A young father’s emotional posts on Facebook about his life as a single parent are going viral.
21-year-old Richard Johnson is the father of a 10-month-old girl named Persephone.
In a post on the "Life of Dad" Facebook page, Johnson explains how he became a single father.
"Her mother left about a month after she was born. We still don't know exactly why, but we suspect post-partum depression played a part," Johnson wrote.
Johnson said he was nervous after the baby's mother left.
"I stumbled upon your page by accident. I was so nervous and scared about being a father in general, but now I was a single father and had to fulfill two roles. I wasn't sure I could do it," Johnson wrote.
Johnson says he started reading every “new parent” book he could find, and watching videos on how to braid hair and paint nails.
He says when he became a single father, he started to watch the "Life of Dad" Facebook page more closely, and he realized there were other men like him -- dealing with the same anxieties and challenges that go along with raising a child on your own.
Johnson's initial post on the page received hundreds of shares, and tens of thousands of "likes."
"Never in my wildest dreams would I suspect so many of you would see it. Let alone how many of you would comment on it," Johnson wrote in a second post to the Life of Dad page.
Johnson says the Life of Dad Facebook page really helped him feel better about being a single father.
"Being that I never had a father, it was truly frightening to become one. Even more so when I was going to do it alone. I didn't have time to be worried though because that beautiful little girl needed a parent who could be her rock and would love her to pieces. In my mind there was no other option," Johnson wrote.
He said things have been rough at times.
"I spent more than a few nights holding my little girl as she slept -- weeping, because I wasn't sure I was going to be a good enough father for her," Johnson said.
The young father ended his second post with a piece of advice for anyone else who may feel the pressures of being a single parent.