Walking with you for life.

In collaboration with Centre for Fathering, I’ve crafted this heartfelt note below to my daughter, and to share with everyone my experiences and feelings as I watch her grow up with every step we take together.

Hopefully, this will inspire and encourage all you fathers reading this to find your own special ways to bond with your child in the coming new year.


"My dear, you hold a special place in my heart. It is a place reserved just for you, and Daddy will protect it with his life for the rest of his life.

Daddy also wants you to know that it is not going to be a neat place because his heart is fragile at times. It has cracks from the mistakes he had collected over the years before you came into his life.

But since you came, you changed all that.

You see, every step Daddy takes with you in every journey of life, from your first step to your uncharted runs, from your first day in school to the year's end, and from your first tear to the drying of your last, Daddy's heart grows with yours from strength to strength.

Now, as the new year unfolds, Daddy wants to start every day right with you. He wants to walk with you to school. He wants to know you more. He wants to go the distance, feel assured in the silence, and learn with you along the way.

My girl, this will be more than just a father-daughter time we share. It will be a defining bond built over the years. And this bond will endure beyond your school and graduation.

In fact, it will be a walk for life, a journey with your heart in mine. And one day, this walk will lead to Daddy walking with you down the aisle before he gives you away.

But Daddy knows that it will not be the end of our journey. It will just be the beginning of another. By then, you will have your own family, and you will walk your own children to school.

And when you do, you will remember our walk together. You will remember our special bond as you build yours with your children. And this bond will always have a special place in Daddy's heart as your children will have in yours.

Love always,

Daddy."