Parenting Blog

The Powerful #PowerofDad

A man, upon becoming a dad, should, if he possess a glimmer of inherent paternal wisdom and/or any capacity for human emotion at all, will soon, if not immediately, embrace everything about fatherhood, parenthood and childhood; every giggle, smile, tear, water gun soaking, muddy-kneed pair of sweatpants, oft-missing sparkly headband, articulated action figure, frustrating sweater pull, board book–>picture book–>chapter book–>novel, loving finger hold, sock seam AM meltdown, blown-out birthday candle, pre-dawn snuggle, and the 76 million tiny happenings in between.

Wise companies who are in the business making widgets, sprockets and assorted paraphernalia for families understand this and show pieces of this exact kind of father whenever applicable in their advertising. Wise companies like Oral-B.

Oh my god, OMG, oh my god. The scene with the dad sending his grown-up girl off to college. OMG. I realized as I watched those impeccably acted moments in the #PowerofDad Oral-B commercial above that I am, right now as I type this, closer to that ‘see ya later’ day than the ‘oh hello there’ day my oldest was born…and I immediately wished I hadn’t done the simple math on that life equation. I was drenched with tears, not an uncommon occurrence these days, admittedly, but still there I was, alone, watching that moving Oral-B #PowerofDad commercial with watery eyes.

The true #PowerofDad is not NOT crying when faced with heavy-hearted images, sounds and remembrances, but embracing them all, hugging them tight, and looking forward to the new challenges that stretch out on the winding road in front of us with a smile and a belief that you and your kiddo will be gifted 76 million more memorable moments. Different moments, sure, but more of them.

In my ten years as a dad, I have been given countless opportunities to experience uproarious laughter, have side-winding conversations, and sit in silence alongside my kids and stare in awe at the night sky. I’m a lucky SOB.

We were in Joshua Tree National Park in late December, long after the sun had set. That’s when the canopy of stars revealed themselves to us in all their heavenly glory. It was the first time in any of our lives that we saw such a sight, free of light pollution and devoid of the endless sounds of the civilized world. When we eventually piled back into the rental car, four mouths hung open, statue still for the briefest of seconds, stopped there in suspended animation, like if The Matrix was a dialogue-rich ensemble film, before we all rushed to say the same exact thing. Our lives, our family, what we know of and think we might want to try to understand in the future — all of it had been shifted, if only so slightly, by finally having the opportunity to recognize our smallness in the universe and at the same time, our limitless potential for being moved to tears of joy at the wonder of it all.

Joshua Tree Natl Park at dusk moments before the stars_Jeff Bogle OWTK

Joshua Tree National Park at dusk moments before the stars revealed themselves to us.

There isn’t anything I can imagine doing in this world that I wouldn’t want to share with my daughters. That’s the #PowerofDad for me, to gift to my children my time and focus and energy and effort to elongate their childhood and give them as much of the world as they want to experience, and to do so together.

Big thanks to Oral-B for recognizing the #PowerofDad and for providing the platform for me to tell this story. Please check out their partnership with the March of Dimes during this, the company’s 2nd Father’s Day #PowerofDad Campaign, their alignment with Eli Manning and the Manning family, and their futuristic, technological marvel of a new toothbrush, the Oral-B 7000 Black which you can score a $7 coupon for right here. That’s a $7 Oral-B coupon, people. Do it!

oral-b-black-7000

Disclosure: I partnered with Oral-B and Life of Dad, LLC for the #PowerofDad Father’s Day promotion and was compensated for my involvement.

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