A single father's emotional open letter about his fears over parenting alone is going viral online.
Richard Johnson, father to 10-month old Persephone, originally posted a 'thank you' on the Facebook page of World of Dad, a group for fathers.
In it Mr Johnson wrote that Persephone's mother left a month after their daughter was born and that he was "nervous and scared" of being a father.
As a result, he wrote, he read every parenting book he could find and watched "over 1,000 hours" of Youtube videos on the subject. He also began to take note of the experiences of other people in his position.
The post proved hugely popular, receiving more than 19,700 likes, and Mr Johnson wrote a second, longer post a day later giving more details of his experience.
In it he wrote:
I come from a family of divorce and was raise by a single mother. When my father left when I was 6 I didn't know I wouldn't see or hear from him again until I was 21.
So 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.
The days have been rough and at times I wasn't sure I could make it another day.
I spent more then 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.
One night in particular was the night she first crawled. She came to me and laid her tiny little hand on my cheek and stared into my eyes.
I took it as "Come on Daddy, we have a lot to do." So I told her no more crying for either of us and we were going to fight to be happy.
The follow-up post has so far received more than 7,000 likes.
