New dad heading to work notices his daughter peeping out of home window: 'I saw her little face...'
First-time parents have to experience a multitude of shifts soon after having their first child. Even regular tasks like going to work seem like the hardest challenge while leaving their baby back at home. When Ian McNamara, a new dad, headed off to his office on a random Thursday, his heart ached as he saw his baby daughter peeping out the window to see him off. On his TikTok, @tinkandtank, dedicated to sweet family moments shared with his wife and daughter, McNamara posted a viral clip viewed 18.4 million times that summed up his difficult morning goodbyes.
One fine morning, McNamara, who works as a lawyer, got up to quietly get ready to work. Locking the front door behind him while leaving for work, the new dad noticed the curtains of his daughter’s room were pulled to the side. He decided to investigate with a better view from near his car and was not prepared for what happened next. "Thinking that was odd, I walked to my car and looked back," he recounted. As McNamara turned back to look, he saw his daughter’s little face staring back at him. It broke him. “I felt my heart in my throat. I saw her little face staring back at me, hanging onto her crib. I even saw her little mouth moving as if she were speaking. It took all of my strength to simply turn to my car,” the father admitted.
In an overlay text, he wrote, “If leaving for work wasn’t hard enough.” His baby was aware of his father’s routine and did not miss a beat when it came to checking on him from a window on the third floor. The dad then had the bright idea to capture the treasure of a moment. Therefore, McNamara retraced a few steps and filmed himself walking up to the car and then looking back at the window. Surprisingly, the baby was still “looking down” at him. This shared moment between him and his daughter urged him to ponder the many sacrifices fathers make to provide for their families, promising them love and happiness. "I wondered about how many fathers go to work for the little faces in the window,” the dad reflected.
At that moment, McNamara realized his ambition and will to succeed as a lawyer who serves his community came second. His priority was and would always be his daughter, and he aspired to “mean everything” to her. In the caption, he quipped, “No one warns you for this.” With 4.2 million likes, it was clear that McNamara’s 8-second clip resonated with the world. Someone quoted a beautiful line by Winnie the Pooh. “How lucky I am to have something that makes leaving so hard,” wrote @connormaruna while a fellow dad, (@samchoiniere) said, “Wait until they’re toddlers crying at the door for you when you’re leaving.”
Similarly, @abi_bbibbi recalled, “I remember my son watching me out the window when I dropped him off at daycare. He waved at me and I couldn’t help but cry on my way to work!” A few others joked about the baby waiting for the father to leave so she could throw a party, or get back to her secret job– a Boss Baby reference.
You can follow @tinkandtank on TikTok for more videos.