Two weeks ago today, my father died. Last week, I wondered if it would be appropriate to post about that. But then I figured to post about anything else would be sort of dishonest. But I couldn’t find any words. Well, not the right ones anyway.

Another week and a few attempts later, it seems that still hasn’t changed. But I have been thinking a lot about fatherhood. Well, that’s something I think of a lot anyway, I guess. I have two amazing little girls and I want them to have the best dad in the world. Which is why I’m shipping them off to Dr.Phil.

No, no, that’s a joke. You knew that, right?

But I want to be a good dad and I work at it. I can totally feel the love from my girls. Sure, they drive me bananas sometimes and what happened to that thing about a man’s home being his castle? And, oh I know, some day I’ll be an awful embarrassment to them and they may hate me for a time in their teenage years. But I’ll be there for them as long as I’m around. I’ll be their strength until they are ready to be their own strength. And they will be strong. In the meantime, it will be about the little moments, like making that excellent crocodile playset pictured above with Daisy (take that, exploited Chinese factory workers).

I’m reminded of just how big the responsibility of being a parent is. Not just being a parent but in being anyone who can reach children. Never a responsibility to be taken lightly.

There’s a whole new generation to look after. To teach. To nurture.

But there also seems to be a new generation of great dads.

So here’s to all the dads out there. Everyone striving to do better. To excellent sites like dad.ie and bookdads.com, encouraging and helping fathers in their own way.

Here’s to dads.

Not just dads – here’s to everyone who is actively working to make the world better for the future generations, not worse. And there are a lot of you out there. You all rock.