Things Dads Admit They Wish They Knew Before Having Kids

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Father's Day is this weekend, and I'm without my dad. It's sad, and you should love them while you have them. But he made me a better dad by his example. My kid always tells me "you're the best dad ever!!" and that feels nice. But there are some things I wish I would have known before having kids.

• "Take interest in everything your kid likes even if it only lasts a week. If it's important to them, make it important to you."

• "I wish somebody told me how much anxiety is involved with being responsible for little human beings. I literally stay awake at night worrying about the most outlandish ways they can get hurt and how to protect them. They're worth it all, though."

• "The best time in a child's life usually follows the phrase 'we can't tell your mother about this.'"

• "How judgmental other parents are about how you're raising your child(ren)."

• "You will become a human tissue."

• "The kid's head will cause more damage to you after [they're] born than during their birth. Black eyes, split lip, shots to the groin, etc."

• "You will feel kind of like you're a jerk for not being able to help more early on if mom is exclusively breastfeeding. The first month or so, most of the baby work is feeding. You try to make up for it by being a gopher and doing all the housework, but you definitely feel a bit useless early on, and nobody wants to be that dad who isn't pulling his weight."

• "I love my kids to the moon and back, but they have not been a magical rewarding experience. I did not feel instantly different the first moment I saw them, as society tells me I should. I would do anything in the world for them now, but I can also very easily imagine a version of my life that is just as rich and full without kids."

• "The one thing I wish I knew before being a dad is that kids will want your time, attention, and demand lots of it. This is what I don't have at the moment."

• "It's OK if you don't have some immediate and deep connection with your kids. I didn't, and I freaked out a little. But it took some time to develop that bond, and I felt 'off' that it wasn't instant."

• "How much you love and despise them at the same time."

• "More than once, I said, 'There's more poop than baby! How is that even possible?'"