Father/Son Dance Duo Shows Parenting is a Step by Step Process

For 29-year-old Stanley Freeland, fatherhood has meant putting his best foot forward, especially when it comes to making dance videos with his 8-year-old son Josiah.

We often wear matching outfits and can be found on any given day doing important family activities like playing sports, reading books such as “The Three Little Pigs” and of course, dancing.

I’ve been making videos with Josiah since he was 2 years old. It’s something we love to do together and it promotes bonding.

I’ve been a long time advocate of fathers being fully present in their children’s lives. I recently checked out Movember’s latest resource for men, Family Man. Being a family man is more important now than ever. I think it’s really important for dads to communicate with each other. I know a lot of other active fathers as well. But we are overlooked at times. I’m very thankful and honored I get to be a part of Josiah’s life and I want to be there and inspire him as well as motivate other fathers too.

I have a group of guys I graduated high school with and they have children now and tell me I was one of the fathers they looked up to and saw what I was doing with my son. I have these conversations with my father’s friends about this everyday. I mentor and I talk to my brothers I went to school with and new fathers that I’m friends with now. I’m thankful I’m able to interact with different fathers now around the country and around the globe.

When I became a father, there were really no surprises and that’s because my dad was a constant presence in my life. I knew what to expect and I also knew I wanted to be there for my kid as well. My father was also very spiritual and always put God first. He always encouraged me to do the right thing and everything else would follow.

When I was growing up, I loved to play sports and now Josiah loves to play baseball, basketball and football. He’s very athletic. I love seeing the growth with him learning and seeing him, as young as he is, being able to grab hold of education at such an early age. He’s very smart and his brain is like a sponge. I have been watching him learn the alphabet and expand his mathematical skills. Seeing how well he’s doing while learning brings so much joy to me.

While fatherhood does come with its own setup challenges, knowing you’re doing the right thing everyday is key. Josiah is very alert and very aware. I think as dads, we all want to teach our children to do the right thing and lead them in the right direction.

It’s challenging because you want to surround yourselves with positive influences. That’s what I try to do. When he’s not around I still surround myself with positive things such as sports. Seeing Josiah see me involved in positive things is really my focus.

While we’ve had many priceless moments together, I will never forget the Father’s Day when Siah was four. I was outside with him and he was driving his Power Wheels car. And he decided to drive his Power Wheels to McDonald’s. It was about two miles from our house. So I let him do this. He wanted to go through the drive-thru so I was right there beside him. He ordered his food in the drive through and got ice cream. He was so happy to do this. One of the funniest things about this memory is the Power Wheels car had went dead because he drove it so far. I had to carry it back to my house. I will never forget that. We still bring it up to this day.

One of the most hilarious parenting moments I experienced was actually during one of our dancing videos. We were dancing and having a great time and for some strange reason, he lost his balance and slipped. When he got back on his feet. He smiled with all of his teeth and it brought so much joy to everyone who saw it. The lesson there was we all fall, but we get back up. Josiah still brings that moment up.

I’m thankful for all the attention our ideas are getting right now. To see us getting featured on all these news stations is a dream come true. I remember there was a time I had sent a message to Good Morning America and there was no reply. I was trying to get their attention. And two years later, I finally got message a from them. I told Josiah “Dreams come true.” It showed me and Josiah to keep going forward and I’m very thankful for the opportunity.