As emerging adults, my siblings and I were (and often still are) no picnic for my parents. For every unforeseen emergency room visit, for every unprepared lecture my parents had to spontaneously give, and for every milestone celebrated as we mature, I can indisputably argue parenting is both scary and challenging. While the “motherly instinct” and “mother’s intuition” is seen as a societal expectant from mothers, it is uncommon to hear of “fatherly instinct” in any given case, which appears to discredit fathers for their half of the contribution. There are quite a few lessons that television dads from our favorite shows should be credited for capturing the lessons our dads (especially mine!) teach us over the years that I think prove being a father, whether married duo-parenting or single-parenting, isn’t as easy at it looks. Happy Father’s Day to my dad and every wonderful parent out there who continue to protect, guide, support, teach and love us since day one.

1. Uncle Phil from "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"

Uncle Phil not only redefined the meaning of "biological children" for us, but taught us how to be the "bigger person" (no, this isn't a fat joke, but it can be said that Uncle Phil had the biggest of hearts and the largest amount of concern for his children's wellbeing). As a judge, Uncle Phil knew the first lesson to instill in your children is learning to be accountable and take responsibility for your actions, whether you like it or not. He also made us understand that having wealth does not mean you derive from wealth and that the true meaning of wealth is not monetary value but the value of family.

2. Danny Tanner from "Full House"

It's safe to say that Danny "won" at single-parenting. Every episode, one can expect the signature transitional music that cued a life lesson was about to be given to any of the Full House characters. He taught his girls the difference between right and wrong as well as the concepts of self-love and unconditional love. When young Stephanie drove Joey's car into the kitchen, Danny acknowledged objects can be replaced but lives cannot, and it's not so simple to run away from our problems. He was our favorite feminist who also taught us that boys can do ballet and girls can work on cars; "as long as you're not hurting anybody," there are no limitations to what we can do in this world.

3. Louie C.K. from "Louie"

Louie is our hero for answering some of every parent's feared, tough hard-to-answer questions, specifically from his 4-year-old and 9-year-old girls on the current hit series "Louie." At the end of the day, he is the hardworking father that shows us the struggle of balancing doing what is necessary to protect his daughters' innocence and doing what is necessary to spread awareness of the life around them. While he teaches his daughters some of those hardships of reality that are an inevitable staple of growing up, he teaches us there is so much to learn from our surroundings and it's near impossible to place a price value on the education learned outside of the classroom.

4. Peter Griffin from "Family Guy"

Peter Griffin may not be the best role model, but we certainly learned from his mistakes and learned to find humor in some of the worst moments presented to us. He gave us insight on both how to laugh at ourselves when life doesn't go as planned and the reasoning behind why it's important to embrace your inner child often. He even taught us how to speak Italian and the importance of knowing your drinking limits! Because of Peter, we know that loyalty to our friends is crucial and it's best to think before we act.

5. Ted Mosby from "How I Met Your Mother"

It took nine incredible seasons for Ted Mosby to tell this story to his children, but each episode was saturated with valuable lessons of friendship, family, individual moments, love, and of course, nothing good happens after 2:00 a.m. The greatest lesson Ted taught his audience is that while life is often miraculous, it is also unpredictable and short-lived, so be the best possible version of yourself every day, make the best out of every situation, and share as much love as you can afford to give, for love will make you do some crazy things (like steal a blue french horn) but it will all be worthwhile.