A Dad's Guide to Finding Your Superpower

Getting the news

He was watching their favorite Netflix series in their room just after arriving from his Master’s degree information appointment when his girlfriend came from the bathroom in complete shock.

“It’s positive,” she said.

He knew there was some type of mistake. They had been through false alarms countless times through their years together.

This time it was real. They both sat down and continued to watch the show, not paying attention to a thing that was happening.

The next day he wondered if he should just go back to the work force and put his Master’s program on hold for a bit longer, but after thinking hard about it, he decided he was going to go for it and make his son proud. He had profoundly new energy that even he didn’t know where it came from.

All he knew was he had to get this done and there was nothing that was going to hold him back because it was no longer for himself, but for his son that was on the way.

To his surprise, the first day of class was the day his son was born, and right after almost 24 hours with no sleep, he drove an hour to his first day of class, mesmerized at the fact that he was now a Dad.

I’m a dad and I’m human

I’m happy to tell you that the Dad in the story is me and that I did complete my Master’s program while my son was a newborn, studying in the short moments where he would fall asleep and waking up during the night to ensure he’s safe.

I would like to tell you I’m a superhero, but I’m far from it. In fact I struggled to complete my undergraduate degree and got fired from my next job after that. I had a hard time concentrating and even doing normal tasks (I was later diagnosed with ADHD, there is another fatherli blog on parenting with ADHD here).

But when the plus sign on the pregnancy test appeared, none of that mattered. I knew I had to make sure my son would have a great future and the first thing I did was figure out what everything was going to cost (I’m an accountant so I naturally built a complex Excel sheet).

My life now

Fast forward to today, my son is now 4 years old and has a 2 year old brother. I have since left the corporate world and started my own party jump house company, a limousine company and now own a company for Dads of Adventuring Toddlers called Toddster.

The reason I’m on this path is very simple. I want to spend as much quality time with them as possible. I’ve learned that everything I wanted right up until that day I was watching Netflix and learned I would be a Dad doesn’t matter.

I no longer want to make a boatload of money to buy shiny things to impress people I don’t even like. I no longer want to get drunk until it's way past a regular bed time with people that don’t care about me.

And I most definitely don’t want to go through life with no purpose.

Finding my path

Although I had a degree from a reputable university and worked at one of the top firms (even though I eventually got fired), I drove a corvette and had many friends that always wanted to hang out with me, I didn’t really feel a true purpose to anything.

Thankfully I am no longer able to say that, since every day I’m gone for even 10 minutes, I have two amazing boys waiting for me to play with them or to teach me the latest thing they learned.

I now have two people that I want the world to be proud of and I get to experience one of the greatest experiences that a man can ever experience and that is of being a Dad.

Because although I had more freedom before I had my kids, there was no place in the world that made me as happy as I now feel in my own house throwing my boys in the air or running around the house with them.

About me

Arturo is the father of two toddlers and founder at Toddster who's mission is to get Dads outdoors with their toddlers because he believes toddlers deserve to grow up to be mentally and physically healthy. His Facebook Group 'For Adventuring Dads of Toddlers' has inspired thousands of Dads to go outdoors with their toddlers.