Dad Writes Letter To His Newborn Daughter To Read When She Grows Up — 'Thank You For The Happiest Week Of My Life'
His heartfelt pronouncement of love for being a dad is wonderful to witness.
Canva Pro / cottonbro studio Becoming a parent is an emotional experience. Oftentimes, the overwhelming sensations of love and hope can inspire parents to tap into their creative sides.
Lawyer and author Qian Julie Wang recently shared how her husband honored those emotions in a touching tribute to their new baby.
The new dad is writing letters to his week-old daughter for her to read when she grows up.
Wang took to X, formerly Twitter, to share an excerpt of a letter that her husband wrote to their new baby girl. Captioning the post with three sobbing emojis to express her raw reaction to his message, Wang's husband drives home, in no uncertain terms, how many parents feel at the birth of their newborn — that they accept her for exactly who she is.
He wrote, “Your mother and I do not give one single, solitary [expletive] what you do with your life. We want only that you be happy and healthy, with a sharp tongue and a big heart.”
He chose to focus on the values he hopes his daughter will embody as she grows up, without prescribing any specific goal, occupation, or pathway that he thinks she should take. He offered his newborn daughter guidance to help her navigate through the stormy parts of life, sharing the hard, essential truth that “good times and bad times will come and go.”
The devoted dad shared words of wisdom, gratitude for his daughter’s existence, and his hopes for her future.
“I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the happiest week of my life,” he wrote. “I have never had a greater sense of usefulness, of purpose, than these past few days of being your father — and if you now find me useless or obsolete, so much the better.”
He let the future-version of his daughter into the deep emotional landscape he’s currently mining as a new parent. He reassured her that he will always be there for her.
In expressing the strength of his love for her, he’s also allowing her to grow up, and let him go. In telling her that whenever she decides to be fully independent, he’ll only harbor happiness for her decision — showing a form of strength and inner peace that’s hard for anyone to cultivate, let alone practice with their beloved children.
“I pray that I never give you cause to forget this… I live for you,” he ended his letter.
Other parents commented on Wang’s heartfelt post, sharing their own practices for memory-making and creating emotional legacies for their children.
Some people said they opened email accounts for their babies, and have sent notes for them to open as they grow older. Others mentioned that they film videos for their kids, marking moments in time that they want their kids to see in the future.
Photo: Anna Shvets / Pexels
The transition to parenting is never easy. The entire parenting journey is a groundswell of complex emotions, all felt while being extremely sleep-deprived, especially in those early, tender weeks of a baby’s life.
This father’s sentimental practice of letter writing allows him to process all his love into a tangible item, for his daughter to hold onto as she grows, as her own life expands to whatever she wants it to be.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers parenting, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.