A nice story that made me smile that i didnt expect

My father is a private man, besides joy and anger its hard to tell what hes feeling, has felt or will feel. He doesnt openly express the more complicated negative emotions, sadness, grief etc almost ever. Hes a very hard man to read normally. So this was particularly touching and id like to share it with you.

The story starts at my birthday. I wanted this particular racing bike for my 12th birthday, perfect color make spec name everything, i had been to the bike shop more times than i can count to see it. I haddnt asked for much in the past and i thought "i really want this so im just gunna ask and see what happens"

My birthday came around and my father went to the shop to get it for me (i had no idea about it)

They had sold the last one in my size!!!! He returns home and says to my mother that they were sold out, she asked him to go back down there and get the next closest model. He declined flat out.

When he was that same age he had asked for a soldering iron for his birthday, it was a specific model he wanted. His birthday came around and he got..... a soldering iron!!! GREAT but it wasnt the model he asked for so frustrated he shunned it. His father came to his room and asked "what are you doing we work hard and that wasnt cheap why are you so mad?". He explained it was not the right one. Confused his father asked him why, he said "i can do one better" and got out his scalextrix car set he had damaged eariler that year. He proceeded to unbox the brand new soldering iron and show his father that it simply wasnt hot enough to melt the tracks togther like the model he specifically requested, and that thus the one he got was useless for that application.

returning to my previous story:

He told my mother that i didnt want "the next closest model" and phoned around for days trying to find the exact one in my size, eventually did and drove the 100 miles to get it. He explained to my mother that he was so unhappy and completely gutted on his birthday he didnt want to do that to me, that no present was better than the wrong present and for just once he wanted to get it exactly right, especially on the same year.

Sure enough i came down on my birthday saw that the dinning room doors were closed, went in and there it was. I was so happy i nearly cried laughing with joy.

That was 18 years ago and i never had a clue about any of what he had done till last week.

Dads can be awesome and some times you wont even be aware of it. Take care of yours, they dont last forever.

reply to post by Biigs


My folks never got me what I wanted. Ever.

But they did give one of the greatests gifts of all. They taught me that if I wanted something, I had to work for it. Boy were they surprised when I drove a tricked out 1970 Cutlass into the driveway when I was a teen.

They always wanted me to dress nice for school and I always have been a blue jeans and T-shirt kind of guy. They told me that if I bought the clothes, then I could wear them to school. Lots of lawns mowed got me there.

I'm forever thankful that they instilled this in me, as I probably wouldn't be where I am today. One of the greatest gifts ever. And I didn't realize it at the time...but it was what I wanted all along.

In all honesty....I cant wait to do that for my kid! Just put a big fat smile on his or her face. I often think about the things I would for my blood.

That's an awesome story! Amazing what people can do for their loved ones and to things to be "right". Hope that I will have kids to do these things to one day.