MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Parenthood doesn’t come with a manual and it’s a long process of self-study and constant discovery. This Father’s Day, PLDT Home continues its #NoParentLikeYou video series celebrating all dads and their real stories of navigating modern parenting.
Continuing the empowering message of last month’s #NoMomLikeYou campaign, the Father’s Day video series aims to encourage dads to own and take pride in their unique parenting styles. It features Erwan Heussaff and Markus Paterson, who are both first-time dads dealing with the challenges of raising children in a pandemic, under public attention and, often, scrutiny.
A parent’s unrelenting love for his child is a powerful driving force and bind that keep family relationships stronger. As the country’s fastest fixed network, PLDT Home continues to provide the strongest connections for families so that they can do all things together and better at home.
The role of a lifetime
Entrepreneur Erwan Heussaff has made a name for himself as a food purveyor, adventurer, and content creator. Now the proud dad, he describes his parenting journey as “crazy and beautiful, but also shocking and confusing.” After his daughter was born last year, he was able to spend every minute with the family in their home in Australia. That came with certain challenges, though, as he had to run his businesses remotely and wear 15 different hats at the same time. He also had to do all these while making sure that he takes care of his child and being fully present as a parent.
What Erwan loves about fatherhood is experiencing the world in a whole new way, recounting the time he became emotional watching her daughter interact with butterflies for the first time after being under lockdown for so long. His advice to dads is to cherish each moment. He shares, “You do not comprehend how quickly you go from zero to 12 months. Try to be there for your child and you won’t regret anything.”
For celebrity dad Markus Paterson, the biggest concern he had even before his son, Jude, was born was his health and safety. “There wasn’t a lot of information about the pandemic,” he said. His protective instinct came naturally, guided by his desire to be the dad that his son needs.
Markus also expressed that being in the public eye added to the initial challenges their family had to face. “I think people should be more conscious of their conscience,” he said. “You don’t know what they’re going through. You don’t know what’s happening in their lives.”
But Markus took to fatherhood naturally and while admitting that he did not know much about being a dad, his protective instinct kicked in. “I am learning something new every day about parenting,” he shared. “All I know is, my parents were always there for me growing up, and I’m going to be the same for Jude. There is nothing that I wouldn’t do for that little human.”
The power of connections
Just like Erwan and Markus, more celebrity dads have shared their own unique stories while overcoming the challenges of parenting in a pandemic with the help of a reliable connection of PLDT Home for their families.
With a new baby on board, actor and entrepreneur Mark Luz has had to take extra precautions, especially since he contracted COVID-19 and needed to be quarantined. Now that he is able to be hands-on again in caring for his daughter, he takes on duties such as changing diapers and being in charge of the night shift. He shares, “Taking care of a newborn requires unlimited patience and 99% of your time.”
Entrepreneur Blake Go and his wife Divine Lee successfully overcame the challenges of the pandemic as they supported each other as loving parents. “The pandemic was a reminder for us to spend as much time as we could with our family. Nothing is more important than them,” Blake said.
Being under lockdown is challenging for actor Franco Laurel, but he is thankful that they are able to build stronger connections at home. As his children are aged between 3 and 30, they have different ways of bonding at home. “During the day, I make sure that Sofia and Lucia swim with my wife Ayen and I every other day. We also watch musicals online and introduce them to the performing arts in a fun way, which they really love. As for my older kids, I get to bond with them individually in the evening and we talk about their dreams and aspirations and I just listen and give them sound advice and guide them.”
Truly, “there’s no time like this and there’s no parent like you.” Catch real and honest stories of parenthood in PLDT Home’s digital video series in this link: PLDT HOME. Join the movement and be part of the conversation online by using the hashtag #NoDadLikeYou.
