Liam Payne says fatherhood isn’t what he expected.
The 24-year-old singer and his girlfriend Cheryl Tweedy welcomed their son Bear into the world 13 months ago, and Liam has admitted he has found parenting to be more "difficult" than he thought it would be, as he "struggled" at the start.
Asked how life has changed since he became a dad, the ‘Familiar’ singer said: "It changes everything. Sometimes I turn around and I look at him and he’s like a little me. But he’s actually morphing into a lot more of Cheryl’s features now, the more he grows up. When he was born, she was like, ‘I carried him for nine months and he’s all bloody you!’ Anyway, you become a lot more caring and responsible. Becoming a dad is difficult and I think a lot of people struggle. Dads don’t really speak about it until you’re part of the club and then they’ll go, ‘Oh, wait for this, that’s in the post!’ and you’re all like, ‘Oh, thanks for the warning!’ Fatherhood was totally different to what I expected."
The ‘Bedroom Floor’ hitmaker also admitted he struggled to find his "place" in the family when Bear was born as he didn’t know how to assist Cheryl, and has said that cooking for the family "got [him] through fatherhood" at it made him "feel useful".
Speaking to #Legend magazine, he said: "The difference with being a dad is that you just have to take care of the whole picture at the start. A mother and a child is the most beautiful thing to watch, but they’re the closest thing ever – and you’re close, but you’ll never be as close. Their hearts were beating at the same time at one point, for god’s sake! You’re never going to be as close as that. So a lot of dads feel put out, in that sense.
"I didn’t really feel put out, but I was like, ‘Where’s my place?’ I was desperate to find out what I was meant to do – changing nappies and whatever else. For me as a dad, you’re just taking care of everything as much as you can, making sure he’s got a smile on his face. And if you cook for her, she feeds him, so you’re cooking for everyone – that’s what my thing was.
"As daft as it sounds, cooking actually got me through fatherhood because it made me feel useful, rather than being the guy who just gets handed o to change his nappy and make him laugh and giggle. That’s a lot of what it is. Women are superhuman. You don’t realise it until they have a baby. They can do a lot of things that, frankly, we can’t."
Liam Payne: Fatherhood is a struggle
