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“A balm for the soul”
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GOOD PEOPLE Book
upworthy

dad

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

I have plenty of space.


It's hard to truly describe the amazing bond between dads and their daughters.

Being a dad is an amazing job no matter the gender of the tiny humans we're raising. But there's something unique about the bond between fathers and daughters.

Most dads know what it's like to struggle with braiding hair, but we also know that bonding time provides immense value to our daughters. In fact, studies have shown that women with actively involved fathers are more confident and more successful in school and business.


You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? I'll just let these images sum up the daddy-daughter bond.

A 37-year-old Ukrainian artist affectionately known as Soosh, recently created some ridiculously heartwarming illustrations of the bond between a dad and his daughter, and put them on her Instagram feed. Sadly, her father wasn't involved in her life when she was a kid. But she wants to be sure her 9-year-old son doesn't follow in those footsteps.

"Part of the education for my kiddo who I want to grow up to be a good man is to understand what it's like to be one," Soosh told Upworthy.

There are so many different ways that fathers demonstrate their love for their little girls, and Soosh pretty much nails all of them.

Get ready to run the full gamut of the feels.

1. Dads can do it all. Including hair.

relationships, fathers, dads

I’ve got this.

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

2. They also make pretty great game opponents.

daughters, daughter, father

Sharing life strategy.

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

3. And the Hula-Hoop skills? Legendary.

bonding, dad, child

Tight fitting hula-hoop.

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

4. Dads know there's always time for a tea party regardless of the mountain of work in front of them.

family bond, parent, child-bond

Dad makes time.

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

5. And their puppeteer skills totally belong on Broadway.

love, guidance, play

Let’s play.

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

6. Dads help us see the world from different views.

sociology, psychology,  world views

Good shoulders.

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

7. So much so that we never want them to leave.

travel, inspiration, guidance

More dad time please.

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

8. They can make us feel protected, valued, and loved.

protectors, responsibilities, home

Always the protector.

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

9. Especially when there are monsters hiding in places they shouldn't.

superhero, monsters, sleeping

Dad is superman.

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

daddy-daughter bond, leadership, kids

Never a big enough bed.

All illustrations are provided by Soosh and used with permission.

Seeing the daddy-daughter bond as art perfectly shows how beautiful fatherhood can be.


This article originally appeared on 04.09.16

Richard Pringle, a dad from England, thought he'd have more time with his son, Hughie.

Hughie had a serious brain condition his doctors considered manageable. He was supposed to be fine.

Tragically, the odds struck for the worst and Hughie, 3 years old at the time, suffered a brain hemorrhage last year that he did not survive.


It's a heartbreaking story, but Hughie's memory lives on. Pringle says he's "realised more than ever how precious life is."

He wanted to help other parents appreciate the fleeting and fragile nature of life. So Pringle came up with 10 things he's learned since his son passed.

"I was actually putting my little girl to bed one night and lying with her. It was then I wrote it," he says. "All things I've been thinking about and it just flowed."

The list reads as fond memories of a short life lived to the fullest. Yet it also serves as a powerful wake up call for any of us who might be missing out on the little moments that matter most.

"You can never ever kiss and love too much," Pringle writes. "You always have time. Stop what you're doing and play, even if it's just for a minute. Nothing's that important that it can't wait."

"Make boring things fun," he adds. "Be silly, tell jokes, laugh, smile, and enjoy yourselves. They're only chores if you treat them like that. Life is too short not to have fun."

You can read the full list in his original post:

❤️❤️The 10 Most Important Things I've Learnt Since Losing My Son 🙏1. You can never ever kiss and love too much. 2....

Posted by Richard Pringle on Wednesday, August 23, 2017

The post went viral and struck a nerve with parents everywhere who saw themselves in Pringle's words.

We're all tired from work, stressed from thinking about bills, and constantly scanning the house for what needs to be cleaned or fixed up. It becomes so easy to miss what's right in front of us — moments with our kids that can never be recreated. All the other stuff? It can wait.

It's not just for parents. Everyone could stand to stop and smell the roses, so to speak, a little more often.

"There's beauty in the simple things," Pringle says. "Things that often within our busy destructed lives go unnoticed. There's real beauty in simplicity and I feel we all need to realize this."

Thanks to new advertising rules, you won't be seeing the clueless dad tropes on British TV.

You know the type. Mom's on a trip/taking a rest day/somehow escaped from the Stepford wives and left Dad (gasp!) to take care of the chores. He bumbles around the house, burning dinner, and acting as if the laundry machine were impossible alien technology.

[rebelmouse-image 19473989 dam="1" original_size="750x500" caption="So let me get this straight, you put this "clo-thing" in the "ham-per?" Photo from iStock." expand=1]So let me get this straight, you put this "clo-thing" in the "ham-per?" Photo from iStock.


Well, there'll be no more of that nonsense. New regulations proposed by the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Agency will nix dated gender stereotypes in television commercials. Advertisers will face tougher guidelines around images of diaper-phobic dads or glorified-maid moms.

The agency won't ban all stereotypes — they point out it'd be "inappropriate and unrealistic" to try to wipe out traditionally gendered imagery — but they do want to change some of the cringeworthy gendered stereotypes we're used to seeing in ads.

Basically, if a mop company wants to have a dad in their commercial, he's going to have to act as if he's actually seen a mop before.

These new rules came after a review following a controversial 2015 "beach body" advertisement and, if adopted, would go into effect next year, as the BBC reports.

A single ad, image, or story isn't itself a problem, but it can get overwhelming when every single paper towel, mop, or diaper company seems to fall back on the same old tropes.

Research hints that these kinds of stereotypes can actually affect people in real life. The agency hopes that guiding advertisers away from them might in turn have real world benefits.

The United Kingdom notably has stronger limitations on what can appear on TV compared with the United States.

But the best reason to wave goodbye to those old ads might be that they just don't match the real world anymore.

Men who change diapers or take their kids to the park aren't chipping in or babysitting. They're being dads. And the idea that Mom is destined to be the sole housekeeper is something better left in the 1950s — and on '50s television.

You might recognize Chris Hemsworth as the secretary in the upcoming "Ghostbusters" reboot, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Thor, or as the older brother of Miley Cyrus's sometimes beau, Liam.

But what you might not know is that the Australian god of thunder also has aspirations of culinary greatness and a 4-year-old daughter named India whom he dares not disappoint.

When his sweet little girl requested a chocolate T. rex cake to celebrate her birthday, the Mighty Hemsworth knew exactly what to do: order a cake from the cake store.

But life is not without its roadblocks, even for an in-demand leading man. We can’t say for sure if Hemsworth was hindered by the famously terrible L.A. traffic on the Rainbow Bridge to Asgard, or if he just waited too long to call the local bakery, but either way, the end result revealed the same shocking, awful truth: The cake store wouldn't have time to create the requested culinary dino-concoction in time for his daughter's birthday.

"What do you mean, you can't bake me a cake for my daughter's birthday? I'm $@ing THOR." — what the ever-friendly Chris Hemsworth definitely did not say. Photo by Anthony Kwan/Getty Images.

So Hemsworth swung into action, like a huntsman in that movie where he plays the huntsman.

Lest he return to his home empty-handed, Hemsworth consulted with Odin's great wisdom and found a recipe for such a cake as his daughter did desire.

With the knowledge of the Norns in hand, he got the the necessary ingredients from a store, just like a normal person who is also a father and wishes to do right by his daughter would do.

Photo by Torsten Laursen/Getty Images.

It was not until he returned to his humble Los Angeles abode that he realized he had forgotten eggs!

(OK so this part didn't actually happen. But I'm taking some creative license just so I can share this funny picture of an exasperated Chris Hemsworth.)

Photo by Alberto Alcocer/Getty Images.

With the clock ticking down toward the anniversary of his daughter's day of birth, the heroic Hemsworth grabbed the mixing bowl and fervently whisked the ingredients together and poured the batter blend into a dinosaur-shaped dish...

Tens of minutes passed as he anxiously awaited for the sugary mixture to settle into its spongy form within the oven...

Watching a cake bake is really, really boring, so here's a lovely photo of Chris and his wife, Elsa Pataky.

Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images for StudioCanal.

With seconds to spare (I'm editorializing), the kitchen timer sounded out an ear-piercing ding, and Hemsworth retrieved his Tyrannosaurus creation from the oven's fiery bowels!

He named his fine dino-delicacy "La TRex al la chocolate," which is a lost Latin phrase that I assume means "Chris Hemsworth made a totally awesome dinosaur cake for his daughter 'cause he's the man."

The lesson here is clear. Next time you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed, or afraid that you might disappoint the one you love, remember: It doesn't take a magical hammer or the power of the gods to bake a dinosaur cake.

Even a god of thunder can screw up and forget a simple task that he probably should planned for ahead of time. But as long as you remember that there's always room to improvise, even if it means you get your hands dirty in the name of love (and not to forget the eggs), you'll be just fine.