A touching Facebook post by a single father about raising his daughter after her mother left her has gone viral.
Richard Johnson, 21, maintains that for much of his life, he has not want to have children. “Everyone in my family is either divorced or a single parent,” the woman claims. According to Johnson, “I was dead set on not having any,” because “My father wasn’t in the picture, and I never wanted that for my kids.” But when he met the woman who would give birth to his daughter, everything changed. “We made the decision to have kids, and I wanted to give them the life I didn’t have.”
The Las Vegas man claims that the scariest experience of his life was learning that his fiance was pregnant. Other than what I saw on TV and in movies, I had no concept what it meant to be an engaged parent. The more I thought about it, the more afraid I felt.
In a message to the dads’ online community Life of Dad, Johnson describes how he came to be responsible for parenting his daughter Persephone all by himself. The message has more than 12,000 likes and 650 comments since it was posted on Life of Dad’s Facebook page on Tuesday night. “Her mother left about a month after [my daughter’s] birth.” Johnson adds, “We don’t know why, but we think postpartum depression had a factor. During the first several weeks, when it was just [Persephone and me], I accidentally found your page. In general, I was frightened to have children, but all of a sudden I was a single parent with two obligations. I wasn’t sure if I could handle the challenge. I spent over a thousand hours watching YouTube videos on subjects like hair braiding, nail art, and theories on how to handle common parenting worries. I had read every ‘new parent’ book I could find. I started reading your page more carefully and discovered that there were other fathers in circumstances similar to mine. I started to feel a lot more confident thanks to the internet, and it really got me through everything. … During a trying time, you unquestionably made a difference in my daughter’s and my life. Right now, we’re both incredibly happy, and we continue to develop as a couple every day. Now that she’s 10 months old, my friends are frequently asking me for parenting suggestions. We have come a long way together, and we owe a lot of it to this page and the people that are on it. Therefore, we would want to convey our thanks on our joint behalf.
Johnson claims that when Persephone’s mother departed in February, she took the youngster with her. In a statement to Yahoo Parenting, Johnson claims, “She took my little child to California, but then called a week later and said if I didn’t come to get Persephone, she was going to put her up for adoption.” He maintains that they have been together ever since he went out and picked up his daughter and brought her home.
In a follow-up Facebook statement published Wednesday morning, Johnson notes that his early fatherhood years were challenging. He continues, “I spent more than a few nights weeping while holding my young baby while she slept because I wasn’t sure I’d be a good enough father for her.” She initially started to crawl one specific night. She came up to me and put her small palm on my cheek while gazing into my eyes. I inferred, “Come on, Daddy, we’ve got a lot to do.” I reassured her that we would both work hard to be happy and that neither of us would cry again. We have fulfilled our half of the contract. The subsequent post has received more than 3,300 likes.
Johnson continued by saying that after coming to terms with his new position as a single parent, he sought advice from friends and even established a support group for single parents. I was unfamiliar with girls since I had never been around infants. But I asked my older acquaintances who had raised girls for guidance. “I practiced braiding hair, and I’m not bragging, but I can now braid hair better than most ladies,” Johnson continues. Hairstyles aren’t quite ready for his 10-month-old yet. Although she doesn’t yet have hair, I want to be prepared.
Although they are not romantically involved, Johnson and Persephone have moved in with a friend who is a single mother with a 6-month-old boy. He asserts, “We’re each other’s rocks.” She helps me out by helping me care for her son while she is at work. Johnson presently works part-time at U-Haul, an organization he claims is especially understanding of his situation, but he wants to find night employment so that he or his buddy can be with the children all the time.
Johnson was surprised by the enthusiastic reaction to his piece. He declares, “I don’t understand it.” “I believed that a parent should do this,” I used to play football when I was younger, but no one in the stands could see me. My daughter shouldn’t experience anything like that, please. One of the worst things that had ever occurred to me, it was awful. I guess you have a choice as a parent, but I think there shouldn’t. You shouldn’t leave your kid behind. A life that you have brought into the world is designed for you to cherish and care for.
According to David Guest, one of the website’s creators, Johnson’s story is typical of the men the website connects. According to Guest, “fatherhood is a universal experience and it’s the most important and emotional one a man will have in his life.” As you read Richard’s essay, you can really sense his struggles with being left alone with his young child, his transparency and sensitivity, and his anxieties of “I didn’t know whether I could do this.” It’s relatable because, even if you have a fantastic co-parent, you still experience the same emotions.
Johnson didn’t know if his post will be made public or not. Simply put, “I just wanted them to know that they helped a stranger because I would always be grateful to them.” “There were a lot of nights when I didn’t know if I could do it,” he acknowledges. But this website was crucial in assisting the father of my daughter to develop into the man she wanted him to be.
Johnson said he finds it hard to believe he formerly opposed having kids. From then, he adds, it has been “wild” to get up before her and prepare her for the day. “I want to give her the best start in life I can.” She has to learn to have faith in me and to trust that I will be there for her both at night and in the morning. I now eagerly anticipate seeing her each day since it’s so wonderful. She grins at me when I look at her. She is both my closest companion and my confidante. I discuss everything with her; I realize she doesn’t understand anything now, but one day she will. I take a lot of photographs and write to her every day in the hopes that one day she will be able to reflect on what occurred and formulate her own opinions, ideally free of resentment. Facebook users believe she is lucky, but I am the one who is fortunate enough to have her.
