A young child who was upset after leaving her favorite teddy in her dad’s car found comfort after he began sending her pictures of the toy helping him at work.
In a Reddit post shared under the handle u/KimAndersson, the dad, who asked to be referred to as Max, a nurse from Australia, shared a selection of the pictures he sent his three-year-old daughter “to show her that Sheepy was alright and helping me at work.”
“She had taken Sheepy on a trip and on returning left her in the car,” Max told Newsweek. “I normally don’t use that car but on that particular day I decided to take it. My wife then texted me that the car had Sheepy in it and that my daughter is upset.”
“They called me and asked me to take Sheepy out of the car because she might be cold. She wanted a photo of Sheepy inside so I decided to make some special photos so she can see that Sheepy is okay and busy/not bored. I love photography and especially macro photography so this was an amazing excuse for me to have some fun.”
u/KimAnderson
In one picture Sheepy can be seen packing a lunch bag, while the second showed the cuddly toy closing the lid on a pasta container. Another shows Sheepy assisting with lighting a fire, while the stuffed animal can also be seen sorting meds.
Max said he saw it as “an easy way to connect with my child and to do something special.”
“Her reaction was ‘Is her alive?’ which basically meant that she believed Sheepy had come to life and was helping me at work,” he said. “Childhood is something magical and something trivial and easy like taking those photos turns into a fantastic story for my daughter.”
More importantly, his actions encouraged his daughter to engage in imaginative play —something that has been shown to be of huge benefit to young kids.
In 2001, a study published in the journal Early Child Development and Care found that kids who engage in more imaginative play were found to have higher levels of self-regulation and could manage their emotions and behaviors more effectively.
The Reddit community was particularly impressed with his efforts, with the post earning over 63,000 upvotes and counting. “Loved this! Parents like you are the best,” one Redditor commented with another writing: “THIS is why cell phones with cameras were invented.”
A third said: “I need Sheepy updates now” while a fourth stated: “Just wanted to let you know that I think you’re a great parent!”
u/KimAnderson
Max has been blown away by the response, though he insists it was easy to put together and would encourage other moms and dads to get creative.
“I think parents should always try to connect with their kids and if you allow situations like this to happen you have more possibilities to connect,” he said.
“I could’ve just told her I would bring Sheepy back but where’s the fun in that? It was a win win win situation. I had fun arranging the photos, my daughter had fun looking at them and was reassured that Sheepy is alright and my wife was happy because we defused a difficult situation. So yeah, I think everyone should do something like this when the situation allows it.”
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