Dad with ADHD shares how the 'best compliment' he's had in ages from toddler son moved him to tears

As a parent, there is always a looming fear of missing out on precious moments with one's kids. In today's world, where every moment counts in professional life, it is impossible to completely put it on the back burner and focus only on the children. It makes parents fall into a dilemma about how to have that ideal "balanced" life. u/omegavelkai was also going through something like that, questioning whether all the hustle was worth it if he did not get to be with his children in their growing years. He shares with the internet how some words gave him a ray of hope through the distressing time and became his "best dad moment."

The man begins the post addressing all the other fathers in the thread, as he wants to send them a positive message through their struggles. He shared he is a father of a 3-year-old boy and a 5-month-old girl. Then he explained how he is swamped with various tasks such as "work, cooking, housework, DIY," which has caused him to become a zombie. All these tasks have become so overwhelming that he has no break to do anything with his children. The work that he does get to do with his kids has become chores that he is unable to "engage" in. They are just duties he strikes off from the list.

The father also struggles with ADHD and anxiety, which causes further complications in his pursuit of balancing various tasks and his emotional commitments. The combination of these circumstances, in his own words, leads to a "struggle to live in the moment and feel like I'm always trying to fast forward to the next task/day." Slowly and steadily, he was getting overwhelmed by not being enough for his children and disappointing them with his absence. He started to think that whatever he was doing did not matter as eventually, he wouldn't be able to garner the love he wanted from his children because of the distance.

In the storm of worries, one statement by his son brought him back to life. He and his son were doing silly things with each other when suddenly, the little one hugged him and exclaimed, "You're really funny, Dad!" Suddenly, it felt as if everything came to a "screeching halt" for the father, as he understood that even after doing what he believed was inadequate, he still was able to make his son laugh. He became the world's funniest person for him.

The comment from his son meant a lot to him. He explained, "It was the best compliment/feedback I've had from anyone for a long time and for the first time in ages that I've really felt able to enjoy 'now'." The fact that whatever he was putting in towards the upbringing of his children was not going to waste and they actually appreciated him, which moved him immensely. He ended the post by asking other fathers about their best moments in parenting.

u/Minimum-Geologist-58 shared a heartwarming experience with his child, "We went to another part of town this w/e with my 20 months old. As soon as we left the station, he started shouting "wow" over and over because there was a building site with 2 (yes 2) diggers and 2 dump trucks. We went to have a look at that. Later on, we saw a police car pull in somewhere and the officers waved at him and he waved back and they turned on their blue lights and he loved it. We took the train 'choo-choo' home (he loves trains) and he went to bed and chatted with his bear for about an hour. I like to think he was telling him all about his amazing day! He managed to turn "nothing" into the best day for me too!"