A fathers love for his absent daughter.

I wanted to share the post that my son put on his daughters blog last night.
Knowing Me, Knowing You
Yes, your blog is now orange. I thought I'd change it over from the nice girly pink to something that was a bit more hip and trendy for you. The blog rework was quite difficult for me to handle though. As you get older I know that the things that you loved as a small child will not mean the same to you. It is a sad effect of life that we all grow up at some point and although you will always be my little girl, you are a fair bit bigger than when I last saw you.

When you were 7 I felt like I knew you so well; better than anyone in fact. We could draw and paint and play with flowers and you would delight in telling me all about the latest TV programmes you were watching or things your friends were doing whenever we spoke. As Easter approaches I think of you more and more and realise that I don't know you as well as a father should anymore and that makes me extremely sad. It will be four years soon since last we saw each other and a lot happens in that kind of time. One thing you learn as you grow is that the younger you are the more happens in any given period of time so if things have changed so much for me then I expect that things for you are drastically different from how I remember them and I long to know what you're up to, what you like to do, what you watch on TV and what you like to have for tea.

I think all parents have to go through this realisation at some point but, for those that manage to maintain contact with their children, this happens at a much later point in their relationship, when the child becomes a teenager or a young adult and begins to rebel in order to establish their own independence.

The truth of the matter now is that, no matter what happens, I shall always love you with all my heart and, to me, you will always be my special little girl; forever. As far as this blog is concerned I am now going to write from my heart, in the best way I can express as I am no longer writing to a small child, but to a strong little girl just getting ready for secondary school.

I love you Liandra, sleep tight; always,
Dad xxxxx

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