Happy Fathers Day :))

Today we celebrate fathers. I am a father to 2 lovely daughters, one is 7.5 and the other 2.5. I watched them today as their little eyes lit up with excitment as they gave me presents and a card wishing me a happy fathers day. Such love I could feel from them :)) And to think, I could have missed this. The thing is, I never wanted to be a father, heck, I never wanted to get married.

When we first got married, we agreed to wait at least 5 years until we have our first child. Nobody thought we would, but we did :)) But even at that time, I was still unsure about it. Needless to say, along came our first daughter "J" and I have to admit, I was not disappointed by it being a girl, I had no aspirations at all. So up she grew, and had her daddy wrapped around her finger, she was a real princess, so fragile and easily broken. My life, already turned upside-down by getting married, was further sent into twists and turns.

After about 5 years, along came number 2, and another girl, "K". Even from birth, K was different than J, and as she grew we found that she took after me more, was more adventurous, more devilish and playful, not at all fragile. She is more like me whereas her big sister is more like her mom.

I love both my girls, and I know we are not supposed to have any favourites, but if we could...it would be K :P she is just sooooo me :))) Anyways, one thing I learned as a father and I would encourage other fathers to follow suit...always make your children feel special. No matter how silly their words sound, no matter how stupid their artwork looks, no matter what mischief they get up to when your back is turned...to them they are communicating, to them they are making masterpieces of art, to them they are helping to re-paint the walls, remove old wall paper, feed the family pets, take the rubbish out (all over the floor!!), to them...they are trying to be just like you and me. And I say well done to them, you did it my girl/my boy, and I am so very proud of you.

And never beat them in games, make them feel like winners, that they are the champions of the world...c'mon man, you are maybe 3 times as big, at least a decade older, of course you could beat them, but the feeling you get seeing their face as they beat you for the 10th time in snakes and ladders, they score the winning goal against you in football, they find the final matching pair of cards in snap...let me tell you, nothing comes close...you know life will knock them back enough when they are older, why add to that now huh?

So remember dads, love your kids, make them feel special and like champions. After all, one day, it could be them looking after you....