So it’s been near enough a year since my first entry for Daddy Diaries, and 18 months into fatherhood.

The small person isn’t as small and has found her lungs and her legs. As a result I’ve had to find my stamina, and renew my gym membership!

Being a father has been and is everything I could have dreamt of.

The small person is in nursery, and last week I went to her parents evening. Going through her development book was crazy seeing her progress, from when she started, to her walking and saying her first words and developing her social skills.

Even this morning we were watching an animation, and the mother hugged her child and our small person did the same with her doll, and my other half turns to me filled with pride and says, “Look! Social modeling”

The small person is the center of our world. And rightly so.

Can barely remember life before her.

However. There was one thing. A now lesser, and somewhat neglected thing called The Relationship.

Heck. There was a good 5 years of it prior.

What happened to it?

It’s still there, but it’s not the same.

It got sidelined.

Priorities took over.

Making sure small persons needs were met inadvertently meant our needs weren’t so much catered for the way they used to be.

One day you realize you haven’t had a date night in months. It’s usually the same day you realize you haven’t had a lie in in months.

You look in the mirror and realize you’ve kind of let yourself go a bit. It happened gradually, but it happened.

Didn’t have time. Had other concerns. Like making sure we had enough wet wipes and milk for small persons Weetabix in the morning.

This was one of a number of things I wasn’t told about, nor gave any thought to prior to becoming a parent. But it is real.

As great as parenthood is, especially when undertaken in unison, it’s just as important for the parents to have a strong and healthy relationship with each other.

To take some time to actually be with each other. Laugh together, sing together (maybe badly but still), and enjoy each other. Constantly renew the spark that brought you together. It may be more challenging now but it shouldn’t prove impossible.

As much as the focus has been on making sure small person doesn’t go without (so far so good), I am aware that I need to renew my efforts alongside my partner to make sure that emotionally, we do not go without either.

Much like with parenting I guess, there’s no handbook.

But there are plenty of resources to pool from. Peers that are further along into parenthood, relationship counseling, mothers and fathers and uncles and aunties…Wendy Williams.

Actually, scratch that last one. Lols.

In short, being an adult is hard as with responsibility comes challenges and readjustments to your priorities.

But with dedication and will, it all works out.

You just have to want it to.

Missus, me, and small person. Missus, and me.