Baby’s Face Lights Up Upon Seeing Dad Returning Home From Work: ‘Pure Joy’

A first-time mom has captured the heartwarming moment her baby son saw his dad returning home from a busy day at work.

Every weekday evening at around six o’clock, something magical happens in the home of Rebekah Dolling, 24, who lives in Merseyside in the U.K.

That’s the time her husband, Caleb, who is a realtor, arrives home. It’s the time Dolling’s six-month-old son JJ already looks forward to every day.

Sometimes he doesn’t even need to see Caleb to know what’s coming. “JJ will hear the keys in the door and he smiles knowing his dad is about to walk in,” Dolling told Newsweek.

But on those occasions when JJ does catch sight of his dad walking up to the door, his reaction is one of absolute delight. “He adores him and his face lights up when he sees him,” Dolling said.

Parenting is often described as the hardest job in the world. That certainly appears to be a sentiment shared by many moms and dads across America.

A Pew Research Center survey found 66 percent of mothers polled and 58 percent of fathers said parenting was a lot or somewhat harder than they thought it would be.

Dolling is certainly under no illusions about the way her life has changed since she became a mom but, alongside the sleepless nights and occasional worries, she’s made efforts to “enjoy the simple moments of the day.”

“They lift the weight of the hard moments that parenting can bring,” she said. “These moments make it all worth it.”

Part of that has involved documenting her journey through motherhood on platforms like TikTok, where she posts under the handle bekahdolling. “I loved the idea of being able to look back on videos of my boy when he was little and watching him grow,” she said.

Dolling said that, as a result, her phone is “suffering with the overload of photos and videos” of JJ learning more about the world around him.

But while many of those pictures and videos will stay off social media, one clip of JJ posted online by Dolling is already garnering attention.

It shows JJ sitting by the window as Caleb walks up to the front door. Caleb spots JJ before he does, tapping on the glass to alert his son to his arrival.

The video captures something special: Caleb’s greeting combined with a reflection showing JJ’s joyous expression at seeing him.

“I was filming him as he was by the window so he could see his dad coming and wanted to share with the family,” Dolling said. “I thought it was too cute a moment not to share with the online parents’ community.”

The clip garnered a huge response, earning over 930,000 views along with a raft of sweet comments. “His little face in the reflection,” one user gushed. “Adorable.” A second loved how JJ’s “little face lights up when daddy pops up.” A third, meanwhile, added: “No matter how hard or bad my day was, this makes everything all better when my son does this.”

Reflecting on the video’s popularity, Dolling said: “I think people love it because it’s such an innocent and sweet moment of pure joy of the simplicity of a dad coming home from work to his son. It’s a core memory.”