Photo: marques houston / instagram

Marques Houstonis fully embracing his new role as a father.
The 40-year-old singer and actor recently welcomed his first child, 2-month-old daughter Zara, and spoke to PEOPLE about how seriously he takes his duties as a dad.
“I’m very instrumental in my daughter’s life. I’m not one of those absent fathers that’s just always working and never paying attention to his family because I feel like family is first,” Houston tells PEOPLE.
“I always say being a husband and father are two of my biggest accomplishments in life so I take that very seriously. I’m really, really happy about being a dad,” he continues.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
miya houston/ instagram

Houston attributes his ability to stay “balanced” while adjusting to fatherhood to his wife Miya, whom he married in August 2020 and shares Zara with.
Raving about his “daddy-daughter time” in the mornings with his first child, theYou Got Servedstar admitted that he’s already looking forward to Zara getting a little older so they can create memories together as a family of three.
“I can’t wait until she gets old enough to where she starts talking and, you know, I can have her on set with me and just kind of take her around,” he says. “She’s like our little road dog, she goes everywhere with us.”
“Zara listens to my album and I put it on for her. She’ll even try to sing along. You know, she can’t really sing or anything like that yet but she tries to make little noises and kind of groove to the music,” he continues. “And so that’s why I say the inspiration is just life, just really me knowing who I am as a person and as a husband and father.”
Despite the adorable approval of the album from his little girl, the singer admits he’s not too sure if he would want Zara to follow his footsteps in the industry.
“I want Zara to be able to carve out an interest in life early and whatever that may be, I want to be able to support her if it’s the right thing to support,” he tells PEOPLE. “I just want to be sure that I’m a great father, that I raise her well with all the spiritual values that I was raised with.”
“If she does decide to sing, hey, I think that’s great. Maybe she wants to be a swimmer or an athlete or whatever. I just wanna make sure that I’m a supportive dad,” Houston says.
Want to get the biggest stories from PEOPLE every weekday?Subscribe to our new podcast, PEOPLE Every Day, to get the essential celebrity, entertainment and human interest news stories Monday through Friday.
Marques Houston Instagram

“My heart ❤️,” Miya commented on the photos.
source: people.com