Dads in the Limelight ( #limelightdads )- Mike Reynolds ( @PuzzlingPostDad ) #dadchat

I’m a dad and husband first, a communications professional who gets to spend his day on Facebook and Twitter second and the writer behind puzzlingposts.com third. What I certainly enjoy the most, and what I’d eventually like to be in the limelight for is the bedtime stories I write with my daughters. These stories combine my love of writing and my greater love of my daughters into one supercharged writing experience.

I have a wife I’ve been married to for almost seven years and two little girls, Leah (3) and Charlotte (1). Depending on the day, the kids might also admit that we have a cat named Cookie but they’re not always the best of friends.

I’m the writer, my wife’s the baker and the kids are a bit of everything, including a very healthy pinch of crazy and creativity.

My biggest challenge as a father is picking up my socks and playing with my girls even when I’m tired, which, being a father of two really young girls, is often. It’s a big fear of mine that I’ll one day look at my two 20-something’s and think to myself “I should have given more piggyback rides.”

Don’t be afraid to do absolutely anything your kids ask you to do. If your daughter wants you to walk to the corner store wearing a floppy hat and holding a parasol to get some pretend sugar for a pretend tea party, do that and carry her on your shoulders while you’re doing it. Kids grow up fast and there will come a day when they’ll have someone else to do a lot of their fun things with. Work every day to push that date as far back as you can.

I’ve been able to include my kids in a lot of the things I work on. The biggest example is the bedtime stories I write. Every one of them so far has been a collaboration with my oldest daughter. She comes up with the idea, we tell a story between us at bedtime, and then I turn that conversation into something more.

So much of what I write about is based on feelings I have while spending time with the kids which at least means I don’t spend too many of their waking hours hammering out words on the computer.

There’s no question it can be challenging to find time to write but it doesn’t feel right to tell your kid you don’t have time to play at the moment because you’re trying to write about how great it is to be a dad.

What I’ve learned more than anything else is that 99 per cent of us struggle with being a parent every day and the other one per cent are just having a once in a lifetime day. I started writing about my journey as a parent because I wanted other parents to know they weren’t the only ones struggling and it’s good to have other dads I interact with offer me that same peace of mind.

There’s no limits to a child’s imagination. Some are quiet, some are loud but they all have distinct personalities. It’s our role to help draw those personalities out and to help our kids realize how unique and special they are. My kids, although still very young, are already very different from one another. Parenting is easier if you cookie cutter them into a routine but that won’t benefit them in the long run. Take the time to nurture specific interests.

As cheesily sentimental as it is, every time I get a sleepy hug in the morning or an unsolicited “I love you Daddy,” I feel as though I’ve hit the parenting jackpot. I also do like the big moments though—watching faces on Christmas morning, the first day of school, completing a popsicle stick house on their own kind of things.