Being a parent is often a thankless job, and being a stepparent is usually even more thankless. But most parents show up and do their best to make sure their kids have what they need and feel loved. So when our kids do or say something to show appreciation, it melts our hearts—but nothing melts it faster than a stepchild calling their bonus parent “Mom” or “Dad” for the first time.
A creator named Shane posted a clip from a longer video showing his reaction to hearing his stepdaughter call him “Dad” for the first time. The full video is about three years old, but when it was reposted as a clip recently, it pulled on everyone’s heartstrings.
Shane and his wife, Liana, run the social media pages Shane and Liana where they post silly videos pranking each other. But this video wasn’t a prank. His stepdaughter, London, wanted to surprise him after wanting to call him “Dad” for a long time.
She can barely contain her excitement in the clip, squealing loudly when climbing into the back seat. When Shane gets in the car, London knows this is her chance.
“Hi Dad, how was your day?” she asks.
Shane turns completely around in shock as the heartwarming realization of what she just called him sets in.
“Did you just call me Dad? Just made my heart melt to know she called me Dad,” Shane says full of emotion.
London and Liana explain earlier in the video that Shane has raised the little girl since she was 2 years old. She didn’t meet her biological father until she was 5, and he was only in her life briefly before leaving, so this was a big moment. Viewers under the newly re-uploaded clip revealed that watching the interaction made them just as emotional as Shane.
“Idk how the mom ain’t crying!?! I’m crying,” Mari Morales writes.
“This video hits me right in the heart and soul,” Sarah Douglas writes. “My ‘step’ dad raised me from 7 years old. I’ve never met the sperm donor once, but my REAL dad is the one that chose to love me regardless of biology. Forever grateful for the real men that ‘step’ up to be there for us.”
“So true the first time my oldest daughter called me dad I cried she’s not blood but she is mine no matter what,” Timothy Evans says.
This article originally appeared on 7.19.23