Every stage leaves a mark on the doorframe
Dad Diary is grouped around one simple idea: what you’re going through changes completely depending on how old your child is. Here’s the wall we measure against — five stages, each with its own kind of joy and its own kind of chaos.
Expecting Fathers
From bump to birth
The fun bit
Nursery shopping sprees you didn’t know you’d enjoy this much. Debating names nobody else likes. Telling people and watching their faces do something new.
The hard bit
Decoding NCT class jargon. Googling every twinge at 2am. Realising “getting the nursery ready” mostly means assembling flat-pack furniture with unclear instructions.
The fun bit
First smile, first steps, first time they call you by name — or something close enough. You are, briefly and gloriously, the most impressive person alive.
The hard bit
Sleep becomes theoretical. Supermarket tantrums happen on a schedule only they know. Stepping on stray Lego at midnight builds real character.
The fun bit
Homework you can (mostly) still help with. Watching them find their people at school. Being genuinely proud of a school play you’d never admit was two hours too long.
The hard bit
Playground politics with rules more complex than most workplaces. Packed lunch negotiations. Somehow being booked solid every weekend with clubs you didn’t sign up for.
The fun bit
Actual conversations, the kind with opinions in them. Watching who they’re becoming, sometimes in real time, sometimes overnight. The odd shared laugh at something you both find funny.
The hard bit
The eye-roll, weaponised. Exam stress that somehow becomes household stress. Curfews, negotiated like international treaties.
The fun bit
The friendship stage. Watching them build a life you’re proud of, and — every so often — actually being asked for your advice.
The hard bit
Letting go, on their timeline, not yours. An oddly quiet bedroom. Your wallet remaining, mysteriously, still involved.