Dad who never wanted kids fearing he would ruin their lives gets a midnight text from 22-yr-old son—he can't believe it
Sometimes, at some point, we all need to hear that we have done a good job with something. The same thing can be true for parents. In one such incident, a dad who was scared of having children got a heartwarming text from his 22-year-old son on his birthday. The man was terrified of ruining his kids' lives because he thought that he would become a parent like his father. So when he received the text, the proud dad, u/honkeylip, took to Reddit to share it.
"It was my birthday on the 24th and I received this text from my eldest son at midnight," the dad wrote. "I never wanted kids because I was terrified of ruining their lives by being as awful of a father as mine was to me," he expressed. The heartwarming text from the son read, "Thanks for genuinely being the best dad ever. I took our relationship for granted for the longest time, but I have met so many people who have the absolute worst things to say about their parents and it is insane to me." He added, "I take every chance I get to talk about how great mine are."
"You have set me up for success in more ways than I can put into a text and are the biggest inspiration of my life. Happy birthday, I love and miss you lots," the son concluded the text. The dad shared in one of the comments, "We have always been tight, but he moved to Chicago, going on two years ago, as a young man and is living his own life. The fact that he has the ability to communicate these things, much less take the time to say it, makes me feel like I did okay." People in the comment section told the dad that he actually did more than okay.
u/fatherrabbi wrote, "Those of us lucky enough to have involved dads often don’t realize how good they’ve had it until hearing about awful ones. I had a friend whose stepdad held a gun to his temple while he was trying to sleep just to win an argument with his mother. I can’t even imagine." u/knitmeablanket commented, "That's the best thing you can get as a father. I'm hoping my kids come around to this eventually. I didn't really have a positive paternal role model and had no idea what I was doing when I had my kids, but I tried. I made a lot of mistakes, but I did try. Both of my kids are already much better off than I was at their age, and I just hope they don't take any of it for granted."
u/MrBenzedrine remarked, "I also never wanted kids because I was terrified of ruining their lives. I now have 2 adult sons whom I am insanely proud of. I know they will surpass me in every single way, and that's my greatest achievement. Fear has cost me many things in my life, but I think it helped me when it came to being there for my kids." u/LilDingalang shared, "I sent my dad almost the same text when I really grasped how much he had done for me."