrong. In reply, I hear, “I can’t see anything.” It turned out that when I came out of the bathroom, I turned off the light. The child heroically bathed duckies in total darkness. © timmyboy / Pikabu

• When I was 7, my dad took me to work with him. He was a professional diver. There I saw how 4 big men put my father into a 3-bolt diving suit and he, looking like an astronaut, laden with weights, went down the ramp into the black water. I was very scared for him, but I didn’t show it.
  But the men must have noticed how worried I was and let me talk to my father on the phone. Then we ate in the canteen some really tasty pasta with canned meat and drank juice. And they let me drive a real diving tugboat. It was awesome. © MAPK.TBEH / Pikabu
• My dad used to take me to daycare on the bus. We would get on at the final stop, the driver would wait for the departure time. But I didn’t understand it then, and wanted to depart right now.
  So, my father convinced me that the driver was waiting for me to sing a song. I was shy of the other passengers, but I sang. The driver laughed, started the bus, and we were on our way. © Vl73 / Pikabu
• We came home from the grocery shop with 3 egg cartons. Our daughter says, “I want to shoot an egg at the wall!” My husband takes a carton with eggs from me, takes the daughter by the hand, and they go somewhere.
  They came back happy, smiling, with the empty carton. They threw eggs at the wall somewhere. My husband said that when he was a kid, he dreamed of doing the same thing. © Podsushano — Here they talk about you / VK

• Took my girls (6 and 3) to an indoor play center; they have climbing, games, soft play, and passable coffee (for me, not the kids). They also do kid’s parties there, and have a couple of private rooms for the kids to do birthday food and presents and suchlike.
  So I was enjoying my average skinny flat white, when my eldest comes up to me, visibly upset, and tells me she “can’t find her sister anywhere.” Not great, but not terrible. Pretty sure she can’t have gotten out. So I send the eldest kid back into the play area to look again, and I do a sweep of the place, and pop my head into the party rooms on my way past. No stray kids, no drama, and no sign of my little one.
  Eldest comes back and tells me her sister is “missing... maybe dead!” which was reassuring. So I check the toilets, and I’m not going to lie, I’m starting to get a little worried. The wife is outside with her friend, and the idea of having to tell her that I’d lost a full 25% of our family didn’t feel like it would go well.
  So I do another lap, walk past the party rooms again and something catches my eye... the kid sat next to the birthday girl, wearing a party hat, eating a plate of food, and helping open presents, is wearing a very similar dress to my daughter.
  The hats actually cover the kids faces, but I’m pretty sure at this point. So I casually walk in, find out who the parents of the birthday girl are, and tell them that they have an uninvited guest. They were very polite, and even let us take the food and drink, and the party hat.
  The walk of shame out of the party room, with the other dads pointing and sniggering, wasn’t my finest moment. Way better than my wife literally howling with laughter when I told her. Apparently, I’m an “idiot” and “hilarious”. © Alexis_Denken / Reddit
• Went on a business trip for a couple of weeks. I call to my husband and son on messenger regularly. Yesterday, there was no sign of trouble. They were talking about what they were doing and what they would be doing tomorrow. And then I hear a distinctive “quack” in the background.
  I thought I misheard it, but no. There was a duck running in the background! My son looks at me with guilty eyes, “And now we have a duck. Daddy suggested we name him Zlatozar.” So now I’m on my way home to my son, husband and duck Zlatozar. © Not everyone will understand / VK
• My husband, although not a stay-at-home dad, is home several days a week with our son. One time he was also watching a friend’s kid (whom we are not related to what-so-ever) so he brought her and our son to the park.
  He was approached by another mom at the park who said, “Wow, they don’t look anything alike.” My husband looked at her and said, “Yeah, different mothers” and continues to watch the kids. The mom then says, “...But they look so close in age!” And my husband looks at her and says, “Embarrassingly enough, they are only about 6 months apart.”
  The lady, all huffed up, walked away, and my husband texted me telling me he’s the “funniest person in the world.” Seriously, our story is funny, but it’s like a guy can’t be out with a kid who isn’t their own, and can hardly be with their own kid and not get questioned! © GenuineRisk / Reddit

• My wife went to her mum’s to look after her after surgery. And for a week I was left alone with our 2-year-old twins. I used to think that maternity leave was a real holiday, it’s not difficult to stay with children.
  I usually only saw the boys before bedtime. I would bathe them, read them a book and put them to bed. I had no idea it was so difficult with little ones.
  This week, I haven’t sat down even once during the day or rested at all. I clean up the mess after their games, cook, do laundry. And I still have to go for a walk with them. In the evening, I just fall on the bed and don’t even want to take a shower or change clothes.
  Now I feel so embarrassed. I almost died during this week, and my wife has been living like this for 2 years. © Mamdarinka / VK
• All our fishing trips with my father were the best days of my life. Once we were coming home and came across a cherry tree, the berries on it were terribly overripe, and my dad and I ate them straight from the branches.
  I used to get scared when I caught a big fish, and I would shout frighteningly, “Daddy-daddy, fish-fish!” And Daddy would laugh. He’d show me falling stars and glowing rots, bring me bouquets of bellflowers, and call me a fry. © paranoidLynx / Pikabu
• Once I was lying in an infectious disease hospital together with my children — my daughter is 2 years old, my son is 5 years old. So everyone looked at me like I was weird or something. When the head doctor came to visit, she said that the children needed their mom, they miss her. And one young mom, lying with one child, even asked me in the corridor if it was hard to be alone with 2 children!
  What’s so hard about it? I can fix the engine in my car! Why can’t I figure out how to feed my beloved children, wash their bottoms and put them to bed? Of course, there are different men, you can’t argue with that, but many men can do much more than that. © picuba / Pikabu

• We went to the beach with my husband and 8-year-old son. We forgot to take hats, the sun was scorching. Well, I asked my husband to look after the little one, and went home to get our hats.
  When I came back, I saw this: my son was buried in the sand, only his head was sticking out. My husband was gone. I ask: “Where’s Daddy?” The child cheerfully replies, “Daddy’s swimming!” “Why are you here?” No less cheerfully, “He buried me, so I wouldn’t get lost.” © Chamber 6 / VK
• My husband doesn’t know what to do with a child at all — he was the only child in the family, he never dealt with other children. And then our son was born. At first, my husband was even afraid to hold him, his hands were shaking with fright.
  The son is already 2 years old now, my husband recently stayed at home with him alone, and I went out for groceries. I returned home an hour later, and saw this: my husband is on the couch, my son is under a big toy car. And my husband happily says, “Sweetheart, look, we have a future mechanic growing up!” In fact, the son was just lying there and couldn’t get out from under that car. © Not everyone will understand / VK
• When I was little and had nightmares, I would jump out of bed and run barefoot in my pajamas to my dad’s workshop. Dad was an architect, but he often painted to relax after work. I would run in, sit down in his chair, wrap myself in a plaid and, shivering with fear, tell him about the creepy creatures I had seen in my dreams.
  Dad listened to me attentively and drew from my words. But here’s a strange thing: no matter how terrible was the monster that I described to him, some cute animals always appeared on the canvas.
  I’d say, “Dad, this doesn’t look like that monster at all!” And he would reply with surprise, “Really? I’m sorry, can you describe it again?” And as I tried to remember the dream again, I would realize that it almost disappeared from my memory, and there was nothing to be afraid of. © Real Story / VK

• When I was a kid, I asked my dad to play hide and seek with me. He lazily got up from the sofa and told me to count to a hundred. I hid in the pantry, covered my ears and counted diligently. I searched everywhere, but Dad was nowhere to be found.
  I checked the cupboards, the rooms, the balcony, even under the bed. I shouted I was giving up, but Dad didn’t answer. About 20 minutes later, I panicked. It was very scary to be alone at home, I started crying, I called my mum. Oh, she gave my dad a hard time that night.
  It turned out that he decided to hide in the stairwell, then met a neighbor and went to him to chat, forgetting about our game. © Not everyone will understand / VK
• Yesterday I passed by the maternity hospital. A man was carrying a girl of about 4–5 years old in his arms. Apparently they talked to her mom through the window and were now walking back to the car.
  The girl didn’t want to part with her mom and was crying. Her dad was calming her down as best as he could. He saw a man with flowers and said, distracting the daughter, “Look how beautiful the roses are!”
  The daughter said to her father, “Will you buy roses for Mom?” Dad nodded, “Of course I will.” And the daughter said, “Buy a hundred!” to which the poor dad sighed and said, “Okay.” Oh, those little women. © Caramel / VK

And here are stories about fathers who love dad jokes.