The key to successful fatherhood? Little and often. I realised that Eloise – much as she enjoyed spending all day (and most of the night) with me on holiday, got a far greater sense of excitment from seeing me come home from work than she did on holiday. When she greets me now she wants to tell me about her day, what she did, who she met and what her mummy did for her. On holiday, by that time of day neither of us had anything left to say to each other. So short bursts work well; they build her excitement and I can be really engaged with her.

Often is important, too. I know that I need to see her a lot to be able to follow her changing interests, her new achievements and particularly to understand her developing speech. Infrequent, little visits would just leave us too unfamiliar with each other, with too little understanding to make the time worthwhile.

There is one other important thing – dependability. Any child – but particularly young children – need to be able to depend on their parents. Knowing that I will be there to let her out of her ‘cage’ first thing in the morning, to bathe her at night is important. But talking about providing certainty is a little dull.

The only problem with the key to successful fatherhood? I suspect that it runs contrary to marriage harmony.

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1. The contradictions of fatherhood

Sometimes it’s obvious, of course. She loves gazing at the halogen lights in the ceiling of our basement. They sparkle and attract her attention, particularly when they are hot from me spending too long watching football. She loves watching the washing machine in action which offends my sensibilities much less than the idea of putting her in front of the TV.

She also loves looking at herself in the mirror (funny, that). It’s not clear that she understands exactly what is happening. She will wave and reach out to touch herself – and when she swings the cupboard mirror towards her she is surprised that there’s nothing behind it. But she still looks at both versions of me, uncertain as to where she should place her trust.

My daugher, Eloise, also loves looking at other people and is now (increasingly) disappointed when they fail to respond to her overtures (it’s genetic, I think). Her mother is convinced that she also likes looking at animals – dogs mostly but conveniently this also fits her agenda to get a dog.

However, there are some times when she looks at something and I desparately search to find out what she sees. It could be a white ceiling or an empty wall, a light switch or a piece of fluff on the carpet. Sometimes it’s the excitement of a chair leg. As my wife said yesterday, the world would be an amazing place if it was as exciting for everyone as it was for Eloise. But if I could unlock that secret to her mind, I would understand her just a little bit better.

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After putting her to sleep I picked up her dirty nappy which made me reflect on how ‘I’d do anything for her’ (sorry for thinking in cliches) and also that she wouldn’t really understand until she had children of her own – but that she wouldn’t understand that fact until she did.

I got downstairs and got a text from my wife. The nanny was sick and wouldn’t be able to look after Eloise on Wednesday. I was in a panic. Karen had meetings all day and I had two really important meetings. Neither of us were going to compromise so we needed to find someone else. We did, finally (my Dad) at 11.30pm. We were getting pretty desparate at one point and wondering where else we could turn but I didn’t feel particularly good when I checked on her on my way to bed.

It felt so wrong. Only minutes earlier I’d been thinking that I’d do anything for my daughter and here I was desparately trying to get her off my hands on anyone I could get hold of – just to go to a couple of meetings. They weren’t any old meetings and I’m still pleased that I went (and delighted that she got to spend time with my Dad and that he could step in).

I’ve always tried to balance the various calls on my time (Karen, work, LFC, family, Labour etc) but some times you have to let people down to do everything you want. And you can never explain it properly to your children (or if you can, I haven’t found the way).

I’m writing this because fatherhood is great – but I rarely hear about the difficult moments so feel a duty just to express how it feels when it’s difficult and when you let them down.

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1. The key to successful fatherhood

I was reading Eloise, my 11 month old, a story. It’s fairly simple and usually brief. She fidgets whilst I try to sound interested in the Q&A structure with a pop-up flap page which reveals the answer.

It’s called ‘what does baby do’ and I’m sure helps her understand social situations. Apparently children from a very young age (c. 2 years) can re-enact social situations (such as going to a restaurant and being offered a seat and ordering from a menu). So ‘what does baby do’ is designed to help her understand an appropriate response to her grandparents leaving.

Anyway, tonight was different. Tonight, she sat on my lap, listened to the story, lifted the flap and joined in three of the actions. It couldn’t have been any better. And she expressed frustration when the story finished. It even took longer than normal because she was so engaged in the process of lifting the flaps.

I’m developing a thesis about fatherhood: that Dads become more engaged as the mother becomes less useful. Let me explain: In the early days I was only useful to Eloise for changing her nappy. And that could be done by anyone. Now she no longer needs her mother for feeding – and has more complex needs – I can provide them. It’s altogether more fulfilling.

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