There are so many types of dads out there. Nevertheless, they play a crucial role inchildren’s development. So much so that sometimes, even a seemingly simple everyday moment you shared with yours can stick with you for the rest of your life.So when Reddit userAquaPressuremade a post on the platform, asking everyone to share “the most epic” thing their dad ever did, people answered! From heroic rescues to heartwarming acts of kindness, here’s to those who stay around.This post may includeaffiliate links.
There are so many types of dads out there. Nevertheless, they play a crucial role inchildren’s development. So much so that sometimes, even a seemingly simple everyday moment you shared with yours can stick with you for the rest of your life.
So when Reddit userAquaPressuremade a post on the platform, asking everyone to share “the most epic” thing their dad ever did, people answered! From heroic rescues to heartwarming acts of kindness, here’s to those who stay around.
This post may includeaffiliate links.
After my parents divorced my dad was on a super lean budget. He planned a weekend getaway for just he and I to the Oregon Coast to watch a kite flying festival. Pretty cheap but safe accommodations and decent food. Well we go to a bookstore (I was a rabid reader at that point.) I’m browsing around mostly just looking at new releases. I found a book of John Keats complete works and just had to have it so I took it over to him and asked for it. He took the book and said “hmmm let’s see what its about” and turned to the back. What I didn’t realize until I got much older was that he was checking the price. He said yep this looks good. That night he took me to a local pizza place for a slice and a soda. He only drank a soda and said he had a bit of a tummy ache. That man sacrificed a dinner so I could have a book. I still get onion eyes to this day even writing this.
Took responsibility for his actions, went to therapy, found a support group, became better.
OK, it was a long time ago, because I’m 60 now.In high school, my dad played football. In those days, it wasn’t uncommon at an away game for the team to go out to eat and have the restaurant refuse to seat the two black guys on the team. My dad (and the whole team) would then simply walk out. I’m sure it didn’t change many minds, but that was his own small contribution to the civil rights struggle, and I’m proud of him for it.
Survived Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau (but lost his mom, dad, and big brother).
My dad got up every morning, worked hard his entire life, loved my mother, loved and spent time with his 6 kids. You could tell he enjoyed being with you. So no big story here, just a good man extending much effort to provide stability and love for his family. As simple as this is, it is what I believe to be the highest form of living possible. I try to be the same.
When I was 13 I was having a hard time with puberty and felt very insecure. I cried a lot and felt ugly all the time. Sometimes I was bullied.My parents were divorced, and dad worked at VW, testing cars which were not yet known, let alone be for sale. He was a handsome, tall guy with the most beautiful voice.One day in school, when I was feeling especially down, he picked me up, parked a brand new white Golf cabrio (yet unknown for public) with open roof right in front of all the “cool” kids including my crush, and waited for me to come out, rocking his long curly hair and sunglasses.I swear ALL the kids were drooling, asking each other whose car that was. I shyly walked to the car and sat down right next to him, he greeted me and handed me a small package. Everything seemed in slow motion while I was opening my gifts; two pairs of the most beautiful earrings and a necklace.Then off we flew in the white convertible, boosting 90’s hits.Everyone was staring. I felt like a rockstar.Miss you SO much, dad.
I was estranged from my dad for 25 years, after my mother abducted me to Australia. I made a real effort to track him down after my wife got pregnant with our first child to let him know he was going to be a grandfather. Fast forward three years and we’re finally reunited. Our first son was very clingy to mum and didn’t like strangers, and would instantly shirk any kind of attention from anyone except immediate family. On our first day out, we’re standing in the carpark and my dad tells us he’s going to take us to a nice little cafe for lunch, and then he says “Alright, come on little guy” reaches out and takes my son’s hand, and he just goes with him. The two of them walk off together hand in hand, and my dad is talking happily with his first ever grandson. My wife and I let them go off ahead a little bit and followed behind.My father died the following year, and this was to be the first and last time I saw him in 25 years, and the first and last time my son would meet his grandad. My son knew his own. And my dad did it with such confidence and safety that he didn’t get a chance to feel anxious about leaving mum’s side.Thankfully I have a photo of that moment. It’s a precious memory.
My dad was a cop in a large American city. By the time I was teenager he already had over 25 years on the job and had retired into a second career as an insurance investigator. Not once, but twice, he and I were out running errands and witnessed horrible car accidents. This is before the era of cell phones. Both times I watched as he quietly put our car into park and set about stabilizing the wounded, delegating tasks to gawkers, and pretty much taking charge until the first responders got there.Pretty much the worst s**t I’ve ever seen in my life, he calmly went about the business of saving lives.
When I was 10 he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and was told he had 2 months to live at best. He told the doctors no and battled for 9.5 years before passing in 2014. During that time he always worked hard and made time to help people while still giving me and my 4 siblings as normal a life as he could. Especially my youngest siblings who were twins that were a little under 2 years old. He got to give them some more time and not just a man in a picture as a memory. There’s not a single person who I’ve come to respect half as much as my father. Nothing is more bad*ss to me than a person going through some awful s**t, but they still somehow power through and persist on. Trying to take notes as I go through my own, more minor, leukemia diagnosis. Couldn’t have asked for a better role model.
In elementary school, my siblings and I were maybe 1 of 10 Asian families. For breakfast I would eat anything from Korean and American foods. I once had a stew my mom made and went to school. My old, white, racist teacher came up straight to my 8year old face and told me I smelled ethnic and needed a shower. I went home and told my dad. He was so mad, I thought his head was going to blow up. At the time, he had a Korean secretary whose husband was a Polish American WWII vet. My dad took him (who was also very mad) to my teacher and principal. We called him grandpa. Well grandpa told the teacher and principal that I was his granddaughter. And if the school had issues with my ethnicity that he would sue and expose them to racism and let everyone in the neighborhood know that my school is not the place to be. That he didn’t fight the Nazis to come back home to fight the same bs. Anyway they left me alone after that. My dad was the best for defending me and coming up with the idea. And my “grandpa” for pretending and defending a complete stranger. I loved him like a real grandpa.
Jumped into a freezing river with heavy currents to save my 4 pound childhood dog.
Once wore a Batman costume to a job interview because it was Halloween. He got the job.
My Dad set the record at our local transplant center for people volunteering to be tested to see if they were a match to donate him a kidney. If that doesn’t indicate a life well lived, I don’t know what does. My Mom’s sister ended up being a great match and the transplanted kidney has been going strong for 20 years!
Headed a debate with students and staff about the importance of gay rights at university in the 1970’s.
For Christmas in 1986 me and my sisters really wanted a Nintendo Entertainment System from Santa. My father told us that if we teamed up and cleaned the basement he would put in a good word for us with Santa. So we worked our asses off to make that basement spotless.On Christmas morning we snuck downstairs and didn’t see any boxes big enough to be an NES, so we all kind of hung our heads a little. When it was time to open presents we started with the biggest packages first, which were all clothes. There was one final package that seemed big enough, but it was a pillow or something.When all the presents were opened our father could see how disappointed we were and said “What’s that coming from the basement?". We immediately perked up and ran down to be basement to the sound of the iconic Mario Brothers theme.This is the most epic thing my father ever did. Love ya Pops.
My Dad passed away in Feb of this year. In Dec of last year, he cleared my families (wife and I) debt…all of it, mortgage, college loans for both wife and I, medical, CC, cars, etc… completely. Literally only have utility bills. That was pretty Epic and I miss him dearly.
Let all of us finish college even he works only on a minimum wage, he always finds ways to pay for our school so we can have a good future. That was more than epic to me.
My dad and his brothers beat the ever loving s**t out of their sister’s (my aunt) abusive husband after she showed up to family dinner with a swollen shut black eye.
Driving home from the cottage once. There was a doe on the side if the road, just chilling. Didn’t even move as we got closer.Dad slowed the car to a halt, rolled down the window, leans out and asks the goddamn deer for directions to the highway. She just slowly backed away and vanished into the trees.I’m dying in the passenger seat as we drive away.
My dad doesn’t know that I know this.My mum was trying to help me find my birth certificate when I was younger and lived at home. We checked in my dad’s drawer for it because that was were it was always kept. We found a letter from the local head of police thanking him for catching a theif as they were running from a shop, he had restrained them until police arrived… HE HAS STILL NEVER TOLD US ABOUT IT!!
My family was sledding down this big hill, at the end was a cliff into a parking lot so we would all stand there to make sure no one fell off the edge. My younger sister went through my moms legs and was about to fly off the cliff when my dad ran faster than humanly possible and dove and caught my sisters sled and stopped it inches from the cliff. We all called him Superman the rest of the trip.
My dad graduated from university when he was 21. They told him if he got his teaching certificate he could come back and teach. He did and a year later became an assistant professor. He stayed working there his entire career, moving on to tenured professor then Acedemic Dean and finally President. He got his Phd along the way as well. At his retirement party 1000 people showed up.
My dad worked from home at a time when working from home basically never happened. He was a salesman of industrial equipment and his territory was 3 states. He was literally the only employee of the company within 500 miles.I was having problems in school and the school didn’t want to deal with it because when have they ever cared about the student being bullied?My dad eventually went up the chain high enough to speak to someone at the district, but that someone kept dodging him. He’d schedule an appointment and get there and, oops, according to the secretary he had to leave early to take care of something else.Once is unlucky, twice is a coincidence, but three times is enemy action.So my dad got a bunch of work he could do in his car, waited until the admin pulled into their parking space in the morning and… blocked him in. My dad checked in with the secretary and said he’d wait in his car for the admin to return, and indicated which car was his. And so he sat in his car. From around 10am to 8pm. And then got his meeting with the admin because, shocker, the admin wasn’t out of the office attending to an emergency.
One day my dad texted me asking for the login information for my student loans lender. I asked him why and he casually said “I’m paying them off.“Flabbergasted, I said woah, what do you mean? He explained he recently came into some money (legally don’t worry) and wanted to use it to pay off my debt.After a few hours he texted me again to login. My $20k debt was now $0. Totally changed my life.
I was riding my three wheeler Honda up a big hill following my dad on his four wheeler. I gave it too much throttle and ended up doing a backflip. My dad ( 6’4 260 pounds) ran down the hill and just before the three wheeler (probably 4-600 pounds) landed on me he kicked it from the side hard af and literally made it land next to me instead of on top of me. My 11 year old brain was amazed. He’s been my best friend my whole life (I’m 31 now).
He defended my room against a bee’s nest in the closet in only his underwear and brandishing two fly swatters. Didn’t get stung.
My 58 year old dad is currently searching for a skateboard so he can ride a handstand on it. He would like to show his grandkids. It’s a trick he performs every few years, at this point just to show he still can.
Never gave up on me despite me being really difficult in my teenage years.
Chased after my neighbours burglar with a bat.
Saved my mom’s life after she tried to overdose on pills.
Saved me from drowning.
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When I was a kid and my parents were in their mid 20s, my mom worked at the local mall at night while my dad worked during the day. Some d***d kept parking inches from my mom’s car on the driver’s side, forcing her to crawl through the passenger’s side before she could drive home at the end of the night. After several incidents of this and her telling my dad, he and his buddy took their cars to the mall and had my mom point out the car that kept blocking her in. They took their cars and parked inches from both sides of the offending car, preventing the owner from getting in at all, and left a note on the windshield with his phone number, saying to give him a call if there was a problem with his parking. The dude actually called my dad to complain, and what came out of my dad’s mouth was some of the most foul, hateful, st I’ve ever heard. I’m paraphrasing, but it was something to the effect that if he ever did it again, it would be the last mistake he ever made. My mom never had a problem with him again. Not epic I suppose, but I thought it was pretty badss.
When my sister and I were 7 and 9 respectively, my dad took us to the local pool for a swim. We walked home together, and as we arrived noticed a lot of different government type vehiclesA large hog had come down from the mountains into our residential area to eat from our guava treeAnimal control and a few cops were running around the house trying to catch the hog, apparently they had been trying for the last hour. It was quite the circusMy dad picked up this rainbow or U shaped climbing thing we had in the backyard and in one motion trapped the pig against the fence with it allowing it’s captureHe did some farm work as a kid.
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He’s a tow truck driver. He does accident cleanups and DUI towing, etc for a few police departments in the area.My car broke down one night, I had only a vague idea what town I was in, and that I was at a Wawa a mile or so off the main highway. This is before GPS was readily available on cell phones, plus he had a flip phone (still does) so sharing my location was off the table.I called him, and basically said hey I’m kinda screwed out here. He asked me for as much information as I could about where I had come from, what route I took, what I passed, that kind of thing. He is pretty clearly annoyed about this call, but says he’ll see what he can do. He found me and towed me back. It was unbelievable.
Told me he was proud of me. Something I rarely, if ever, got from my mother and ex-stepfather.
To the average person it’s probably not that epic. But ever since I was a kid I have loved the idea of tattoos and one day having arms covered in colourful pieces of art. I used to draw on my arms with markers and my mom would get so mad. Well when I was 18 visiting my dad I mentioned to him I wanted to get my first tattoo, expecting like everyone else in my family that he would be opposed to the idea. But he just said “well, if that’s what you want, you should do it”, and I thought that was the end of discussion, support but no discussion. I was wrong though, and it wasn’t because the next day while I was out with a couple friends he secretly spent the day going to every tattoo shop in town and grabbing business cards for every artist he could handing me a stack of probably 100 cards when I got back to his house later that night. He told me “I wanted to make sure that if you did get a tattoo you weighed out all your options, and picked the best one for you”. It was the first time someone had not only supported my desire for tattoos, but actively encouraged it. I still have those business cards too, its been 14 years but I still have them stored away in my files, that’s how important the action was to me.It was 2 years later he passed away and I finally got my first tattoo, a piece in memorial of him as it was only fitting that the first piece would be a nod to the one person in my family that wholeheartedly supported my decision. I have quite a few tattoos now, and I like to believe that if my dad was still here he would think my tattoos are cool as heck. But even if he didn’t like them, I know that he would support my decision to have them.
My dad was hitchhiking across Australia as a young man. He was alone in the outback when a wild boar tried to eat him. He had to hide up a tree for three days. The boar didn’t go too far and kept coming back to the tree to check you see it really wanted to eat him.Luckily a farmer driving past spotted him and shot the boar or my dad would be dead.
Bunch of 16 year olds all working in a retail store. We got a new manager that wasn’t great. My dad was a retail manager for 40 years before he retired and knew the industry and laws inside out. I would come home from work and tell my dad about the questionable things the manager was doing.One day whilst working out back I hear a commotion, some other colleagues tell me there’s a dude arguing with the new manager. I went round and saw my dad lecturing the manager about all the laws and workers rights he violated. That he was exploiting young people who didn’t know their rights.I quit that job soon after to go to college but I was told the manager didn’t last long after that.
Chopped off the head a copperhead snake with a garden hoe while I was playing in the yard as a young kid.
My old man hated I played warcraft as a kid. Fast forward to my third year in university, hes giving me a lift back to my digs and I mentioned the Legion expansion was coming out. That a bunch of us were going to play together because it was basically a homage to The Burning Crusade which is when I played the most. And I guess I sounded more hyped than I thought. So I said we’re going to nerd out the next 3 days playing solidly. So we stopped in a store so I could grab a case of beer. Besides what beer / whiskey I drink, he knows nothing about preferred snacks etc, as we’re walking around hes loading a bunch of s**t in the trolley and just says “Your mother’s away, I’m going fishing every day”. He grabs an extra crate of beer and a bottle of whiskey and says “my treat for your weekend”. Get back to my digs and he unloads all of the shopping and brings it in and just said it was all for the weekend. Spend a god dam fortune.
Lol he ran outside and threw dishes at my abusive ex who showed up to our doorstep unannounced 😂😂.
Flew rescue missions in Vietnam. He has the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Firefighter for 30 years.
Survived 5 years of war in the frontline while commanding a unit, got wounded, healed and went back.
Driving down the road at aroud 45 mph, we passed something small on the pavement and he said “Im pretty sure that was cash” so he flipped a U stopped in the middle of the road got out and grabbed it, it was a crisp $100. How he f*****g saw that I have no idea.
Blew the whistle on his corrupt CEO and testified against him even after he threatened to have my dad killed. We might have a troubled relationship but I can say he has never been a spectator to injustice.
My dad had an appendix removed and we had to go to the supermarket to get his drugs same day, he is laying in the back of the car, and there was an altercation in the parking lot and he still jumped out to tell them all to f**k off and go away. He was 5’8” 145lbs, so not intimidating, but he jumped out like the Hulk, and it all went away, I was 10.
It might not sound like a lot, but my dad has worked the same s****y job managing a store in a popular home improvement chain since before I was born. He has told me many times that if I have the opportunity to swap jobs to get paid more I should. The only reason he never did is because he never wanted to put our family at risk financially.For 30 years, my father has worked every day on concrete floors in customer service to take care of us. His back is shaped like a question mark when he gets home from work and sometimes he practically limped into the house. He would be in a bad mood sometimes, but he never said a word to us about how much he hated his job until we were old enough that he didn’t want us to repeat his mistakes.
Realizing my Dad wasn’t a liar. Growing up he’d tell stories and I always thought he was exaggerating. Turns out he was telling the truth. Extremely trivial example is he used to say he was great at pool. Never believed him until we went to play and he called a shot that I thought was impossible. He did it. Made me reexamine everything he ever said.
He had the fastest time ever recorded in a gas dragster in the 1960s. He is also in the drag racing hall of fame which is pretty cool.
My mom used to go through my room and throw out anything that wasn’t exactly where she wanted it to be, without warning.I once spent a whole year saving every penny I had so I could buy two little quarter-sized animal figurines. A frog and a turtle with a bobble head. It was the first thing I’d ever saved my own money up for, and my dad encouraged me all year.About a week after I got them, I came home from school and she’d gone through my room. The figurines were in my jewelry box, in their own section, “organized,” “put away.” But she tossed them anyways.That night, my dad spent over 3 hours going through half a dozen trash bags to find those two tiny figurines for me. I’d gone to bed, and he woke me up to give them back and we just sobbed together for a while. Teaching “the value of a dollar” like no other.My dad was pretty awful person too, but he wasn’t all bad.I still have the turtle!
At the time, when I was about 9 years old or so (early 90s), I was in a Sears Department Store and decided I wanted to sit on one of the Ride-On Mowers. One store employee came over to me and starting yelling at me to get off, and my dad appeared out of nowhere, lowered his voice and confidently said “No one here yells at my child except me.” with the look of rage in his eyes and the store employee apologized and walked away.
Delivered thousands of babies.
Became an engineer without a college degree. Just asked for the job when the position opened up. His comapny sent him to a few community college classes. I don’t know if that’s even possible today.
Admitted he was wrong once. That may have used up his entire capacity too.
Saved a bunch of men in a submarine training accident. I think the story is the torpedo backfired or something like that and it filled the section of the sub with smoke and he helped to get them out and I think continued doing his job the whole time as well and got some commendation for it. This was in the Navy. He also got behind on his paperwork for something and was told he couldn’t leave the submarine until he finished it so that took about six months or long enough for him to grow a full beard. So it balances out. Maybe six weeks. Six months sounds like a long time. While there there was also a mixup with the order for jam or jelly, and what they got was all strawberry, so he won’t eat that anymore. This last bit is unrelated but i threw it in anyway.
He joined the Foreign Service so my sister and I saw a lot of the world since we moved every two or three years. I still travel quite a bit for work, I love the variety.
My dad caught a bullet with his laptop in Kuwait in 2005. He was an intel guy who was walking between tents when his base got ambushed and he put his laptop to his head as a shield and it caught a bullet.He saved the bullet and has it on his desk now.
My dad is a bus driver. Here in Argentina bus driver’s children and wives don’t have to pay the ticket to use it. So I told the bus drive that my dad works in the company, he told me that he hadn’t known who he was so I had to pay. I commented this to my dad and the fact is that they know each other and my dad helped him a lot in the past with his children. So one day, my dad saw him and punched him on the face :).
He held and, to my knowledge, still holds the Japanese 100 yard hurdle record. He was part of the occupying force and not long after he set the record in 1945/46, Japan converted to the metric system, leaving his record untouchable.
Good grief my dad has so many epic stories of just partying and living the Bachelor life (didn’t marry my mom till he was 42). A couple note worthy things of his:He saw Elvis in Vegas (I think nearing the golden era) and he was quite close in the audience. He’d recall how he’d have to restart the songs because he’d mess something up.He was in a Frat with the actor Alan Thicke! He’d talk about how often he’d bring his guitar out to play at their house parties. Till this day, their composite photo is one of the most stolen items from the Frat house.But something that I was around for, was simply just how fearless he was when he’d bring me to theme parks. I was terrified of rides and he’d go on solo to show me they were okay. Even water slides, where he’d get stuck bc he was too big for them lol he’d also hide a 5 cent candy folded up in his newspaper to surprise me 🥹 it’s the little things that make him Epic!
Once when I was a teen I used to go to basketball practice once a week. After a practice I was waiting for the bus with a teammate, and these two adult guys came over and threathened us and beat us (nothing too violent but still). Naturally we ran from those guys and went inside the hall and I called my dad. About 5-10 minutes later he arrived in his car at the bus stop with an aluminium bat. Sadly the two guys was already gone. But he was ready to kick someones a*s that day.
My dad outran the police in his Lincoln many moons ago, he’s 91 now.
Drive approximately 800 kilometres round—trip to go to Las Vegas just for dinner.
I watched my dad do the most epic dive into the sea from the top board in Plymouth UK.I don’t know how high it is but it’s high or seemed pretty high at the time.I would not do it.
Survived being hit with a dump truck rear diff that fell off on the highway and smashed through his windshield/steering wheel. Has the high score for being asked to leave bars/restaurants for dirty jokes and being loud.
Called a lift on our cruise ship, stepped in, held the door open. Pressed every floor going up, farted and then exited the lift.
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