To coincide with Father’s Day, we asked a group of local dads what their role as a father means to them.
“Fatherhood is something you could never prepare for before the fact, it’s just one of life’s great blessings for men. And I was four times blessed. I had a wonderful father who was my first hero, so I had a pretty strong image. It’s just a very deeply personal blessing that if you embrace it and allow it to change you and lead you rather than you trying to control it, it can lead you to yourself.”
“A person does not grow up until you have children, and so that was my chance to become a mature person. When you hold this little creature in your hands and you realize there’s somebody in the world who is more important to you than yourself. And that’s when you come into your own.”
“Since becoming a father I still spend time doing all the things that I love to do everyday. It’s just that now, spending time with my family, my wife and twins is at the top of that list.”
“Although a tremendous responsibility, fatherhood for me has been one of the greatest gifts in my life. It has taught me that true love is yoked with sacrifice, and that true sacrifice brings immense gratification.”
“When I come home to my wife, son and daughter, and my kids run up to me—the moment I walk through the door—give me the best hug and say the words, ‘I miss you, I love you,’ it puts everything in the world into a distant second place. Before becoming a father my whole identity was working as a firefighter, paramedic, surfing … but now with these children that all seems irrelevant, seeing their smiles and how excited they are when we get to play, nothing compares to being home with my family.”
“I think it’s just made me a better person. I think it’s always the toughest and best thing that I’ve ever done.”
“It’s made me younger, it’s kept me younger. I can’t get too lazy, you sort of have to stay on top of things, otherwise they’ll take full advantage of you and you’ll lose.”
“The main thing that it changed was your priorities are not your own, but your priorities are for your children, to provide for them and to help develop them and to raise them into happy, successful adults. You learn how to put yourself second. Over time, over years it changes you to be more of a giving person. Also, you become more adaptable because you have to go with the flow. I think you’re able to live your life through someone else’s experiences and through their eyes and to be happy for someone else’s success even more than your own.”