The Daddy Blogs ~ Part 1

Welcome to the Daddy Blogs! With Father's Day later this week, we have asked several Fathers to focus on Father's Day and what being a Father means to them.  Our first Daddy Blogger is Jim Livingston, from Dayton, Ohio.

Daughters, Heather & Erin

I am a very blessed father with two wonderful daughters.  I have been a father for over three decades now, and have enjoyed every second of it.  When sitting down to write this piece it was with the intent of expressing what my feelings are of being a Dad, through those ups and downs of raising my daughters and the joy they are to me.  After a little reflection, I thought it better to express my feelings regarding Fathers Day as a son rather than a father.  Fathers Day to me is a special day to recognize my dad, who not only do I share the same name with but also who taught me what I needed to know to live life.

When I was growing up, there was a period of time Dad worked two jobs, along with any additional jobs he could get on the side in order to provide for us.  Though as tired as he must have been he never let on when I wanted a “horsy back” ride, or for him to play with me.  Dad - A coal miner in the early years before I was born, a welder and foreman in a steel mill as I grew up, disabled as I moved into adulthood in a terrible accident.

Jim Livingston Sr.

As the years passed while growing up and later in adulthood, dad taught me what a father should be, loving, compassionate, firm, disciplined, and a host of other things.  Perhaps the biggest lessons I learned were by observing my dad’s actions.  I realized it is not hard to tell someone how to be, how to live their life, be this way not that way, do this not that.  Heck anybody can do that.  Watching my dad live his life showed me the best example of how to live mine.  He did not have to say a word.  He passed to me how to have love, compassion, respect, honor, kindness and so many other things by his own actions.  Hopefully, I have been a good student and have been good son growing up, a good son as a man, and a good father to my daughters.

I can only hope and pray that my actions are as good as his and I set a good example for my daughters to learn from and pass on to their children.

What Fathers Day means to me?  Being able to point to him and proudly say, “That’s MY dad”.

Jim Livingston Jr.

About the author:
Jim Livingston Jr is a retired US Air Force Major now working as a government contractor at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.  Married to his wife Connie who blessed him with his daughters, Heather and Erin.