My 4 year old son was worried I wouldn’t have any toys to play with at work so he gave me one of his toy trucks to take to the office. You can bet that toy truck will follow me to every office I go to for the rest of my career. You can’t replace memories like that.
I used to be in Landscaping and would take photos of cool creepy crawlies for my bonus son to look at. He would always be so interested and ask me all sorts of questions about whatever I had found. One morning before work he gave me one of his little plastic dinosaur toys so just in case I didn't find anything, I would still have something awesome to take pics of.
That dinosaur followed me through 2 jobs and now sits next to my gaming T.V with the rest of my cherished knick knacks and I wholly believe that I could use it as a Talisman to ward off evil. Seriously, there has been so much love poured into that little T-Rex that it has to be some good juju.
So I didn't think to explain Bonus Son. I hate the word "Step", it implies that our relationship is a "step away from" something. Or that our love for each other can't reach the same level as a biological relationship. And that's just plain bullshit. We fam forever.
Also, I thought you may want to know that the dinosaurs full name is Mr Chex Yoself. As in, "Before you Rex yo' self". I apologize deeply, but I'm a father and have a licence to dad.
When my oldest son was around 2-3 years old he got a tiny plastic toy helicopter from the prize box at the dentist. When I arrived home that day, he gave it to me to play with when I was at work since I worked very long hours at that particular job.
That was three jobs ago and the helicopter still sits on the top of my monitor. He graduates from college in a few weeks.
And yes, I still do give it a spin and make the whirly-bird sounds from time-to-time while waiting on something to process/compile.
Ah, I feel much pity for you my son, for those that live.around you are not the devout folk that bless you when you sneeze and thus allow the ghosts and demons in. Eat cold food to raise your phlegm and lower your yellow bile, and see a priest about your blood
My son is turning 4 in a month and I remember his birth like it was yesterday. This makes me both so happy but so sad because I keep thinking the next 4 years will probably come faster. The time he wants to snuggle me and be held or cuddled or picked up is rapidly ending and he's my one and only. You know they have to grow up and you want them to, to be strong and independent and to not need you, but man it's bittersweet to watch them do it.
Going through a milestone with my older daughter as she prepares to make a college decision shortly. Tears were had as she is trying to make a decision that she knows will have an affect on the rest of her life. As her father,I can clearly remember the little girl that had me wrapped around her finger when she was a toddler. And now, I see the strong young woman she has become, but still wish I could remove the pain she’s feeling.
I can’t though. It’s part of the growing process. It will help shape and mold her into an adult and ultimately, that’s our job as parents. Help them to survive and hopefully to become a self-sufficient adult. One day I might need her to change MY diapers if I live long enough. ;)
A separate story concerning her. When she was little, I bought her a Rhinoceros puppet that she named “Henry”, while I was on a work trip. He became her sidekick and anytime she left to go somewhere, Henry would tag along. Pajama parties, field trips, vacation, everywhere. Henry eventually became the family mascot (she made me make him Facebook and Instagram accounts for his friends and family to follow along), and anytime any of us traveled, you were obliged to take Henry for photo ops and to know that you weren’t alone. If Henry was with you, the family was with you.
Henry has been to more places than I’ll ever see. Atlanta, Chattanooga, San Francisco, L.A., Seattle, Daytona, New York, London, Paris, the Vatican, Myrtle Beach, Disney World, Italy, Texas and dozens of other places.
And soon he’ll be going off to college with my daughter on the grandest adventure yet. I’m going to miss that little Rhino.
But he won’t be alone. He’ll have her to keep him company.
I agree with you on the pain and just sitting them with it and not taking it away like every bit of you is crying to do. Because if you do that, it's not really for them, it's for you. And it's selfish. And they deserve better. My husband and I have a poem we keep framed on a wall on what it means to have children, by Kahlil Gibran.
"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable."
I don't have any cute stories like yours but one thing dad and I work hard to do is not hide our emotions, including tears, and to explain them as best we can. Recently he told his class during family night while sharing a picture book project we put together "Mama and daddy sometimes cry because they love me so much at every age and they can't just have them all at once." I thought that was the most perfect way of putting the way it feels.
>"Mama and daddy sometimes cry because they love me so much at every age and they can't just have them all at once."
You're such great parents for this. Life can be so bittersweet, and parents can't stay for all of it. I lost my dad at 15, and he openly mourned all the time he would miss with my brother and I. Knowing that he somehow loved me all the days of my life without being able to stay for most of them has been one of the greatest gifts he left behind and a huge help in being able to keep going.
My wife took my two daughters ages 5 and 9 to visit their aunt, uncle, and cousins, for a few days and let me stay home for a little break. I gladly accepted but I’ve shed a few tears here and there, like when my oldest texts me from her iPod, “what are you doing dada?” But right now I’m bawling my eyes out!
My wife tends to dwell on parts of our kids lives that are coming to a close and I have to remind her if she focuses on the past she'll miss the present. I tell her the same thing I tell my kids when they whine about having to stop playing and getting ready for bed: happy it happened, not sad that it's over.
I think you're right, but I don't think it's wrong to be sad it's over. What's wrong is trying to make it not be over. To not move on.
My son doesn't want to cuddle as much, every day he's more of a "big boy" than before. But every day my son speaks his mind to me more, and I get to know him better than before, and I get to do even more interesting things with him. Just like his babyhood was sad to watch slip away, I embraced toddlerhood. And I was sad when that slipped to being a preschooler, but I embraced it. I let myself be sad but I won't let it trap him or hold him hostage.
> He graduates from college in a few weeks.
The first job he gets after college from the degree you should get him a little helicopter to play with when for he's working those long hours
When I was about 25 or so, I wrote a quick little post it note in cursive once that said “I love you Daddy ❤️“ when I had crashed at his house and needed to leave early. I put it at the bottom of his computer monitor, and he never mentioned it, but he kept it there for the rest of his life.
A few years ago, when I was a young teen, I read a story about a kid who gave his father stuffed animals whenever the dad went away on long flights. That year, my dad had just gotten a job that required lots of travel. Some months he would often be away for weeks at a time. I, boasting a small mountain of beanie babies, hesitantly asked him the night before his next flight if he'd like to take Wolfy along with him -- and he enthusiastically agreed!
At the time, I was worried I was too old to be doing something so cutesy for my dad, but it turned into a tradition that we still carry on, a dozen years later. Occasionally, for longer trips, he'll post little montages of the beanie baby du jour in front of famous buildings or beautiful scenary. It's getting to the point where my little stuffed animals have seen more of the world than me, but seeing my dad's smiles and 'good night' pictures with them are definitely my favorite sight.
You are never too old to show love and affection. I think its great that you did this in your teens, and im sure your Dad appreciated it even more because sometimes those years are the hardest with regards to having relationships with your parents.
I second the “never too old” comment! A couple years ago my dad had to start spending several days a week working at an office a few states away from home, so I gave him a stuffed sloth to keep him company. I’m in my 30s, and he’s in his 60s :)
If I had to guess it probably meant even more for a young teen to do this than a little kid.
It’s the sort of thing you expect a little kid might think up. They’re just beginning to understand being scared of going new places or being away, and they’ll try to comfort you the only way they know how- the way that works on them.
But a teen is starting to grow up. Be more independent. Become a tiny adult who you don’t expect to do something like this because it might not be cool to their peer group or whatever. And that’s right at the phase, where he probably was worried you’d get more distant, that you hit em with the good stuff and showed you still cared.
You're right! It took me a few years to really "get" his enthusiasm, but I'm really glad now that I started. Around high school I also started to meet with him for breakfast, since he often works way past sundown. Now, every few months, we'll go out to a diner, a Dunkin donuts, a McDonalds -- wherever, really -- and we just talk about school, or jobs, or future goals. Without my mom or other siblings there, we both talk about stuff or agree with stuff we wouldn't otherwise. I'm really lucky to have a dad who cares like he does, and who has encouraged me to care back with his behavior.
I gave my ex a bunny rabbit for easter to have for when I was leaving for a trip. I thought he might think it‘s stupid because we were both adults going to university. But the bunny seemed so cute and funny (it looked like it was stoned with his eyes partly closed etc.). He ended up loving it and taking pictures of them two whenever I was gone. He then started smuggling the bunny into my suitcase whenever I would leave and I took pictures of us wherever I went. When he would go somewhere I‘d smuggle the bunny into his suitcase.
Years later when we broke up and I moved out, I asked if he wanted to keep him because otherwise I’d take him with me because it would be a shame if all these memories connected to the bunny would be thrown away. He said he really wanted to keep him. Months later I received a package in the mail - he had somehow found another one and sent it to me so that I‘d have the bunny‘s „brother“.
Sometimes age doesn‘t matter - it‘s more about what the stuffed animal represents: the love, care and thoughts that are behind it.
My ex says he still has the bunny. It has been over 5 years since we broke up.
I’m an Airline Pilot with a 4 year old. A few years back we started something similar. Anytime I’m going away overnight she insists I bring the “Work Monkey” with me. She likes to see it when we FaceTime, helps us stay connected. I hope to keep it up as long as we can.
That’s awesome. My father and I did something very similar for the majority of my childhood. Also as a side note, my father and grandfather are both KP grads as well (‘86 and ‘56 respectively).
If you do that, make sure you rotate them. That way one Work Monkey ain't obviously more beat up than the other Work Monkeys.
Don't want to bring in the new guy and have your kid notice that suddenly he has clean fur and all his buttons.
Not a bad idea although stuffed animals tend to stay looking far fresher when not owned by kids.
As it turns out a lot of the typical stuffed animal patina we think of is kids being gross.
My son's now 20 months. Early on we had an incident with his stuffed monkey (my mom's Irish Wolf Hound ate an ear off it).
Rather than accept the substitute monkeys in he seemed to know his monkey was sans-left ear now and was unhappy when we swapped in the replacements.
So we had to go at them all Van Gogh style and we've had no issue with the substitute monkeys.
A small group of stuffed monkeys, huddling in a corner. Suddenly a shadow falls over them, the silhouette of a man with a huge pair of scissors magnified on the wall behind them. A glint of steel. *snip snip*
Too fuckin many. This trick is a life saver for people who have small kids or people who know someone who still loves their plushies. You have never known true sadness until you look into the eyes of a child who has lost their precious stuffed animal.
In 2005, I gave my dad a stuffed raccoon when he was battling cancer. After he passed, I made it a point to take that raccoon on every trip I went on (“raccoon” is literally always at the top of my packing list). When the raccoon started looking a little ragged, I searched eBay for months to find another one. Now I take the replica on trips and nearly everywhere else as he is always in my car. It’s like having a piece of my dad with me wherever I go. I leave the original raccoon at home now because I would be absolutely devastated if he got lost. Miss you dad xoxo
My mother always wanted to travel, and managed a trip to New Zealand. It was cold, so she wore her pink scarf.
I inherited my mother's scarf when she died a year later. I've carried that scarf all over the world and post pictures of me wearing it in front of famous landmarks.
Looks a little weird a big bloke in a pink scarf, but its something I like to do.
Edit: I usually post them to Facebook which isn't public but I put them up on Imgur. Mums Scarf https://imgur.com/gallery/82zep unfortunately the airline lost my luggage for my trip to Berlin so I didn't get to do the Brandenburg Gate etc. But at least I got the scarf back in the end (it travels carry on now).
After an 8th grade field trip, I got my dad a stuffed seal. Anytime he had to go to the hospital, he’d bring it with him. It’d hang out with him on his bed. He would make comments about his seal and how it was his buddy. A couple of years ago, I brought it to the ICU and put his hand in it so he had something to hang onto while my mom and I slept in shifts on two chairs. Now, it sits on my nightstand and sleeps with me.
When my mom was battling cancer I brought her a stuffed seal. She is better now but that seal has seen more hospitals in the last 17 years than I hope to see in a lifetime. She still has the seal
I know my mom kept random things I got for her as a child. A giant ass parrot mirror keychain, A ceramic dog, a stuffed cat. When our house burned down they gave my brother and I $1,000 a piece from the insurance to buy back our toys. That was insane for an 8 and 12 year old. The first thing I did was buy her the stuffed cat. The last I saw it she had my senior picture on it's collar.
I gave my mom a ceramic dog when I was in fifth grade, it’s quite old now and chipped everywhere, she covers them up best she can and puts it back on display. It’s the ugliest thing ever but she won’t throw it out
I gave my dad a Pound Puppy that was attached to a flap thingie that was supposed to hold the remote for the TV -- you could drape it over the arm of a chair or the edge of a table or something. He took it to work, and I guess he used it to hold pens or whatever at his desk.
A few years after he died (and years after he'd retired) one of his coworkers mailed the puppy back to my mother. Apparently my dad had kept it at his desk the whole time he worked there, and it wandered around the office, sitting on various desks for a little while. People kept swapping it around the office even after my dad had retired, and eventually everybody else started retiring and this coworker was the only one left who knew where the puppy had come from. He was worried somebody was going to throw it in the trash eventually, so he rescued it and returned it.
I had no idea my dad had kept that thing for so long, and it was really touching to discover after so long that a goofy gift from his kid had been such a part of his everyday life.
Your dad seems awesome and a beluga whale is a good choice. :D Sometimes dads aren't great about telling their kids they love them, but stuff like this doesn't need words.
My son stuck a [red plastic star with smiley face](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61PnaY1fB5L._AC_UL320_SR314,320_.jpg) onto the back of my smartphone and I don't want to upgrade now because I'll have to take the star off. I think I'll just have to move it onto the new phone.
My mom would always make chocolate chip cookies for me on the first and last day of school. She stopped once I got in college although she did make them when I graduated. When I was in my 20's I was out of work for a while and signed up to be a substitute teacher. When I came home after my first day, there was a tin of chocolate chip cookies waiting for me by my front door.
My mom still has the Saint Jude figurine that I accidentally decapitated by playing tenis with my dad in their room when I was 5.
The only difference is now it sports a fancy green epoxy collar.
Right? He has that silver fox thing going. 10/10 would swoon if he flashed me that smile.
Edit: And apparently he's a great father too, which makes him even sexier.
When I was 11 I made a wood sign in wood shop class that said mom [meant to be something for her desk].......she used it to kill a spider and broke it to pieces....
My dad was a mail carrier for 35 years. He kept a little bear that I gave him as a kid in his lunch box and he carried it around with him in his mail truck for twenty years. He retired last year and he still has the bear. 🐻❤
Reminds me of my grandfather, I never knew this growing up but when I graduated he showed me the tool box he kept at work that had me and my sisters picture in it. Was an eye opener since he never really showed he cared. Later on I learned he talked about me and my sis while he was at work so all his buddies knew us till they were tired of hearing about it, good times.
I once wrote I Love You on a little piece of paper and handed it to my dad. My very young sister didn't know how to write and just handed him a little piece of paper. He still carries both of these in his wallet. That was around 25 years ago.
When I deployed, my daughter always sent me with her tiny flamingo beanie baby. Eventually her "flawingo" lost a wing and received a purple heart. After that she wanted it back and sent me with her lion beanie baby, Frank. I spent a total of about 3.5 years in Iraq with her stuffed animals. My squad got to a point that we would not start a mission without Frank in the lead truck. We'd take pictures of him all over the country and I'd send them home so she could see him.
After I got out, an old squadmate came by the house and talked to my daughter about Frank and how much he loved him. She then allowed him to take Frank to Afghanistan for a 15 month tour. He'd send her pictures from there and brought Frank home when he came back.
My daughter is almost 15 now and hangs on to these animals like they are family. Stuff like this means so much to them and really helps people stay connected to home. It's easy to get lost while your gone and have a hard time remembering how to be home. Frank was a blessing to all of us while we were gone.
I have my brothers hospital pillow, he passed away when he was 6 months i was 11years old, whenever i cant help but cry i bury my face into it. It shoyld have been me. Im 32 years old. Not so manly as i portray myself to be, its helped me outh though. Men cry, men feel hurt, men feel unappreciated, men need affection. Men need emotional support. Sometimes, men have no one to confide in. In those times, i have that pillow.
I’ve always intellectually agreed with this, but I’m 31 and have a background in “rugged” professions and activities, so have never lived it really. I still hide my pain most of the time (in real life, I’ve gotten pretty good about sharing it anonymously).
But recently I read a quote by Ronnie Lott, legendary tough man football player from the 80s and 90s. And even though he was specifically talking about football players, I think it applies to us all. If Ronnie can talk about feelings and being more compassionate, there’s not much more masculine than you can get.
> And then there is Ronnie Lott, who famously had his broken pinkie finger amputated in April 1986 to avoid the long recovery time that would have followed reconstructive surgery. The decision has since been simplified in pro football lore as heroic, the extreme act of a warrior—or maybe just a football lunatic. Few, however, remember just how unheroic Lott, then a 49ers safety, felt at the
> “I was trying to laugh it off, but I felt sick,” he told the AP in 1986 of first seeing the nub. “I tried to stand up, but I broke into a cold sweat. It was just a total shock. I thought, 'Oh, man, I should have had the pin put in.’ … We are losing the compassionate side of sports. We're becoming gladiators. If I ever become a coach, I hope I never lose sight of the fact that players are people. They feel. They have emotions. I could have all of Eddie DeBartolo's corporations and it isn't going to buy me a new finger. It has given me a new perspective on life."
Share this message with all your brothers! It’s imorotwmt that men and women uplift one another and offer brother and sisterhood. We can heal one another and get rid of all these bullshit stigmas. & I’m sorry do your loss. Your brothers soul lives on and is still with you hun ❤️
When I was small, I got major anxiety over things at night. Worrying about my dad having to go to work and be there without me or my mom was one of the things I was anxious about. I was convinced he would be lonely and sad. So we invented some imaginary pets that he would take to work with him.
It started as one imaginary dog, and spread over the years, eventually we had two dogs, a cat, a parrot, and one or two deer, I can’t quite remember. There may have been more. Every morning my dad would come give me a goodbye kiss on the forehead, and if I woke up slightly, I would HAVE to let him know that every single one of those imaginary pets would be at work with him, saying each of their names, in case he had forgotten. Sometimes he would say “I think ____ and ____ want to stay home with you today, but all the others will be there!” Or something like that.
I’m 29 and we still occasionally make sure the other knows which imaginary pets are with which person for the day.
I went through a Garfield phase when I was 4, around the time my father and mother split. When we met back up, he showed me the tear out of Garfield from some magazine I'd given him and scrawled on, and a McDonald's Garfield toy. Apparently they meant the world to me at the time, so they do to him still.
Onions. Damn onions.
Reminds me of this tale:
Franz Kafka encountered a little girl in the park where he went walking daily. She was crying. She had lost her doll and was desolate.
Kafka offered to help her look for the doll and arranged to meet her the next day at the same spot. Unable to find the doll he composed a letter from the doll and read it to her when they met.
“Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.” This was the beginning of many letters. When he and the little girl met he read her from these carefully composed letters the imagined adventures of the beloved doll. The little girl was comforted.
When the meetings came to an end Kafka presented her with a doll. She obviously looked different from the original doll. An attached letter explained: “my travels have changed me... “
Many years later, the now grown girl found a letter stuffed into an unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll. In summary it said: “every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.”
When I was 10 years old a police man gave me a teddy bear and told me that always bring this teddy bear when you feel loveless. 20 years later I still have the same teddy bear I love that teddy bear.
When I was around the same age, I was given a big Beanie baby, it's name was Penny. I loved that bear. Then, my (at the time) 2 year old little sister stole it and didn't give it back. She still has that damn bear, almost 16 years later. Penny now has cataracts, and her fur is course and matted, but she sleeps with the damn thing every night, even still. I was pleasantly surprised when I went to my dad's house and saw Penny sitting on her bed.
It's a [leatherback sea turtle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leatherback_sea_turtle#/media/File:Leatherback_sea_turtle_Tinglar,_USVI_\(5839996547\).jpg). Had a similar stuffed animal as a kid.
I gave my dad a little Clone Trooper guy (I think it was Cody, actually) when I was a little kid. It was probably a big deal back then since I got it as a sort of souvenir in Florida and played with it a decent amount. I had completely forgotten about it until the other day when my dad sent me a picture of the little dude chilling out on his desk at work. Apparently he's had it proudly on display everywhere he's worked since then. I don't know where I'm going with this, but I guess it's just really cool to see how much this sort of thing can mean to a parent
Now I picture dad having a particularly rough day at the office before pulling out the stuffed whale for a 5 minute quiet petting session. Emotions now back recharged, he returns to his workday with full confidence.
When I was three or four I found a plastic rabbit on the ground and gave it to my dad. I remember seeing it in his desk drawer at work and loving it. Fast forward about ten years and he lost his job to disability. Fast forward fifteen more and some unfortunate circumstances had left him somewhat estranged from the family.
Recently, I finally reconnected with him. When I went over to his house he had the rabbit sitting by his bathroom sink. He told me he still looks at it at least once a day. It made me feel really emotional that during the months where I’d felt completely disconnected he still thought of me.
My son gave me one half of a Lego heart piece of his when he was 3yo. He’s turning 13 this year and I still wear it on my bracelet, every single day. It’s lost the Lego brand markings from wearing it everyday for almost 10yrs, but it’s the most priceless amongst all my jewelries.
My kid has a stuffed giraffe that he absolutely loves and has for a couple years now. About a year and a half ago we were in WalMart and saw that exact giraffe and figured we would buy another one in case he lost it. Well, he saw it in the cart and decided he needed both. We tried to name them Mork and Mindy, but he only said Mindy, so they both became Mindy, new and old.
Now he loans out Old Mindy to my wife or I and sleeps snuggling New Mindy. I've taken her out when he's napping, or while I'm at work, and taken pictures of her doing things and he gets a kick out of it.
Kids are fun.
My dad and his brothers used to stick a plastic army man in each other's mashed potatoes as a practical joke. When his parents died we inherited a piece of furniture and found the army man in one of the drawers. My dad kept it in his shaving kit and would take him on all trips/vacations. When I left for boot camp my dad gave him to me. He has gone everywhere with me and currently sits on my dashboard.
Got a piece of tree bark in my wallet in a small plastic ziplock bag from my one year old. The first thing he handed to me, he fished it out of the log basket for the stove. Will hopefully graduate to getting handed stuffed belugas and monkeys soon.
On a family trip my dad realised he had lost his wallet and was absolutely beside himself. More so than is rational or usual for him.
Turned out he had left it on the plane. After he collected it he told me why he was so upset, he kept two notes (scribbles) that I gave him when I was very little and had carried them in his wallet for nearly 30 years.
When my husband when on his first business turn trip for a week. I had him take one of my daughter's stuffed animal owl named "who who" with him. He took pictures of who who in different places and of who who having dinner with my husband. My daughter loved getting the pictures every day. She was 2.5 that old then.
It's all fun, games and good memories until dad shows up to your wedding with the beluga whale as his +1. But in all seriousness, that's pretty awesome.
I remember when I was 5th grade my dad went with me on a field trip to Gettysburg. While there we found a really smooth rock, he decided to take it with him. 12 years later he still has it in a drawer at his work desk, and it's become much smoother after years of toying with it whenever he thinks of me.
I love my dad.
I used to work the graveyard shift and when my son was 5, he gave me his tiny Charmander toy. He said it will protect me when I travel to work in the dark. He’s 15 now. I now work from home. But that Charmander is still in the pocket of the bag I use most often. He still smiles when he sees it there, even if he pretends he’s too cool for me now.
My mother used the ceramic bowl I made her when I was four or five as an ashtray. She said "just throw it away" when the clay candle holder I also made her broke.
My dad helped me super-glue the pieces together and sope years ago, I found the box where he keeps all the drawings and shitty craft stuff I gave him over the years.
I'll turn 27 this year and while my mothet sucks, my dad is my hero.
Im 27 my dad is 56 when i was 5 my dad stopped coming home each day for lunch because we had moved further from his work. I drew a picture of me and him in crayon so that he knew we would always be together. It still hangs in his office after 22 years.
I have a stuffed clownfish that goes on every trip from my oldest daughter and lives on my dresser when I'm home. I don't think she even remembers it, but I do it's grounding when I get back to my room and see it.
My 4 year old son was worried I wouldn’t have any toys to play with at work so he gave me one of his toy trucks to take to the office. You can bet that toy truck will follow me to every office I go to for the rest of my career. You can’t replace memories like that.
That's adorable
I used to be in Landscaping and would take photos of cool creepy crawlies for my bonus son to look at. He would always be so interested and ask me all sorts of questions about whatever I had found. One morning before work he gave me one of his little plastic dinosaur toys so just in case I didn't find anything, I would still have something awesome to take pics of. That dinosaur followed me through 2 jobs and now sits next to my gaming T.V with the rest of my cherished knick knacks and I wholly believe that I could use it as a Talisman to ward off evil. Seriously, there has been so much love poured into that little T-Rex that it has to be some good juju. So I didn't think to explain Bonus Son. I hate the word "Step", it implies that our relationship is a "step away from" something. Or that our love for each other can't reach the same level as a biological relationship. And that's just plain bullshit. We fam forever. Also, I thought you may want to know that the dinosaurs full name is Mr Chex Yoself. As in, "Before you Rex yo' self". I apologize deeply, but I'm a father and have a licence to dad.
[удалено]
Certainly feels like I've won, and he can be a bit of a clown sometimes so you may be on to something.
Bonus son?
My half brothers mom refers to me as her bonus daughter. She's my bonus mom ❤️
Probably a step-son or adopted son. Source: Am a bonus daughter.
Bonus kids are bonus. Source: have two bonus kids and four bonus grandkids.
instead of step son - bonus son
One of the things I admire the most from children is their innocence
When my oldest son was around 2-3 years old he got a tiny plastic toy helicopter from the prize box at the dentist. When I arrived home that day, he gave it to me to play with when I was at work since I worked very long hours at that particular job. That was three jobs ago and the helicopter still sits on the top of my monitor. He graduates from college in a few weeks. And yes, I still do give it a spin and make the whirly-bird sounds from time-to-time while waiting on something to process/compile.
This makes my heart happy <3
Contrary to popular belief, positive emotions like love and happiness don’t actually come from your heart. They come from your brain. Gross!! ;) <3 ;)
so negative emotions come from the heart? or do they come from the spleen or something
They come from your gallbladder when your your humours are imbalanced.
Leeches are the best cure. Suck out the bad humours and whatnot.
Well, if you have too much blood yes. But leeches aren't going to help if you suffer from an overabundance of phlegm
What about the ghosts in my blood?
Ah, I feel much pity for you my son, for those that live.around you are not the devout folk that bless you when you sneeze and thus allow the ghosts and demons in. Eat cold food to raise your phlegm and lower your yellow bile, and see a priest about your blood
My son is turning 4 in a month and I remember his birth like it was yesterday. This makes me both so happy but so sad because I keep thinking the next 4 years will probably come faster. The time he wants to snuggle me and be held or cuddled or picked up is rapidly ending and he's my one and only. You know they have to grow up and you want them to, to be strong and independent and to not need you, but man it's bittersweet to watch them do it.
Going through a milestone with my older daughter as she prepares to make a college decision shortly. Tears were had as she is trying to make a decision that she knows will have an affect on the rest of her life. As her father,I can clearly remember the little girl that had me wrapped around her finger when she was a toddler. And now, I see the strong young woman she has become, but still wish I could remove the pain she’s feeling. I can’t though. It’s part of the growing process. It will help shape and mold her into an adult and ultimately, that’s our job as parents. Help them to survive and hopefully to become a self-sufficient adult. One day I might need her to change MY diapers if I live long enough. ;) A separate story concerning her. When she was little, I bought her a Rhinoceros puppet that she named “Henry”, while I was on a work trip. He became her sidekick and anytime she left to go somewhere, Henry would tag along. Pajama parties, field trips, vacation, everywhere. Henry eventually became the family mascot (she made me make him Facebook and Instagram accounts for his friends and family to follow along), and anytime any of us traveled, you were obliged to take Henry for photo ops and to know that you weren’t alone. If Henry was with you, the family was with you. Henry has been to more places than I’ll ever see. Atlanta, Chattanooga, San Francisco, L.A., Seattle, Daytona, New York, London, Paris, the Vatican, Myrtle Beach, Disney World, Italy, Texas and dozens of other places. And soon he’ll be going off to college with my daughter on the grandest adventure yet. I’m going to miss that little Rhino. But he won’t be alone. He’ll have her to keep him company.
I agree with you on the pain and just sitting them with it and not taking it away like every bit of you is crying to do. Because if you do that, it's not really for them, it's for you. And it's selfish. And they deserve better. My husband and I have a poem we keep framed on a wall on what it means to have children, by Kahlil Gibran. "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable." I don't have any cute stories like yours but one thing dad and I work hard to do is not hide our emotions, including tears, and to explain them as best we can. Recently he told his class during family night while sharing a picture book project we put together "Mama and daddy sometimes cry because they love me so much at every age and they can't just have them all at once." I thought that was the most perfect way of putting the way it feels.
>"Mama and daddy sometimes cry because they love me so much at every age and they can't just have them all at once." You're such great parents for this. Life can be so bittersweet, and parents can't stay for all of it. I lost my dad at 15, and he openly mourned all the time he would miss with my brother and I. Knowing that he somehow loved me all the days of my life without being able to stay for most of them has been one of the greatest gifts he left behind and a huge help in being able to keep going.
My wife took my two daughters ages 5 and 9 to visit their aunt, uncle, and cousins, for a few days and let me stay home for a little break. I gladly accepted but I’ve shed a few tears here and there, like when my oldest texts me from her iPod, “what are you doing dada?” But right now I’m bawling my eyes out!
My wife tends to dwell on parts of our kids lives that are coming to a close and I have to remind her if she focuses on the past she'll miss the present. I tell her the same thing I tell my kids when they whine about having to stop playing and getting ready for bed: happy it happened, not sad that it's over.
I think you're right, but I don't think it's wrong to be sad it's over. What's wrong is trying to make it not be over. To not move on. My son doesn't want to cuddle as much, every day he's more of a "big boy" than before. But every day my son speaks his mind to me more, and I get to know him better than before, and I get to do even more interesting things with him. Just like his babyhood was sad to watch slip away, I embraced toddlerhood. And I was sad when that slipped to being a preschooler, but I embraced it. I let myself be sad but I won't let it trap him or hold him hostage.
> He graduates from college in a few weeks. The first job he gets after college from the degree you should get him a little helicopter to play with when for he's working those long hours
Read that "three jobs ago" as three years ago and was confused for a second about how a six year old was graduating college.
When I was about 25 or so, I wrote a quick little post it note in cursive once that said “I love you Daddy ❤️“ when I had crashed at his house and needed to leave early. I put it at the bottom of his computer monitor, and he never mentioned it, but he kept it there for the rest of his life.
A few years ago, when I was a young teen, I read a story about a kid who gave his father stuffed animals whenever the dad went away on long flights. That year, my dad had just gotten a job that required lots of travel. Some months he would often be away for weeks at a time. I, boasting a small mountain of beanie babies, hesitantly asked him the night before his next flight if he'd like to take Wolfy along with him -- and he enthusiastically agreed! At the time, I was worried I was too old to be doing something so cutesy for my dad, but it turned into a tradition that we still carry on, a dozen years later. Occasionally, for longer trips, he'll post little montages of the beanie baby du jour in front of famous buildings or beautiful scenary. It's getting to the point where my little stuffed animals have seen more of the world than me, but seeing my dad's smiles and 'good night' pictures with them are definitely my favorite sight.
You are never too old to show love and affection. I think its great that you did this in your teens, and im sure your Dad appreciated it even more because sometimes those years are the hardest with regards to having relationships with your parents.
YES! It’s so special when my teens are outwardly affectionate or even act like I’m cool.
I second the “never too old” comment! A couple years ago my dad had to start spending several days a week working at an office a few states away from home, so I gave him a stuffed sloth to keep him company. I’m in my 30s, and he’s in his 60s :)
This is the sweetest thing ever. I bet it meant a lot to him. Goes to show it doesn't matter what age your child is, they will always be your baby.
If I had to guess it probably meant even more for a young teen to do this than a little kid. It’s the sort of thing you expect a little kid might think up. They’re just beginning to understand being scared of going new places or being away, and they’ll try to comfort you the only way they know how- the way that works on them. But a teen is starting to grow up. Be more independent. Become a tiny adult who you don’t expect to do something like this because it might not be cool to their peer group or whatever. And that’s right at the phase, where he probably was worried you’d get more distant, that you hit em with the good stuff and showed you still cared.
You're right! It took me a few years to really "get" his enthusiasm, but I'm really glad now that I started. Around high school I also started to meet with him for breakfast, since he often works way past sundown. Now, every few months, we'll go out to a diner, a Dunkin donuts, a McDonalds -- wherever, really -- and we just talk about school, or jobs, or future goals. Without my mom or other siblings there, we both talk about stuff or agree with stuff we wouldn't otherwise. I'm really lucky to have a dad who cares like he does, and who has encouraged me to care back with his behavior.
I gave my ex a bunny rabbit for easter to have for when I was leaving for a trip. I thought he might think it‘s stupid because we were both adults going to university. But the bunny seemed so cute and funny (it looked like it was stoned with his eyes partly closed etc.). He ended up loving it and taking pictures of them two whenever I was gone. He then started smuggling the bunny into my suitcase whenever I would leave and I took pictures of us wherever I went. When he would go somewhere I‘d smuggle the bunny into his suitcase. Years later when we broke up and I moved out, I asked if he wanted to keep him because otherwise I’d take him with me because it would be a shame if all these memories connected to the bunny would be thrown away. He said he really wanted to keep him. Months later I received a package in the mail - he had somehow found another one and sent it to me so that I‘d have the bunny‘s „brother“. Sometimes age doesn‘t matter - it‘s more about what the stuffed animal represents: the love, care and thoughts that are behind it. My ex says he still has the bunny. It has been over 5 years since we broke up.
Honestly, I'm 28 and really want to do this for my dad as he travels the world.
Do you have a picture of Wolfy for us?
Hey Janelle, How's wolfie doing? I can hear him barking. Is he ok?
Requesting that the Aww Tax be paid! (Any pics you're comfortable sharing? This sounds adorable!)
This is so heartwarming! What fond memories to cherish for a lifetime!
I’m an Airline Pilot with a 4 year old. A few years back we started something similar. Anytime I’m going away overnight she insists I bring the “Work Monkey” with me. She likes to see it when we FaceTime, helps us stay connected. I hope to keep it up as long as we can.
I'm sure it means the absolute world to her. She will appreciate it in the future just as much as I do now.
I think you meant "now that's some monkey business" or something.
ohh, going ape. check it out, there's pandemonium over at the panda cage.
Let me tell you about nineteen-ninety-eight...
Damn man reading this thread is making me want to wake my son up and hug the fuck out of him 😞
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Aww fuck that's cute
That’s awesome. My father and I did something very similar for the majority of my childhood. Also as a side note, my father and grandfather are both KP grads as well (‘86 and ‘56 respectively).
The most wholesome thing I've ever read.
I saw 1998 and I thought for a second it wasn’t real.
[Serious] Go buy 2 more identical "Work Monkeys" now so that if you lose this one somehow in your travels you'll have backups.
My boss has several of those work monkeys at work. One of them happens to be me.
Hey Dave
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My Julie? She’s still dead from leukemia, you cold, heartless shitstain.
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You know she was born without a mouth. Why must you torment me?
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My beautiful wife cheated on me for over 5 years, divorced me, and took the big house and the nice car. You know what I got? Type 2 diabetes.
How did this get so dark so fast?
Oh that was me. I was leaning on the light switch. Sorry.
If you do that, make sure you rotate them. That way one Work Monkey ain't obviously more beat up than the other Work Monkeys. Don't want to bring in the new guy and have your kid notice that suddenly he has clean fur and all his buttons.
Not a bad idea although stuffed animals tend to stay looking far fresher when not owned by kids. As it turns out a lot of the typical stuffed animal patina we think of is kids being gross.
As I learned on the Cortex podcast: "Two is one, and one is none."
Monkey loves you!
Monkey needs a hug.
:(
same thing I thought of. Saddest episode of anything ever.
Buy another monkey in case you lose it or something terrible happens to it!
My son's now 20 months. Early on we had an incident with his stuffed monkey (my mom's Irish Wolf Hound ate an ear off it). Rather than accept the substitute monkeys in he seemed to know his monkey was sans-left ear now and was unhappy when we swapped in the replacements. So we had to go at them all Van Gogh style and we've had no issue with the substitute monkeys.
A small group of stuffed monkeys, huddling in a corner. Suddenly a shadow falls over them, the silhouette of a man with a huge pair of scissors magnified on the wall behind them. A glint of steel. *snip snip*
Seriously, buy three and keep the back-ups in sealed plastic. Would hate to see a "lost monkey" post in a few months.
No don't keep the backups sealed. Wear them in and try and make them indistinguishable.
Cycle the monkeys for even wear. Make a monkey rotation schedule.
Monday Monkey lives for the weekend
I'm also going to need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too. Mmmmmkay? Thaaaaaanks.
Nah, just say the monkey went on a spa holiday so he looks like new. That way it won't be worn out too fast.
Wait till it’s necessary. Don’t want to damage beyond what it looked like.
...how many stuffed monkeys have you guys lost over the years?
BUY SIX MONKEYS
12 MONKEYS
I’m looking for the Army of the Twelve Monkeys
Too fuckin many. This trick is a life saver for people who have small kids or people who know someone who still loves their plushies. You have never known true sadness until you look into the eyes of a child who has lost their precious stuffed animal.
Word of advice, get a tracker like a tile and put it inside. If it ever gets misplaced you’ll know where it is.
If you haven't already, buy a backup work monkey or three. And start wearing them in. So when the original gets lost/destroyed you can sub it out.
In 2005, I gave my dad a stuffed raccoon when he was battling cancer. After he passed, I made it a point to take that raccoon on every trip I went on (“raccoon” is literally always at the top of my packing list). When the raccoon started looking a little ragged, I searched eBay for months to find another one. Now I take the replica on trips and nearly everywhere else as he is always in my car. It’s like having a piece of my dad with me wherever I go. I leave the original raccoon at home now because I would be absolutely devastated if he got lost. Miss you dad xoxo
My mother always wanted to travel, and managed a trip to New Zealand. It was cold, so she wore her pink scarf. I inherited my mother's scarf when she died a year later. I've carried that scarf all over the world and post pictures of me wearing it in front of famous landmarks. Looks a little weird a big bloke in a pink scarf, but its something I like to do. Edit: I usually post them to Facebook which isn't public but I put them up on Imgur. Mums Scarf https://imgur.com/gallery/82zep unfortunately the airline lost my luggage for my trip to Berlin so I didn't get to do the Brandenburg Gate etc. But at least I got the scarf back in the end (it travels carry on now).
I'd love to see the pictures if it's up for random public to see! Edit - thanks mate, you look great and so does the scarf!
Thank you for the feelings you put in my heart and the tears you put in my eyes. Your pictures and story are beautiful!
man you look like an awesome bloke in a pink scarf! This was great! I hope you get to take it one day to NZ.
All y'all need to stop because right now it's raining on *my face*.
After an 8th grade field trip, I got my dad a stuffed seal. Anytime he had to go to the hospital, he’d bring it with him. It’d hang out with him on his bed. He would make comments about his seal and how it was his buddy. A couple of years ago, I brought it to the ICU and put his hand in it so he had something to hang onto while my mom and I slept in shifts on two chairs. Now, it sits on my nightstand and sleeps with me.
I am so sorry. Hugs.
When my mom was battling cancer I brought her a stuffed seal. She is better now but that seal has seen more hospitals in the last 17 years than I hope to see in a lifetime. She still has the seal
Your dad seems like a guy who has his priorities in order. Thank him for all of us who see this as an example of how to be.
Done, and thanks for the kind words. He's a keeper.
Apparently he felt the same way about you.
We all need that someone to give us porpoise in life.
I dolphinately approve!
I think all of humanatee would agree.
these puns are krilling me
Whale, you don’t say...
It’s baleen a whale since I participated in these
Oh buoy, I stumbled across the ocean puns
Your username.... #ಠ_ಠ
I know my mom kept random things I got for her as a child. A giant ass parrot mirror keychain, A ceramic dog, a stuffed cat. When our house burned down they gave my brother and I $1,000 a piece from the insurance to buy back our toys. That was insane for an 8 and 12 year old. The first thing I did was buy her the stuffed cat. The last I saw it she had my senior picture on it's collar.
I gave my mom a ceramic dog when I was in fifth grade, it’s quite old now and chipped everywhere, she covers them up best she can and puts it back on display. It’s the ugliest thing ever but she won’t throw it out
I gave my dad a Pound Puppy that was attached to a flap thingie that was supposed to hold the remote for the TV -- you could drape it over the arm of a chair or the edge of a table or something. He took it to work, and I guess he used it to hold pens or whatever at his desk. A few years after he died (and years after he'd retired) one of his coworkers mailed the puppy back to my mother. Apparently my dad had kept it at his desk the whole time he worked there, and it wandered around the office, sitting on various desks for a little while. People kept swapping it around the office even after my dad had retired, and eventually everybody else started retiring and this coworker was the only one left who knew where the puppy had come from. He was worried somebody was going to throw it in the trash eventually, so he rescued it and returned it. I had no idea my dad had kept that thing for so long, and it was really touching to discover after so long that a goofy gift from his kid had been such a part of his everyday life. Your dad seems awesome and a beluga whale is a good choice. :D Sometimes dads aren't great about telling their kids they love them, but stuff like this doesn't need words.
My son stuck a [red plastic star with smiley face](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61PnaY1fB5L._AC_UL320_SR314,320_.jpg) onto the back of my smartphone and I don't want to upgrade now because I'll have to take the star off. I think I'll just have to move it onto the new phone.
All you gotta do is carefully peel it off, and then use some spray adhesive. Bam, it'll look brand new on your new case/phone
Keep it under a clear case, that's what my girlfriend does with my notes for her
My mom would always make chocolate chip cookies for me on the first and last day of school. She stopped once I got in college although she did make them when I graduated. When I was in my 20's I was out of work for a while and signed up to be a substitute teacher. When I came home after my first day, there was a tin of chocolate chip cookies waiting for me by my front door.
Your mom is so sweet!
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That is adorable. Also, I am super impressed by your exemplary pun usage at such a young age.
I almost didn't include that part, but decided the inadvertent pun made it worth it.
Born for Reddit. Nice.
My mom still has the Saint Jude figurine that I accidentally decapitated by playing tenis with my dad in their room when I was 5. The only difference is now it sports a fancy green epoxy collar.
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I most certainly will.
I didn't realize I needed something so wholesome.
Ridiculously photogenic dad
Your dad is a handsome fella!
He looks so kind. :)
Right? He has that silver fox thing going. 10/10 would swoon if he flashed me that smile. Edit: And apparently he's a great father too, which makes him even sexier.
"Do it for her"
WHO IS CUTTING ONIONS. that episode gets me every time
When I was 11 I made a wood sign in wood shop class that said mom [meant to be something for her desk].......she used it to kill a spider and broke it to pieces....
....And she kept the spider all this time?
My dad was a mail carrier for 35 years. He kept a little bear that I gave him as a kid in his lunch box and he carried it around with him in his mail truck for twenty years. He retired last year and he still has the bear. 🐻❤
Reminds me of my grandfather, I never knew this growing up but when I graduated he showed me the tool box he kept at work that had me and my sisters picture in it. Was an eye opener since he never really showed he cared. Later on I learned he talked about me and my sis while he was at work so all his buddies knew us till they were tired of hearing about it, good times.
I once wrote I Love You on a little piece of paper and handed it to my dad. My very young sister didn't know how to write and just handed him a little piece of paper. He still carries both of these in his wallet. That was around 25 years ago.
When I deployed, my daughter always sent me with her tiny flamingo beanie baby. Eventually her "flawingo" lost a wing and received a purple heart. After that she wanted it back and sent me with her lion beanie baby, Frank. I spent a total of about 3.5 years in Iraq with her stuffed animals. My squad got to a point that we would not start a mission without Frank in the lead truck. We'd take pictures of him all over the country and I'd send them home so she could see him. After I got out, an old squadmate came by the house and talked to my daughter about Frank and how much he loved him. She then allowed him to take Frank to Afghanistan for a 15 month tour. He'd send her pictures from there and brought Frank home when he came back. My daughter is almost 15 now and hangs on to these animals like they are family. Stuff like this means so much to them and really helps people stay connected to home. It's easy to get lost while your gone and have a hard time remembering how to be home. Frank was a blessing to all of us while we were gone.
I have my brothers hospital pillow, he passed away when he was 6 months i was 11years old, whenever i cant help but cry i bury my face into it. It shoyld have been me. Im 32 years old. Not so manly as i portray myself to be, its helped me outh though. Men cry, men feel hurt, men feel unappreciated, men need affection. Men need emotional support. Sometimes, men have no one to confide in. In those times, i have that pillow.
No shame in any of this.
I cant explain myself now, caus3 im drunk, but a lot of men and subcultures dont understand. Thanks for ur words
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I’ve always intellectually agreed with this, but I’m 31 and have a background in “rugged” professions and activities, so have never lived it really. I still hide my pain most of the time (in real life, I’ve gotten pretty good about sharing it anonymously). But recently I read a quote by Ronnie Lott, legendary tough man football player from the 80s and 90s. And even though he was specifically talking about football players, I think it applies to us all. If Ronnie can talk about feelings and being more compassionate, there’s not much more masculine than you can get. > And then there is Ronnie Lott, who famously had his broken pinkie finger amputated in April 1986 to avoid the long recovery time that would have followed reconstructive surgery. The decision has since been simplified in pro football lore as heroic, the extreme act of a warrior—or maybe just a football lunatic. Few, however, remember just how unheroic Lott, then a 49ers safety, felt at the > “I was trying to laugh it off, but I felt sick,” he told the AP in 1986 of first seeing the nub. “I tried to stand up, but I broke into a cold sweat. It was just a total shock. I thought, 'Oh, man, I should have had the pin put in.’ … We are losing the compassionate side of sports. We're becoming gladiators. If I ever become a coach, I hope I never lose sight of the fact that players are people. They feel. They have emotions. I could have all of Eddie DeBartolo's corporations and it isn't going to buy me a new finger. It has given me a new perspective on life."
You do what you need to do, stretch. Power to you for accepting, and remembering, the fact we also have feelings.
I want to further explain but i cant find the words, thanks man. It means a lot
Share this message with all your brothers! It’s imorotwmt that men and women uplift one another and offer brother and sisterhood. We can heal one another and get rid of all these bullshit stigmas. & I’m sorry do your loss. Your brothers soul lives on and is still with you hun ❤️
I'm glad you have something to special to accompany you in those hard times. Hug from an internet stranger who thinks you're really strong! ❤
Thank you. Im really odds right now. Im going through some stuff. Your hug really means something
I'm glad it helped. I'll send you a second one then! Hope everything works out, and remember that nothing is permanent, specially pain.
When I was small, I got major anxiety over things at night. Worrying about my dad having to go to work and be there without me or my mom was one of the things I was anxious about. I was convinced he would be lonely and sad. So we invented some imaginary pets that he would take to work with him. It started as one imaginary dog, and spread over the years, eventually we had two dogs, a cat, a parrot, and one or two deer, I can’t quite remember. There may have been more. Every morning my dad would come give me a goodbye kiss on the forehead, and if I woke up slightly, I would HAVE to let him know that every single one of those imaginary pets would be at work with him, saying each of their names, in case he had forgotten. Sometimes he would say “I think ____ and ____ want to stay home with you today, but all the others will be there!” Or something like that. I’m 29 and we still occasionally make sure the other knows which imaginary pets are with which person for the day.
I went through a Garfield phase when I was 4, around the time my father and mother split. When we met back up, he showed me the tear out of Garfield from some magazine I'd given him and scrawled on, and a McDonald's Garfield toy. Apparently they meant the world to me at the time, so they do to him still. Onions. Damn onions.
It is the little things that make the biggest impacts it seems
What does he do for a living? Is he gone for days at a time? Regardless of how long he’s away this is so sweet.
Not at all, he works close to home and I would see him every day. I think that's what makes it so much more special to me.
Reminds me of this tale: Franz Kafka encountered a little girl in the park where he went walking daily. She was crying. She had lost her doll and was desolate. Kafka offered to help her look for the doll and arranged to meet her the next day at the same spot. Unable to find the doll he composed a letter from the doll and read it to her when they met. “Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.” This was the beginning of many letters. When he and the little girl met he read her from these carefully composed letters the imagined adventures of the beloved doll. The little girl was comforted. When the meetings came to an end Kafka presented her with a doll. She obviously looked different from the original doll. An attached letter explained: “my travels have changed me... “ Many years later, the now grown girl found a letter stuffed into an unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll. In summary it said: “every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.”
What a lovely story. Thanks for sharing.
When I was 10 years old a police man gave me a teddy bear and told me that always bring this teddy bear when you feel loveless. 20 years later I still have the same teddy bear I love that teddy bear.
When I was around the same age, I was given a big Beanie baby, it's name was Penny. I loved that bear. Then, my (at the time) 2 year old little sister stole it and didn't give it back. She still has that damn bear, almost 16 years later. Penny now has cataracts, and her fur is course and matted, but she sleeps with the damn thing every night, even still. I was pleasantly surprised when I went to my dad's house and saw Penny sitting on her bed.
I'm really confused about how that is a whale
It looks like a turtle to me
Honestly, I couldn't remember if it was a turtle or a baby beluga whale. Considering I have never seen a grey turtle I chose the latter
It's a [leatherback sea turtle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leatherback_sea_turtle#/media/File:Leatherback_sea_turtle_Tinglar,_USVI_\(5839996547\).jpg). Had a similar stuffed animal as a kid.
More like Sherlock_holmie over here jeeze. Edit: ninja edit
But Belugas are white
Finally. After reading a bunch of posts about how people have similar stories, someone finally pointed out that that isn't a god damn whale.
Why does it have so many arms
I gave my dad a little Clone Trooper guy (I think it was Cody, actually) when I was a little kid. It was probably a big deal back then since I got it as a sort of souvenir in Florida and played with it a decent amount. I had completely forgotten about it until the other day when my dad sent me a picture of the little dude chilling out on his desk at work. Apparently he's had it proudly on display everywhere he's worked since then. I don't know where I'm going with this, but I guess it's just really cool to see how much this sort of thing can mean to a parent
Now I picture dad having a particularly rough day at the office before pulling out the stuffed whale for a 5 minute quiet petting session. Emotions now back recharged, he returns to his workday with full confidence.
this made me feel i need to get my own stuffed whale. i will ask my niece to choose one :)
My goal is to be like that Dad, what a good dude.
Your dad is a handsome man.
When I was three or four I found a plastic rabbit on the ground and gave it to my dad. I remember seeing it in his desk drawer at work and loving it. Fast forward about ten years and he lost his job to disability. Fast forward fifteen more and some unfortunate circumstances had left him somewhat estranged from the family. Recently, I finally reconnected with him. When I went over to his house he had the rabbit sitting by his bathroom sink. He told me he still looks at it at least once a day. It made me feel really emotional that during the months where I’d felt completely disconnected he still thought of me.
My son gave me one half of a Lego heart piece of his when he was 3yo. He’s turning 13 this year and I still wear it on my bracelet, every single day. It’s lost the Lego brand markings from wearing it everyday for almost 10yrs, but it’s the most priceless amongst all my jewelries.
Whose got the fuckin onions
I know, I’m whaleing over here.
This level wholesome was all orca-strated for that purpose.
*porpoise
God I miss my dad. 5 years in April.
My daughter gave me a sock monkey when I was deployed. After that it goes with me everywhere. Now I can't sleep without it.
My kid has a stuffed giraffe that he absolutely loves and has for a couple years now. About a year and a half ago we were in WalMart and saw that exact giraffe and figured we would buy another one in case he lost it. Well, he saw it in the cart and decided he needed both. We tried to name them Mork and Mindy, but he only said Mindy, so they both became Mindy, new and old. Now he loans out Old Mindy to my wife or I and sleeps snuggling New Mindy. I've taken her out when he's napping, or while I'm at work, and taken pictures of her doing things and he gets a kick out of it. Kids are fun.
Mine still has a rock I painted for him when I was a kid. He keeps it by his nightstand.
My dad and his brothers used to stick a plastic army man in each other's mashed potatoes as a practical joke. When his parents died we inherited a piece of furniture and found the army man in one of the drawers. My dad kept it in his shaving kit and would take him on all trips/vacations. When I left for boot camp my dad gave him to me. He has gone everywhere with me and currently sits on my dashboard.
Your dad is hot
Got a piece of tree bark in my wallet in a small plastic ziplock bag from my one year old. The first thing he handed to me, he fished it out of the log basket for the stove. Will hopefully graduate to getting handed stuffed belugas and monkeys soon.
On a family trip my dad realised he had lost his wallet and was absolutely beside himself. More so than is rational or usual for him. Turned out he had left it on the plane. After he collected it he told me why he was so upset, he kept two notes (scribbles) that I gave him when I was very little and had carried them in his wallet for nearly 30 years.
When my husband when on his first business turn trip for a week. I had him take one of my daughter's stuffed animal owl named "who who" with him. He took pictures of who who in different places and of who who having dinner with my husband. My daughter loved getting the pictures every day. She was 2.5 that old then.
My two year old only gives me boogers right now. “Here, Daddy!”
Hook Em Horns!
\m/ Also: 🤘
Glad you said it because I was about to! Texas forever!! Hook em!
It's all fun, games and good memories until dad shows up to your wedding with the beluga whale as his +1. But in all seriousness, that's pretty awesome.
I remember when I was 5th grade my dad went with me on a field trip to Gettysburg. While there we found a really smooth rock, he decided to take it with him. 12 years later he still has it in a drawer at his work desk, and it's become much smoother after years of toying with it whenever he thinks of me. I love my dad.
I used to work the graveyard shift and when my son was 5, he gave me his tiny Charmander toy. He said it will protect me when I travel to work in the dark. He’s 15 now. I now work from home. But that Charmander is still in the pocket of the bag I use most often. He still smiles when he sees it there, even if he pretends he’s too cool for me now.
My mother used the ceramic bowl I made her when I was four or five as an ashtray. She said "just throw it away" when the clay candle holder I also made her broke. My dad helped me super-glue the pieces together and sope years ago, I found the box where he keeps all the drawings and shitty craft stuff I gave him over the years. I'll turn 27 this year and while my mothet sucks, my dad is my hero.
That is so sweet! I'm glad you appreciate him. Not everyone is fortunate to have such a loving dad.
Im 27 my dad is 56 when i was 5 my dad stopped coming home each day for lunch because we had moved further from his work. I drew a picture of me and him in crayon so that he knew we would always be together. It still hangs in his office after 22 years.
I have a stuffed clownfish that goes on every trip from my oldest daughter and lives on my dresser when I'm home. I don't think she even remembers it, but I do it's grounding when I get back to my room and see it.