Join Scott on a journey through the joys and challenges of parenthood in this engaging dad blog.

Let's be honest: Being a dad comes with some serious pressure to be a superhero. Now, that pressure is 99% in your dumb dad brain, but it is there, and my goodness, it can dominate everything. 

Can you go on a three-mile hike with your child on your shoulders the entire time? Damn right, you can, because you are SuperDad.

Fetch that PERFECT leaf from the tree, even though it is 10 feet up. The closest you have ever come to dunking a basketball was that time in college when you and your best friend tried that move where he got on all fours. You tried to step on his back to hoist your butt up there, but you were too heavy, and he buckled, and you ended up stinging yourself on the rim and landing in a heap on the hardwood? That leaf will be yours because you are Iron Dad.

You are able to throw a stone waaaaaaaaay out in the water and hit the large rock 200 yards away with the wind blowing in your face with the strength of the storm from A Perfect Storm and a Boston accent as bad as Michael Ironside’s. You will try for an hour to make that throw, even though it means you will not be able to wash your hair because the pain in your shoulder will be at a 10 if you try to lift your arm higher than chest level, but your kid wants to see some stone on rock impact and you are Captain Ameri-dad. 

I would make a Thor reference, but it would probably be a fat Thor reference, and none of us need that kind of energy in our lives right now because it is hot and humid and running in that weather is truly awful so we are all wearing T-shirts to the beach to “avoid a sunburn” and that is the ONLY reason so be quiet about it. 

We all want to be the best version of dad that we can, but the standards that we create in our minds can often be so ridiculous and unrealistic that they bring us down and make us feel like we are not doing it right. The funny part is that your kid will think you are pretty great no matter what you do, and that's what we need to remember.