Gedvidas and Akmėja

”

Finding out that I would be a father wasn’t at all Hollywood-like or dramatic. When the phone rang, I was at the window store, sitting in front of the manager and preparing to sign an invoice. My significant other announced the good news with panic and fear in her voice. I held my phone in one hand, a pen in the other, and the manager was looking longingly at the pen when I heard: “We’re pregnant.” A few moments later, I was on my way home to calm down the mother-to-be, and my face was beaming with happiness…

From a philosophical point of view, the feeling of parenthood is selfish… The parents themselves invite the children into the world, they get to enjoy that unconditional love and the child’s dependence on them… Parenthood is a very full and thoroughly comprehensive feeling. It encompasses so much: happiness, fear, longing, joy, responsibility, annoyance, love, pride, etc. Before the birth of a child, I have never felt anything like this. Retrospectively, the past seems quite empty.

When the baby was born, the challenges began immediately, although I believe that as a dad, who is raising a beautiful daughter, I have the real challenges still ahead of me. One of the most memorable things was our little one’s tummy problems… After many sleepless nights and hours of tears, we had to clean up the contents of the belly using some very unpleasant methods, and when we would succeed – two young parents, with their faces covered in poop – we were the happiest people in Lithuania. I think those who have had similar experiences are smiling now…

Being proud of myself as a dad is really challenging. You always view yourself critically and you always want to raise the bar even higher, even though I’m always proud of myself when I manage to stand up for my daughter in front of other little troublemakers. As the saying goes: “When a man is raising a son – he is bringing up his son, and when a man is raising a daughter – he is bringing up the whole neighbourhood”!”