Van Der Beek is a proud father to a girl.
Over the weekend, the Dawson’s Creek alum shared a sweet moment with his 3-year-old daughter, Gwendolyn, on Instagram.
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The actor sat outside at a porch table with his daughter while she painted his fingernails pink. Dawson and his wife Kimberly have six children, four of which are girls.
Van Der Beek – who also has sons Joshua, 10, and Jeremiah, five months, and daughters Emilia, 6, Annabel, 8, and Olivia, 11 – talked openly about embracing the unpredictable aspects of parenting.
Way back when we were pregnant with our first, I was on a set where the director had nail polish on the one hand: black. It looked kind of emo, and someone commented on it. He said, “Parenting perk: Surprise liberation from limited belief systems.”
After explaining how fatherhood has changed his outlook, the Varsity Blues star described the impact of becoming a father.
He said, “Now I get it. It’s one of those things you can’t convey to someone on the brink of having their first child: With ease, you abandon stuff you once thought mattered and the joy that you find in the little things you used to find difficult.”
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Van Der Beek concluded, “If you think I’ll be removing this pink nail polish before pouring concrete with a few friends tomorrow. Then you probably don’t have kids.” He added a heart emoji and the hashtag “#GirlDad.”
Van Der Beek and his wife decided to leave Los Angeles and move to Texas in 2020.