What Your Toddler Teaches You About Patience: Lessons from Everyday Dad Life

Before I became a dad, I thought I was patient. I could wait in long lines. I could handle late meetings. I could even sit through traffic. Then I had a toddler. And that’s when I realized, wala pa pala akong alam sa totoong pasensya.

Having a toddler is like living with a tiny, unpredictable boss who runs the house by emotion, not logic. One moment they’re laughing. The next, umiiyak kasi nag-crack yung biscuit. You tell them it’s the same biscuit, they tell you “No, Tatay, it’s broken.” And just like that, the entire day shifts.

But here’s the thing, toddlers don’t just test your patience. They teach it. Slowly. Relentlessly. Every single day.

Toddlers operate on their own timeline. You say, “Let’s go,” they say, “Wait, Tatay, I need to find my Elsa.” Not the bluey, not Peppa, but Elsa. And when you try to help, they’ll shout, “No, I’ll do it!” Then spend the next ten minutes putting it on backwards. In moments like that, you learn patience not by choice, but by survival.

I used to rush everything. Breakfast, bath time, bedtime, parang checklist lang. But my daughter taught me to slow down. Toddlers don’t care about schedules. They care about moments. When she stops to look at a bug on the sidewalk or sings the same nursery rhyme twenty times, she’s not wasting time, she’s discovering the world. And I’m learning to see it through her eyes.

Then there are tantrums. Oh, the legendary toddler meltdowns. The kind that happens in public, in the most inconvenient place possible, like the grocery aisle. You’ll feel every pair of eyes on you while your child screams because you said no to another pack of cookies. In those moments, patience feels impossible. But you breathe. You kneel down. You say, “It’s okay, I’m here.” Because patience isn’t about staying calm when things go right, it’s about staying kind when everything’s falling apart.

I realized too that toddlers mirror you. When I raise my voice, she raises hers. When I breathe and speak softly, she calms down too. Patience is something they catch, not something you lecture about.

There are days when I fail. Days when I lose my temper and regret it after. But toddlers have short memories and big hearts. They forgive fast. They remind you that patience also means forgiving yourself.

Every “Tatay, wait” moment, every “I’ll do it” battle, every “one more story” request at bedtime — all of it builds you. Slowly. Quietly. Without realizing it, you become more patient not just with them, but with life itself.

Before I had a toddler, I thought patience was something you had. Now I know it’s something you practice, one tantrum, one laugh, one broken biscuit at a time.

That’s what toddlers teach you.

-Until then…Love you bye! And that’s #DadBuhay.