Dad 'wets himself' to save his daughter from embarrassment after she has an accident at school

A father has been praised after wetting his own trousers to go and collect his six-year-old daughter, who has an accident at kindergarten.

Pictures of Ben Sowards performing the kind act were shared to Twitter by his elder daughter Lucinda, 17, who wrote: 'My little sis had an accident today at kindergarten & this is how my dad left to pick her up so she wouldn't feel so sad/embarrassed 😂😂❤️'

The images of Ben with little Valerie soon went viral, with over 64,000 retweets and 258,000 likes to date.

There were a couple of commenters who wondered if the incident might have been made more embarrassing for the child, with one saying: 'I would feel more embarrassed if my dad showed up like that to pick me up from school', and another agreeing: 'I would've been EXTRA embarrassed 😭😭😭'

However, the majority of the responses were overwhelmingly positive, with many referring to Ben as 'dad of the year'.

'That's called being a great father. I did the same thing, before,' one Twitter user said, whilst a second added: 'That makes me tear up, what a thoughtful and kind way to help her'.

'Your dad is a superhero 😇😇,' a third tweeted to Lucinda.

'With parenting, a lot of what you do is based on instinct,' Ben later explained during an interview with PEOPLE magazine. 'It was a gut reaction. I wanted to demonstrate in a clear way that I love my child and it didn't matter to me that she'd peed her pants. I knew that "wetting" my own pants would cheer her up and help her to handle the embarrassment.'

The Sowards' adorable story has also helped to shed light on a wider cause, as Ben is actually father to 11 children, four of whom have come from foster care, and were adopted by the family in the same week.

Speaking to KUTV, Lucinda said that foster care was 'not a fairy tale', but added that it was 'extremely gratifying' to see her family grow in this way.

'These kids were finally going to have a safe and happy place to go home to,' she concluded. 'I automatically fell in love with them. It was almost like a little switch. I was overjoyed to make them a part of my permanent family.'