Richard and Persephone Johnson (Photo : Facebook)
A young single father who has made two touching Facebook posts about all the struggles he has had raising his infant daughter by himself, has made a connection with other dads on a social network for fathers. The man and his daughter were alone after the baby's mother left when the young child was around one month old.
Richard Johnson explained in a post to the social network Life of Dad that he was already anxious and frightened about being a father. However, it got worse when he had to fill the roles of his daughter Persephone's Daddy and Mommy. Johnson's post was published on the network's Facebook page.
He does not know exactly why his daughter's mother left. One theory is that she had post-partum depression (PPD) after giving birth.
The single father's post went viral, and had over 30,000 Likes as of November 13, Friday, according to US. Johnson then added another post that included details about the events following the exodus of the baby's mom.
Johnson admitted that life has been difficult for him. He was worried his fathering skills would not be good enough for his little daughter.
The root cause of his fears was his own parents' divorce. His father left the family when he was 6 years old, and Johnson did not meet him again until age 21.
He was worried about becoming a father because he did not grow up with one. However, there was no time to be worried because he had to be his young daughter's "rock."
Johnson had a steep learning curve. He read many "new parent" books and watched more than 1,000 hours of YouTube parenting videos, according to Today.
However, the Life of Dad social network gave Johnson support from fellow fathers, and some were in a similar situation. He and 10-month-old Persephone are now very happy.
In his second Facebook post the new father referred to his ex-girlfriend as an amazing woman. He understands that PPD is hard to live with.
Johnson's advice to single parents is to tell their children that they love them. It will give them strength.
