Last week, I read about the importance of kids’ playtime with their dads in the article entitled Parenting Advice: Why Kids Need their Dads. Fatherly play proved to have a lot of developmental benefits, specially for male kids.

Research shows that physical engagement–like wrestling, roughhousing (when not carried to an extreme) and warm, playful interaction–helps boys learn to regulate and control their behavior, deal with a range of emotions, and adapt to a variety of situations.

During playtime, a child is given the chance to observe his father’s facial expressions and variations in movement, and eventually, will help the child become a ‘good manager of emotions.’

According to authors Jim and Charles Fay, roughhousing teaches your kids that you love them, that you’re strong enough to control them, and that you won’t control them unless it’s necessary. Your kids learn that you’re powerful, and kind
and gentle at the same time.

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Dearest Dad,

A million thoughts of you breezed through my mind today. The one thought that lingered was that fateful day we got on that bus. That was, without doubt, the longest busride of my life. Who would have known back then that we were bound for a longer journey together called “marriage.”

I am young and vibrant, with a lot of dreams. Settling down, as my friends and family would say, was not for me. Not that early. They even asked me a gazillion times, “How about your dreams and aspirations? You can’t just put them aside.” Yes, of course, I could not just set all my dreams aside but I could not, in the same way, just shun that moment to finally walk life with the person I love the most. Yes, dad, you certainly fit into the puzzle. If I could only highlight the word married in my resume to emphasize how happy I am to be your wife, I would.

I still feel the rush of love filling my soul when I reminisce that long busride. It was the day I recognized my lifetime partner in you. I looked into your eyes and saw my future in it. It was you all along, Cols. Just you.

Our relationship is not perfect because perfect is just synonymous to boring. Let me say that our partnership is intense, pure, fidel, and consistent. Others may laugh at the consistent part but I take the privilege of using that word to describe “us.” Consistent because we always take time to argue, get angry for the other’s foolishness or forgetfulness, tell each other the things we do not like about each other, but we do all that holding each other’s hands, or wrapped in a tight embrace or whispering at the end of the sermon, I love you so much.

We’re a great team dad and we have Vito now, an oh-so spectacular addition.

I love you both. Only God could love you more.

Your wife and best friend,

Angela