T1D Tuesday is a new blog series on TypeOneNation.org that
features guest bloggers who are sharing their voices of how T1D affects
their life. For the month of June we are celebrating Father’s Day and
will be recognizing four fantastic dads!

Our first featured guest blogger is founder of TypeOneNation Red Maxwell, Take it away Red!

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I grew up in a generation raised on a steady diet of television sit-coms and cop shows. Gilligan was always infuriating the skipper, Lucy would scheme on Desi, and Joe Friday always got his man. Strong archetypes like Robert Young and Mike Brady taught us how dads should act. They were all knowing, all patient and had great hair.

No matter what kind of trouble the kids got into, you could count on TV dad to sort things through by the end of a thirty minute episode.  Feelings would be assuaged, relationships mended, boo boos properly kissed and cared for.  If a mystery was involved, TV cop or TV dad could piece together the most obscure clues to neatly solve the case.

Real life and being a diabetes dad is nothing like what Hollywood writers prepared us for.

When my first child, Miller was born, I had unreasonable expectations. Upon childbirth, I somehow imagined that an encyclopedic knowledge of automobile and home repair would automatically and magically enter my skull.  Alas, there was no bolt of lightning that granted me the god-like wisdom of TV dads.  Still no bolt with our second daughter Cassie and her diagnosis of T1 diabetes as a 1 year old.

Watching re-runs offered no answers. So I had to rely on real work. I researched online, read voraciously and met with lots of other dads with “daddybetes.” Slowly, I began to comprehend the true nature of the disease and the proper use of a socket wrench. And it took longer than 30 minutes (including time for commercials).

Unlike network television, life with diabetes can’t be solved within reasonable time limits. It takes perseverance, patience and huge helpings of hope. We have to celebrate the small successes and research advances, even though we want a true Cure. Until then, dads, like JDRF, keep working towards “less diabetes until there is none.

And real-world parent problems are messier than TV too. Diaper malfunctions. Girl drama. Boyfriends. You may have seen Bill Bixby wrestle with single fatherhood on The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, but he never had to struggle with a missed insulin bolus or faulty test strips. Yet the rewards and bonds my daughter and I encounter as a result of our struggle with type 1 diabetes is deeper than anything I’ve ever seen on “must see tv.” Real joys come from real challenge.

Ward Cleaver is great. But this post is my Father’s Day salute to the real dads out there. They’re the ones that truly deserve the applause.

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Red Maxwell and his wife Marinda have been JDRF advocates since July 1997, two weeks after the diagnosis of their 18 month-old daughter, Cassie. He currently serves on JDRF’s International Board of  Directors and is the Chair of  the MarComm Committee. Red founded TypeOneNation.org, JDRF’s highly successful social network for Type-1 diabetes. Since 2004, Red has written about parenting a child with diabetes on his widely read blog, daddybetes.com. Professionally, Red Maxwell is founder and President of Onramp Branding, a branding and online marketing agency based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.