My Story: Overcoming the fear of screwing up my kids and a life of "being perfect"

Introduction

I'm Andrew, and you are?... probably looking for either entertainment or education revolving around fatherhood (or parenthood in general). Well, you've come to the perfect place for that! But, I must warn you... Though I'm not so perfect at this fatherhood thing, I know that what I have to share will impact your life for the better.

So who is Andrew?

In short, I'm a husband to an amazing and beautiful wife, a father of 2 crazy boys, and a lover of sports and photography.

My story truly begins on August 2nd, 2014… My wedding day! The opportunity to enter into the Dad Life was in motion and I was awaiting the day I could dawn the holy garb.

How did the Dad Life start?

After 2 very short years of being married, we began our journey into parenthood.

It started in a very normal way. Melanie did a cute reveal that she was pregnant, we had ultrasounds, and found out that we were going to have a boy! All very exciting until... we found out that our son was going to be born with congenital heart disease.

After our son Eli was born, we endured the stress of watching our newborn go through multiple tests, procedures, and eventually, open-heart surgery. After all, was said and done, Eli is now doing better than could have been predicted (thanks to the amazing staff at Primary Children's hospital).

How is the "Dad Life" going?

Since then, my wife and I have been plugging along and enjoying life as we go. Being a dad is tough… but that’s why I decided to be a dad blogger and share my story. I told myself, “Hey, this dad thing is hard. So why not start writing about it so I can study about it and become somewhat capable.”

Since starting my blog in 2017, I've now been able to welcome my second son, Blake, into the world and learn all about my inadequacies.

If there's one thing parenthood teaches you, it's that you realize all of your fallacies. However, it's been through those mistakes that I've been able to learn, be motivated to study, and apply what knowledge I gain to better my life.

How the Papa Perspective can help YOU

I've been around the block a bit through my own personal experiences. I also have had the great opportunity to speak and work with experts in the field of parenthood and mental health. Through these experiences, I hope to help you learn the tools to be a better father, mother, and partner.

Over the last few years, I've changed my parenting style, built a stronger marriage through personal therapy, and developed myself to be a conscious father to my kids.

I do my best to implement positive parenting strategies that are giving me results that I couldn't believe with my boys. The level of emotional intelligence that we have been able to build in our family over the last few years has been immensely rewarding and exciting.

Through my blog, I hope to share what I have learned with you so that you can achieve the same:

Kids that are emotionally aware of others
Kids that problem solve on their own
Kids that love others

BUT! These things that I've learned about parenthood have also:

Taught me how to communicate my feelings with my spouse
Taught me accountability and how to own up to my mistakes
Taught me proper ways of communicating with others and to have healthy dialogue

Being a dad blogger has taken a lot of time and effort... at times, it's been difficult to maintain a balance between this, family, and my other interests. But, I hope that through my words and experiences, you too can achieve the same results to better your life.

My ONLY Ask!

So be sure to bookmark this site, engage with me in the comments, and check in weekly for more #dadlife content so we can improve our lives together.

– Andrew McFarlane

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