James Van Der Beek says being a ‘girl dad’ lets him experience the simple joy you find in things

James Van Der Beek has redefined his concept of masculinity and he has his youngest daughter to thank for it. The 45-year-old actor took to Instagram to share a picture of his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Gwendolyn painting his nails light-pink. Along with a shot of his little one partaking in the beauty regimen, Van Der Beek also shared a video of himself cheering on his kid's nail painting skills, per PEOPLE. 

In the caption of his post, the Dawson's Creek star wrote, "#Parenting perk: Surprise liberation from limited belief systems."

He then reminisced about a time, way before the birth of his first child, when he was working on set with a director who had black nail polish on—which he described as "kind of emo." Van Der Beek when questioned about the look, it prompted the individual to explain, "without an ounce of embarrassment," that his daughter had painted his nails.

Van Der Beek wrote that he recalls "wondering why he hadn't taken it off before working with a crew of people who might judge him," the father of six noted, "Now I get it."

"It's one of those things you can't really convey to someone on the brink of having their first child," Van Der Beek continued his caption. "[It's] the complete ease with which you abandon s— you once thought mattered, (but probably never really did in the first place)… and the simple joy you find in things that baffled you before you became a parent," he continued.

The proud dad then concluded his heartfelt post by saying that he would keep rocking his painted nails for the foreseeable future. "If you think I'll be removing this pink nail polish before pouring concrete with a few friends tomorrow… then you probably don't have kids ❤️," he wrote, adding the hashtag, "#GirlDad."

It was towards the end of 2021 that Van Der Beek and his wife, Kimberly, welcomed their sixth baby, a son named Jeremiah Van Der Beek. The exciting news was accompanied by several family photos, including that of the newborn baby. 

"Humbled and overjoyed to announce the safe, happy arrival of Jeremiah Van Der Beek ❤️ (We've been calling him Remi, btw - not "dinosaur" 🥰)," he captioned his post at the time. "After experiencing late-term #pregnancyloss twice in a row (both at 17+ weeks), we kept this one quiet. Truthfully, I was terrified when I found out."

According to PEOPLE, the actor and his wife are already parents to son Joshua, 9, and daughters Gwendolyn, 3, Emilia, 5, Annabel, 7, and Olivia, 11.