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Single dad offers advice to other single parents ‘look into your amazing child’s eyes’

Posted at 2:18 PM, Nov 13, 2015
and last updated 2015-11-13 14:18:25-05

Being a parent is hard. Being a single parent may seem like mission impossible. That may be one reason why young father’s emotional Facebook posts about his life as a single dad have gone viral. Richard Johnson, 21, is the father of a 10-month-old girl named Persephone. On the  Life of Dad Facebook page, Johnson explained his story.

“Her mother left about a month after she was born,” he wrote. “We still don’t know exactly why, but we suspect post-partum depression played a part.

Johnson admitted he was nervous after the mother of his baby left home.

“I stumbled upon your page by accident. I was so nervous and scared about being a father in general, but now I was a single father and had to fulfill two roles. I wasn’t sure I could do it,” he wrote.

He said by visting the Life of Dad Facebook page, he realized there were other men like him — dealing with the same challenges. His initial post on the page received hundreds of shares, and tens of thousands of likes.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I suspect so many of you would see it. Let alone how many of you would comment on it,” he wrote. He added the page has really helped him feel better about being a single father.

“Being that I never had a father, it was truly frightening to become one. Even more so when I was going to do it alone. I didn’t have time to be worried though because that beautiful little girl needed a parent who could be her rock and would love her to pieces. In my mind there was no other option,” he wrote. “I spent more than a few nights holding my little girl as she slept — weeping, because I wasn’t sure I was going to be a good enough father for her.”

He also offered advice for other parents.

“If you ever feel like the load is to much or you’re just not good enough. Look into your amazing child’s eyes and just tell them you love them. You’d be amazed to see how much strength you have when someone else is counting on you and loving you more and more for what you’re doing. You’ll find strength where you thought you had none,” he said.