Two lines on a pregnancy-test stick – your life is changed forever. There is no going back to the person you were before: you are about to become a daddy.
But first, you have to survive pregnancy. And if you think pregnancy is a journey only women take, then think again. Whether you like it or not, you’re along for the ride as well – and what a ride it is!
So what is pregnancy like for dads?
It begins immediately.
There’s no transition period, no trial run, no supervised training, no e-learning module and no simulation that you can f**k up as many times as you need to until you get it right.
As soon as the midwife hands you your newborn baby, you are responsible for keeping it alive.
Toddlers are savages!
They scream, shout, rebel, slap, destroy, throw food and purposely withhold their love and affection – just to watch your soul snap and your spirit shatter. And all before 8 a.m.
And yet, they’re also misunderstood creatures: funny and beautiful – endearing little marvels that brighten up your day. But mostly they’re savages.
Welcome to the terrible twos.
Where toddlers annihilate boundaries, covert your resolve into servitude and routinely imitate your worst qualities in public.
Join one father and his journal as he scribbles his way through this famously difficult stage of parenthood searching for a win, his keys and his sanity, while constantly fielding the question 'Yes, but why, Dadda?'
I'm a dad who writes abouts dadding. I’m the author of the books, Dear Dory: Journal of a Soon-to-be Dad, Dear Arlo: Adventures in Dadding, Toddler Inc. and The Search for Sanity: Life with a Two-Year-Old. I’m also the creator of the Lessons in Dadding Newsletter.