Shaping the father we become
Lessons from Daedalus
Being a Dad is both Love… and terror!
You hold the hope that your kids will soar, and at the same time you carry the dread of their inevitable falls.
‘Hope and fear’
Sculpture from The Artists’ Woodshed Retreat
That truth lives in me as much as in the wood I’ve been sculpting in my studio.
In my latest work, Daedalus gazes upward, his face torn between pride and dread, while Ikarus hovers before him. That tension…hope and fear bound together… is what fatherhood feels like.
Having consciously thought about what it means to be a father, long before my own children were born, I’ve learned that what we face as parents isn’t only about our children. It’s about ourselves.
The same shadows that we wrestle with in private, our doubts… our failings… our quiet fears… these shape what we can offer to those we love too. The more honestly we face those shadows, the more freedom our children have to face their own. I’ve written about that in an earlier post titled (Walking on the floor of mistakes).
‘Will he make it?’
Sculptures from The Artists’ Woodshed Retreat
Lessons in the Everyday
The paradox of parenting is that even if you’ve prepare, and hope to hand your kids wisdom… it isn’t passed down in grand moments. It’s passed on in the everyday, through the way we live.
Our kids learn from how we rise, how we falter, how we despair, and how we repair. This post is for the Dads… the single Dads, the Step Dads, the Divorced Dads, the stressed Dads… those parents anywhere, who feel the doubt of whether they are enough. Every ounce of of growth you invest in yourself, every time you do the hard work of change, you are shaping a better world for your children. Even when it feels unseen.
Perhaps, especially, then….
‘Insights from the past’
Sculptures from The Artists’ Woodshed Retreat
A gift of compassion
If you feel the weight of fatherhood, the hope, the fear, the shadow… know this: Compassion for yourself is not indulgence. It’s strength. The effort you put into your own growth becomes a living gift to those you love.
‘To those Dads who helped you become You’
Sculpture from The Artists’ Woodshed Retreat
Invitation to practice
This Father’s Day, don’t just thank your own Dad, or those Dad’s in your Family. another father you see around you… a friend, a colleague, a neighbour. Tell them what you admire about their fathering. Be specific. That recognition might be the reminder they need: that their effort matters, and that love (in all its mess, shadow, and hope) is never wasted.
Insightful Path Professional Coaching
And if you’re a Dad, or simply someone carrying the weight of wanting to grow for those you love, know that you don’t have to walk this path alone.
At Insightful Path, my work is about helping people face their shadows, growth their strengths, and step more fully into the kind of parent, and person, that they want to be.
If that resonates, I’d love to connect. Sometimes the most important gift you can give your kids is the commitment to your own growth.
“Our example teaches louder than our words. But what happens when we fail, or when life throws us into struggle? That’s when resilience becomes the gift we pass on. Let’s explore that next.”
