Anyone can become a parent, but it takes a special person to truly be a dad.
This year, we’ve had even more opportunities to see awesome parents doing their best to keep life on an even keel for their families. Here are 15 extraordinary dads who are showing us all how it’s done!
1. Dad becomes self-taught fashion designer to boost daughter’s confidence.
Michael Gardner taught himself how to sew so his then 3-year-old daughter Ava would have fun outfits to wear with confidence. Six years later, the father-daughter duo has their own fashion brand!
2. Dad secretly earns college degree from same school as his daughter.
Mike Loven wanted to get his bachelor’s degree, but he didn’t want to steal his daughter Taleigh’s thunder. So he secretly enrolled in the same college but never told her until the day they both lined up to graduate.
3. Dad encourages teen to start her own YouTube channel and now she’s inspiring thousands.
Miguel Figueroa was heartbroken when his 9-year-old daughter Illiana told him she didn’t want to start a YouTube channel because she has autism. He decided on the spot to “remove the roadblock,” and it worked better than he could have imagined.
4. Dad spends 30 hours in tattoo chair to help son feel confident about his birthmark.
Derek Prue Sr.’s 8-year-old son was embarrassed to take his shirt off at the pool due to a large rose-colored birthmark on his chest. Hoping to show his son that every body is beautiful, the devoted dad spent hours getting the exact same birthmark tattooed on his own chest.
5. Daughter falls to her knees when deployed dad shows up at her bedroom door.
Brooke Rallo of Michigan has always been extremely close to her dad, U.S. National Guard Technical Sergeant Doug Rallo. Doug was due to return home from the Middle East, but he decided to surprise Brooke two weeks early. Their reunion gave us all the feels.
6. Dad teams up with “Heavy Metal Baby” to perform all their favorite songs.
Lane Desobeau may just be a baby, but she already has a huge following on TikTok! That’s because her dad, firefighter and paramedic Marcel Desobeau, is a musician who has been playing music with his “Heavy Metal Baby” since day one.
7. Single dad adopts baby with Down syndrome and now their bond is unbreakable.
Luca Trapanese never shied away from adopting a child with special needs. After more than 20 people refused to adopt or foster Alba, an infant with Down syndrome, Luca was honored to become her dad.
8. Dad has sweetest breakdown when he drops son off at college.
Kenneth Mohammed had never been apart from his son Nasir before. The day he dropped the 18-year-old off at Valdosta State University in Georgia, he had a hard time keeping his cool – and every empty nester can relate!
9. Dad stumbles across hiker who was stranded for two weeks and ends up saving his life.
John Utsey was hiking with his two kids in Santa Fe National Forest in New Mexico when they stumbled upon a man who’d been trapped in the woods for 14 days. John called for help, then literally went the extra mile to get the stranger home safely.
10. Little girl reunites with her dad after seven months apart and the video is pure joy.
This dad had been away for seven long months, and his little girl missed him dearly. So when he surprised her by walking through the door, she couldn’t wait to leap into his arms.
11. Dad’s motivational speeches during school drop-off are the positivity we all need.
During the novel coronavirus pandemic, Daryl Fimple of Little Rock, Arkansas, thought it was important to infuse his daughters’ mornings with some humor. He wound up sharing his daily goof sessions online, and now we want Daryl to adopt us!
12. After growing up in foster care, single dad adopts five siblings to keep them together.
Robert Carter was separated from his eight siblings as a child, and the experience stuck with him. As an adult, he became a foster dad himself. When he found out his three foster kids had two other siblings, he knew what he had to do.
13. Dads team up to bake and deliver over 15,000 cookies to frontline workers.
Stuck at home during the novel coronavirus pandemic, friends Scott McKenzie and Jeremy Uhrich of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, decided to donate some of the cookies they were making to health care heroes on the front lines.
14. Dad masters daughters’ “super extra” hopscotch course and we can’t stop smiling.
If you’re going to make a hopscotch course, why make it boring? This dad’s “super extra” course involved a lot more than just hopping on one foot, and we love everything about it.
15. Dad rides little pink bike from Scotland to England to raise over $10,000 for charities.
Wesley Hamnett of Wythenshawe, England, was all set to embark on a 1,250-mile cycling trip from his hometown to Russia when the novel coronavirus stopped him in his tracks. As an alternative, he decided to ride from Glasgow, Scotland, to his hometown in England instead. To keep things interesting, he made the trek on his daughter’s little pink bicycle!
These wonderful parents are giving us some big shoes to fill, but we’re up for the challenge!
Share this story to thank all the dads out there for going above and beyond for their kids.
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