Gedvidas and Akmėja

“I remember the moment I found out that my partner was expecting – it was far from the scenario of a Hollywood movie, and less dramatic than you would expect. I was sitting in the window store in front of the manager, signing an invoice, when suddenly my phone rang. It was my partner who gave me the good news, with panic and fear in her voice. I still remember myself with the phone in one hand, a pen in the other, the manager looking longingly at the pen in front of him, and the words “we are expecting” ringing in my ears.  After a few moments, I rushed home to reassure the soon to be mother, and was bursting with joy myself…

From a philosophic point of view, parenthood is a selfish act… Children are brought into this world by the will of their parents so that they can enjoy that unconditional love and dependence of their children… From an emotional point of view, parenthood also brings fulfilment by colouring your life with so many strong emotions: happiness, fear, longing, joy, responsibility, irritation, love, pride, etc… I felt nothing like this before my daughter was born. As I look back now, my life seems so empty before.

When our baby was born, we were instantly overwhelmed by the challenges of parenthood, although, as a father who is raising a beautiful daughter, I am certain that real challenges are still to come in the future. One of the most memorable difficulties was our small daughter’s tummy problems… After countless sleepless nights and tears of frustration, we would decide to cleanse the contents of our baby’s tummy by using certain less pleasant methods. And when we were successful, even though our faces were covered with baby poop, at that moment we were the happiest people in Lithuania… I believe those who had similar problems are smiling right now…

Being proud of yourself as a father is really not easy – you are always self-critical in this respect and constantly strive to do things better, although I am always proud of myself when I manage to defend my daughter against other naughty little kids.  After all, there is a saying “when a man is raising a son – he is parenting his son, but when a man is raising a daughter – he is parenting the entire neighbourhood”.”