An Ode To Fathers

In celebration of the incredible role that fathers play, we wanted to share an excerpt from Everything I’ve Learned About Motherhood (From My Single-Parent Dad) from our author Zeena Moolla.

Top of the Pops

Thank you for cooking.
Thank you for cleaning.
Thank you for washing my clothes.
Thank you for ironing my clothes.
Thank you for the nights you hugged a bad dream away. Thank you for making my world feel safe when it wasn’t always.
Thank you for turning sad days around.
Thank you for the fourteen-hour-round-trip car journeys while I was at university.
Thank you for the pixie boots.
Thank you for telling me repeatedly that I should know my worth.
Thank you for supporting me when I said I wanted to be a journalist.
Thank you for openly scoffing when an auntie said I should be a doctor, lawyer – pharmacist at a push – but never a journalist.
Thank you for teaching me the importance of being confident in my voice, however lone.
Thank you for letting me commit some of your wonderful catchphrases to a book.

If I could, along with that dictionary of magnificent words created solely for you, I would write multiple, cumber- some tomes of thank yous.That list will always be insufficient, because I cannot thank you enough, Papa.

I cannot even begin to express how fortunate I feel to inhabit a world with you as my darling dad. This is Papa Love. And its legacy will live on.

Everything I’ve Learned about Motherhood (From My Single-Parent Dad)

Zeena Moolla

Published: 24 February 2021

When you’re in the eye of the motherhood shitstorm, wondering how this tiny human can wreak so much bedlam in your life, you need a robust sense of humour to save your sanity.