This Is What A Day In The Life of A Dad Looks Like

There is no template for what a normal day looks like in the life of a dad but we wanted to hear from the guys in our Facebook community about how an average day shapes up for them in their life of dad! Between work and play, dads do it all.

Here are just some of the responses detailing the day in the life of dad!

James Clews: Get up (kids are still asleep when I leave at 7am), work 8-4, home at 5. Wife goes to work. Make the kids tea, bath then spend the next two hours trying to get them to sleep. Finally asleep about 9ish, clean and do the washing up. Bed about 11 and then up again at 6am. Got a 3 year old son and 11 month daughter so it’s never a solid 7 hours.

It is ace being a dad but I need to refine the night time routine.

Chris Clifford: 2 boys, ages 4 and 5

Get up about 7 and get all 3 of us washed, dressed and breakfast-ed .

Walk both to take youngest to nursery at 8-ish, walk the eldest back to our house to be picked up by the school bus and head to work at 9. Normal, boring day at work until 5pm.

Head to nursery before 6 and back home. Dinner, playtime, ready for bed, washes and stories.

Bedtime between 7 and 8 (their choice, if they stay up later they go wild and don’t settle).

Most other times may be chaotic but we do have bedtime nailed.

Find energy to clean up and watch TV or play xbox until about 11, then bedtime

Rinse and repeat.

Sage Joseph Lafayette: Well, I’m a single dad, 5-year-old boy and 4-year-old girl. Each morning I wake up around 5:45 to 6.

Wake up the kids and get them to start getting dressed with the clothes I laid out the night before.

Shower and get myself dressed. Make sure they are dressed and teeth brushed, and bags packed.

Drive and drop off my son at school at 7. Drop off my daughter at grandma’s house at 730. Get to work by 745.

Work until 2, pick up daughter, pick up son and back home by 245.

Get snacks for them, then go outside and play with them for a bit, usually an hour.

Get my son started on homework while I start getting dinner ready, while keeping my daughter away from him.

Dinner around 5. They play together for an hour or so after while I clean up and start on some of my homework.

Get them into a shower around 7. Read bedtime stories (usually 2, one for each), and talk about their days. Get them down tucked in by 8. Back to homework for another hour or so, then either a general or TV for a bit to wind down. Lay out kids clothes and check on them around 11, then off to bed for me.

Chris Balding: Up when my nearly 2 year old gets up. Get her dressed and changed. Head to work at around 8/8:30 depending on where I’m working. Get home anytime between 5-6pm sort out dinner for the family. Maybe go for a quick 5/6km run. Get little one ready for bed, cook dinner whilst partner gets little one off to sleep. Dinner at around 8/8:30 and then bed at around 10:30/11.

Matthew Clark: I wake up and hate myself while I get down on Battlefield 1. Then hate myself while I get ready for work. Then I hate myself while I stand there pushing a button all day. Then I get to the weekend and my amazing girlfriend her kids and my daughter help me to remember why I’m still going.

Garnet Jones: Work with a side of work followed by a weekend filled with work. Seriously I work all day every day. I need to hang a family portrait in my vehicle so I can see them more often.

Jon Young: I teach my 2 yr old daughter how to better balance herself with a balance beam I made her. We read books, watch Scooby-Doo at min once a day, play hide and seek, I make her food and she “helps” me with dishes and chores around the house.

Ted Lindell: Wake up at the same time with my daughter. Cook her breakfast, let her watch tv or play on my PS4. Really just enjoy her company since she starts school this fall and I’m going to miss her.

Sinclair Newton: Single Dad. Day starts at 4 or 5. Have my coffee. On my work days I exchange with her. Go pull a 12 hour shift.

Come home. Clean, do laundry, cook and bed. Pick my son up my first day off. Take him to the library for Smart Start or walk to the lake to feed the fish and turtles. Do our daily one hour of class time where we learn colors, shapes, numbers, alphabet and read He naps around 10:30. I prep for the day. Up around 12:30. Lunch. Playtime in what was my room. Now converted into a playden. Ride the bike to the park. Play with other kids and talk to Moms and Dads. Home. Dinner. Bath, Story time. Bed. We go to the beach, Science Center, car shows, airshows, food truck bazaars (mobile food trucks for sale here), train rides, Zoo, local plays, farmer’s market, pick blueberries, work in the yard and house together.  I am a blessed man that just happened to receive the gift of a child. I laugh because I have no time to myself and couldn’t be happier.

What does your day look like, dad? Share your story with us!

*flickr photo by Andrew Dawes, used under Creative Commons license.