There is nothing harder than being a dad, sitting at work, checking Instagram or getting pictures from your wife of all the fun things they are doing together without you. What about all the “first time” events that fathers miss out on, but would love to be at: the fist dental check up, first steps, or the first time they didn’t want to take a nap. As a father, these are all events that I would love to be able to go to, but I work full time and have to be at work to provide for my family. It’s hard and I definitely have a fear of missing out, aka FOMO.
As my wife was pregnant I would make sure to be at every doctor appointment. That moment you first get to hear your child’s heartbeat, see their profile and find out if they are a boy or a girl. That moment you first hear your child’s heartbeat always brings a warm feeling over my entire body. I absolutely love it!
Then when my son was little I always made it a point to be at every single doctors appointment. I just want to know what is going on and being able to be there with the doctor to ask all my crazy questions that I had being a first time parent. Then with our daughter I made sure to be at her first doctor’s visit too because as we all know, boys and girls are different. I had new questions to ask for our girl.
It’s hard when you are working full-time, sitting at a desk, look down at your phone to see pictures of your cute little family hanging out at the zoo without you. Being a dad is hard when you would rather be at home with your fun family or at all the crazy activities they attend, but someone has got to bring in the money. And we all can agree that if my wife were to be the bread winner and I stayed home with the kids, I would be raising some real winners.
So, to avoid the FOMO, I make sure that I spend every second I can doing fun things with my family when we are together. I love being with them, seeing their firsts, but I don’t need to be at everything. There are more important things in life than to be there for when your child first poops in the tub (don’t worry, I was there for that). Thank goodness for modern technology that allows me to be apart of their adventures virtually.
