The fastest way to win a starting amount respect of the people in small village like this would be a heroic deed.
For example, if your vampire-dad is resistant to fire, make him save a person or two from the burning house:
It was a dark and calm night a few years back when all'o the sudden Joe's gas pipes blew sky high. I told him a million times to fix the damn pipes, but "no-o-o, it's too expensive, they are fine as they are..."
Anyway, Joe's ball'n'chain got out of the house in a nick of time, but Joe himself was trapped in this bloody inferno. The whole village came to try and put down the fire, but we couldn't do a damn thing. And then this new guy, thin as a stick, comes in and runs into the house like a crazy.
"Well, damn, now we'll have to bury two of them" - I thought.
A minute passed and then this new guy jumps out of burning window with poor Joe on his shoulders. Like a bat out of hell, I tell ya.
Well, turns out this new guy wasn't that bad after all. Sure, he is a bit weird and if he had a dime for every illness he has he'd be rich as... as he is, I guess. He helped the poor Joe to rebuild his house. And he is a great doctor too, he helped me to get rid of that damn blister that had been bugging me for last twenty years. He is a good guy, I tell ya.
(Sorry for the poor grammar, English is not my native language)