This is another break from my typical rockstar blog posts and a step into my personal life. Not only do I want my readers to receive great information from me but I want them to know ‘who‘ they are receiving their information from, and I am proud to say that it is coming from a Dad.

Next month will be my son’s second birthday and mark the two best years of my life thus far. I have been blessed with a beautiful son who I love with all my heart and becoming a Dad was the best thing to ever happen to me. My wife has made the Dad life picture perfect by supporting me in anything that I do, and floods our family with unconditional love.

My life as a Dad

My life as a Dad is the sole driving motivation of everything that I do and everything that I work for. My parents did an amazing job of providing and caring for me and I owe it to them to provide the same for their grandchildren. Being a Dad has meant that I assume roles that I never even thought about previously, like teaching manners and watching the same movies over and over again if that is what my son wants. Watching my son explore the world with everything absorbing into his mind like a new sponge is unbelievable. Watching his first breath, seeing his first steps, hearing him say that he loves me for the first time is more than enough to fill a million lifetimes of happiness.

What happened to my goals?

Before I became a Dad, there were so many “important” things to me that I was working to achieve and desired so much. Shiny cars, wealth, and success were goals of mine then and although the goals haven’t changed, the reason for them have, drastically. I want shiny cars to teach my children to value what our family has worked hard to achieve and that the pleasure of nice things isn’t given, it’s earned. Building wealth comes with dedication, respect, and honoring what you have already worked so hard for. With wealth, I can provide my family with trips around the world to show them things I have seen in other countries and have them build a respect for different cultures. The last goal is success. It’s very important to me that my children understand the true definition of success. This is one word that I can say Webster can not define. Success is only defined by each person individually. To me, reaching your goals is not the definition of success but only a stepping stone to getting there. My success will be defined by the choices I make, the lessons I learn, and the value I give back. So, as a father to my son, I started giving back.

For the love of people

Children love. It’s wired into their existence before they are born and during experiences throughout their life, they learn to continue loving or let it fall dormant within them. Sadly, it’s not their fault when the latter of those two happen. It’s very important to my wife and I to teach our children to love each other and to love all people. A strong love and respect for others is very hard to teach and best shown through example. Sometimes, my wife does a better job at that than I do. Just another reason why I love her.

A little Daddy humor

Below is a very funny video shared with me by a friend from church. She has a great sense of humor and just the kind of person to bring a smile to anyone’s face. Thanks Brooke.

About Clifton Hatfield

I am a family man. My wife and I are both web developers and parents to our beautiful boys. I have been working with social networks since 2004 and blogging even longer. After building niche networks of over 400,000 members, I have genuinely gained knowledge of how they have grown over the years and have influenced the way people interact on the internet. My hobbies include writing Facebook Applications and Wordpress Plugins. In my free time, I love a glass of wine with my wife or playing in the yard our boys. Nothing means more to me than my family.

Google+ Profile

More posts by Clifton Hatfield