Letter to my daughter on her Birthday.

My dear daughter

As you are reading this I am probably at work. I always think of you the most when I am away from you. That is sad isn't it? Maybe you don't know how I feel about you because we are always too busy pushing each other away. SO it's time to share with you what goes through my head when I am away at work.

I  want you to know how special you are to me. It seems like only yesterday that you were a tiny baby and I was sitting in your room next to your crib listening to you breathe. I went from being the heaviest sleeper on the planet to the lightest the day you were born. If you sniffled or coughed I was at your cribside. I would sit next to you and try to visualise our life. I had a scary new job...Dad. I had such big hopes for you but I had no idea what our lives would be like together. I had no idea what you would be like. I knew that you would probably be a little like each of your parents with our good and our bad qualities. You're 12 now and have turned into a brilliant, artistic, creative and all around terrific young lady. You are almost a young woman and I can’t believe how you have grown. As a young woman you have also learned that in life people don't always get along. They have differences that sometimes become arguments. I sometimes upset you when I play "the Daddy Card". I just want you to have a better childhood than I did. You know me, you know my buttons and you know how to push them. but did you know that...

You will always be my little girl; I don’t care what age you are.

I think about you all the time and I can’t wait to see you when I get home.

When we argue, you could never be as mad as I am at myself.

When you are sad, I am sad with you. When you worry I do also. But when you are happy all is right in my world.

No matter how I act, my family is the most important thing in my life.

I wish there were more hours in the day. I am sorry that I am not home enough to enjoy you, and it’s not your fault that I work so much. But please know that I do it for you so you can have a great life.

If you ever need to talk, you can tell me anything.

All I want for you is to be a good person and to be happy with yourself. If you can do that, everything else is a piece of cake.

Please look past my bad side and try to see the “Good Dad” that is writing this for you. The one that misses his kids every minute he is away from home.

Happy birthday sweetheart and I hope all of your wishes come true. And I hope that someday we can look back on these years and smile, that the rough times were outweighed by the good ones and that you had a great time being a kid. I also hope that you are as proud to be my daughter as I am to be your father.

Don’t rush being a kid, it is the best time of your life. There will be plenty of time to be a boring grown-up like me.

I love you,

Dad

We had had an argument the night before her Birthday because I caught her in a lie. When she read this I was at work. She cried. When she called me I did too.