‘Being a dad is the best job in the world!’

 Dad of Two, Neil Clews, tells CCIF the up’s and down’s of fatherhood…

‘No matter how many times you get it wrong, you won’t get sacked!’ says father to Jack 14 and Minnie 9.

 ’There is no handbook or college course that can prepare you fatherhood and the only trouble shooting guides come in the form of already established dads and as opinions differ this can be quite confusing.

Whenever I look at the both of them (Minnie & Jack) the term ‘chalk and cheese’ springs instantly to mind.

When I think about it, I realise that I am a young dad being only 35 myself, and yet becoming a father was the most natural thing in the world.

 I now understand that Jack was a ‘good baby’, it all seemed so easy, he slept through the night very early on, was always smiling and rarely cried.

 Foolishly I thought all babies were like this, in fact even though Jack is nearly 15, I can honestly say, with hand on heart, the most difficult thing I have experienced with him is a temper tantrum when he was 3 (he threw himself on the floor in Superdrug when told that he couldn’t have some toy,) I remember being totally shocked and so I just picked up his rigid little body and carried him out the shop, he was quite shocked himself and we just looked at each other and then the storm passed and it never happened again.

 My wife and I often talked about having more babies but the time was never right and once jack was at school we decided to stick with one, and so it was a complete shock when a few months after Jacks 5th birthday we discovered we were expecting again.

 By now I was a fully experienced father with a good few years of parenting under my belt and I was older, so I thought ‘how hard could it be?’

Sometimes I wonder if my daughter could hear these over confident thoughts in the womb because from the word go she has set about testing my father of the year title.

Occasionally I can still see the panic in mine and jacks eyes that registered when Minnie came into our idyllic world. She was not a ‘good baby’, sleeping through the night didn’t happen until she was two and half, I am sure she must have teethed for a good 90% of that, and for a baby that spent the first few days of her life in intensive care due to a burst lung she could really cry, oh yeah she could cry, and she did, it never stopped.

I can readily admit now that for the first 5 years I didn’t like her very much, don’t get me wrong I loved her. I’ve come to realise now that it’s ok not to like your kids even when you love them that would be some advice I would offer, they are after all people themselves and you can soon see their personalities.

The first time I looked after Minnie by myself, my wife came home to find us both in tears, in my wisdom I had administered some gripe water (to stop her crying) and instead of it working its magic, it went down the wrong way and nearly choked her. I never touched the gripe water again!

Its funny now when I look back, and think how stressful it all was, it seemed like it would never end and yet now I only really remember all the good stuff, teaching the kids how to ride and how to swim, the first day at school, they are so small and brave, and all the while its you trying not to cry.

 The pride you feel when you see how proud they are of getting some award or achievement. No matter how old your kid’s get, that never changes and I hope it never does.

 My wife told me back in the very beginning to enjoy the kids, as they will grow up all too soon, and she was right.

 I have enjoyed it all so far from dirty nappies and sleepless nights to climbing the Eiffel tower and making bratz movies.

We have a saying in our house “its all an adventure” which we apply to everything good and bad and as far as I am concerned there is no greater adventure than fatherhood, after all it is a manly mans job, you need to be tough and secondly what more can a bloke want than to build Lego and play with action men all over again and then an hour later be officiating at a Barbie wedding.

I look forward to the next phase of our adventure as the kids are getting older, although I may hide myself away when Minnie becomes a teenager!

I am fairly sure that Jack already has his escape planned; maybe if I am lucky I can convince him to take me with him!

 Being a dad is the best job in the world!’