When you’re six years old, you’ll do anything you can to act like you’re older. It’s that sweet stage where you’re still very much a child, so it’s still cute when you try to do “adult-like” things.
Nothing can bring those mature aspirations down quicker than wetting your pants.
No one knows this better than Valerie Sowards. The kindergartner had herself a little accident at school last week. Lucky for this little girl, her daddy knew just how to save the day.
Ben Sowards got a call from his wife about Valerie’s accident. She told him that their daughter was in the office at school, crying, and begging her mom to go home.
“My heart kind of just broke,” he said.
So like any dad would, Ben rushed to the school to get his crying little girl, but not before going out of his way to try to make her feel better.
This dad of the year soaked the front of his pants with some water, as so to appear that he too, had wet his pants!
Lucinda Sowards
Then he quietly stepped into the school office and asked Valerie if he could borrow her backpack to cover up his own little “accident.”
“She looked at me with just the biggest incredulity,” he said.
His plan worked! And soon the two were laughing together as Valerie wrapped her arms around her daddy.
“She was laughing about it,” he said. “It was so funny.”
Lucinda Sowards
Ben’s oldest daughter, Lucinda, posted the photos on twitter, writing:
“My little sis had an accident today at kindergarten & this is how my dad left to pick her up so she wouldn’t feel so sad/embarrassed.”
She said that the gesture was not out of the ordinary for her father, explaining that a few years back, she’d fallen on her face while ice skating. “He FaceTimed me, [and] he had vividly painted a black eye that matched mine.”
Ben’s pant-wetting stunt has gone viral for all of the right reasons. But the popularity of his daughter’s tweet wasn’t the most exciting part of the family’s week.
Ben and his wife, Connie, are parents to seven children of their own. But as advocates for foster care, they’ve spent the last two years welcoming four more children into their home, lives and family. Last week, amid the excitement of the Internet, and the viral photos, the Sowards’ were adopting their four foster-children into their forever family.
Connie Sowards
He says that he never intended for his daughter’s tweet to go viral, but it’s been a blessing in disguise, creating a platform for their family to speak about the things that really matter—foster care, and foster-to-adopt.
The father of eleven is a pro when it comes to putting a smile on his kids’ faces. After all, he’s got the equivalent of an entire football lineup to take care of.
Connie Sowards
