Isabella and Us. Daddy Blog Series - Stephen
/I hope you all enjoyed reading our first Daddy Blog Series! As well as the Mummy Blog Series I will now be bringing you our Daddy Blog Series too where Daddies will be sharing their Daddy Wins.
Our second Daddy blog is from Stephen.
"Stephen A. Hart is the Founder of Isles Media LLC, creator of Brand You Academy and the host of Trailblazers.FM, the #1 podcast highlighting today’s successful black professionals. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Stephen moved to the U.S. at the age of 16 to attend university. Today, he's happily married to his wife Kristin for 10 years and considers himself the best dad ever to their 8 year old daughter Layla and 3 year old son Nigel."
What is your biggest daddy win to date?
For years, I found myself telling my daughter to say things like:
"I am smart", "I am confident", "I am beautiful".
In a world that will have its ample share of people telling her the opposite, I figure it'd help to plant seeds of self-worth and self-confidence early. At times, I'd tell her to do things, and she'd reply "I can't". And I'd tell her "you can do anything", and that she should never limit herself.
One day recently, I asked our son who's 4 years younger than his sister to do something and he said " Daddy, I can't!" and before I could open my mouth, our daughter approaches him and calmly starts to tell him that he should never say he can't do something, because daddy says we can do anything!
My heart was so full at that moment. I realised that my years of watering those seeds of a positive mindset were not in vain. It just takes time to bear good fruit. I know and believe that a positive mindset will take them a good way through their lives, and so without question, biggest daddy win to date.
What is your 'you know you are a parent when' moment
I often reflect to the years prior to my wife and I getting married, to a time when her dad would tell me that I didn't know what it meant to be tired. I would get so frustrated when he'd say that, because I was a currency trader waking up at 3am ET to trade the markets in Europe. Of course I knew what tired felt like, or did I?
Fast forward to my wife having an emergency c-section to deliver our first child. We arrived home from the hospital and I'm waking up every two hours to get the baby and get her to my wife so she can nurse her.
And then it happened. In what must have been our third night home, I'm completely and totally exhausted. I barely fall asleep before I feel the hardest punch in my arm. I awake to my wife screaming at me to get up and get our daughter who woke up ... again! I jump off the bed so fast, that my tired body falls right into our bedroom wall. I manage to get myself up off the ground, retrieve our screaming child and find myself standing in the middle of our room at 'tired o'clock', rocking her back to sleep, while practically fast asleep standing.
In that moment, I knew what it was to be tired ... and I knew that I was officially a parent.
This or That?
Pizza or Chinese - Pizza for my wife and kids; chinese for me
Cinema or a Book - Cinema for frequent daddy/daughter dates
Night in or Night out - Night in - Recently watched The Greatest Showman
Summer or Winter - Summer - I'm Jamaican ... shorts and flip flops are my default happy place
Beach or City - definitely beach. nothing beats the sand in between my toes
You can see more of Stephen over at:
I hope you enjoyed reading our second Daddy Blog, check back here soon for the next one!
If you'd love to get involved email me at isabellaandus@outlook.com to find out more.
Emma x
