Moms and Dads

Life Lessons We Learned From Our Dads

by Kevyn Gohu
June 9, 2022

There are a lot of life lessons to learn from our dads.

Whether it’s while cooking, driving, or having a good laugh, dads always manage to find a life lesson in everything they do. Just like how moms have their little nuggets of wisdom, so do dads. And as a tribute to all dads this month, here are life lessons some of us may have learned from our dads.

1. Laughing helps

The biggest life lesson we’ve probably picked up from our dads is how laughing helps us get through the hard times. Laughing at something always helps in breaking the ice. It’s why dads have their own brand of jokes called “Dad Jokes”. Besides when things get stressful, laughing helps reduce the fear and nervousness since we’d think it’s funny.

2. When driving, assume that everyone on the road is crazy.

This is a piece of personal advice and a life lesson I got from my own dad. Before I started driving on my own, this was the one life lesson he repeated to me over and over. Assuming that everyone on the road is crazy teaches you two things, he says: how to drive safely and how to focus purely on evasive driving. Nobody wants to be caught up in crazy.

3. Be open-minded to food

This doesn’t mean clearing up the plate but it does mean giving certain foods a chance. While some cuisines don’t really have an appetizing presentation, it takes a little mind over matter. Dads are known to be adventurous with things, especially food. The life lesson found in this is, “What if there’s nothing left in the world to eat except that?”

4. There are just some things that are hard to explain

Besides God and all things Science, the hardest thing to explain to some people is how to tie hair. Yes, tying hair is something we’ve never really got an explanation or guide for. There’s knowing what to put on your hair but actually explaining to someone how to tie hair up sounds like rocket science. We can probably show them but after a while, we’ll probably just don on a headband and go.

5. Slow and steady rather than fast and crash

A lot of times, we get trapped in the rat race. But for some dads who started their own businesses late in life, they figured that going slow and steady was a lot better. Rather than forcing a business to grow quickly, controlling the business’ growth pace to work alongside one’s own is a lot better.

6. Take pride in the little things, even if they’re weird!

Sometimes, the way we acquire things is weird. The greatest example is how some kids learn how to speak Chinese. While schools teach Mandarin as the official Chinese language, there are others like Hokkien and Cantonese. Unfortunately, dads (and even grandfathers!) will take pride in teaching these kids the swear words first. Their logic? “It’s a word and a sentence! That’s something!”

It’s weird but we can’t say they’re wrong either. So, this life lesson does hold a bit of water especially when dads discover the strangest of things.

7. Everybody loves a good story

How this life lesson came up is because dads are usually the ones making up the stories. For example, there’s this story that century eggs are made from being fermented from horse urine. While they’re not really fermented through horse urine, we’re not sure where that story came from. My mom told me she got that from her dad, too. But many seemed to accept it as the actual thing.

A lot of life lessons can be learned from dad

Just like how moms had their own way of teaching, so do dads when it comes to their life lessons. A lot of times, we remember our dad being the clowns in the family to make us laugh. For this Father’s Month, it’s time he got some appreciation. Dads have their own form of contribution to the family, too.