This post was submitted by NFI's Manager of Outreach, Brittany DeFrehn. Brittany is currently out on maternity leave enjoying her new precious little girl, Adalynn.
Just a month ago my first child was born, a little girl, and thinking about this upcoming Father's Day makes me smile. I realize that in my life, it is the first time I will get to celebrate father's day. You may not be surprised for a first time father to be so excited, but I'm not the father...I'm the mother.
You see, I have never celebrated Father's Day before because my dad was never part of my life. As a child, Father's Day was a day for cookouts and for power tool ads on TV. It was a day for the other kids to make cards for their daddy's at school. What's sad is, I know that I am not alone in this experience. I know that there is an entire generation of children evolving into parents who will
only now celebrate Father's Day as fathers or mothers themselves - An entire generation who
only now know the meaning of daddy.
I don't know how you will celebrate Father's Day, but I do hope you have a reason to celebrate - every child and adult deserves a loving father. I know I plan to celebrate my daughter's amazing dad, and for the first time, I plan on making a card from a little girl to her daddy.
Today, I was looking for Father’s Day cards for a couple of friends who are new dads and I was just amazed at how many of them were focused on drinking, grilling and farting. In fact, one enterprising and creative “poet” was able to produce the trifecta and use all three in a single card. What talent… Now, anyone who knows me for more than 20 seconds will tell you that I am a guy who loves humor. In fact, I have certainly “dealt” a few fart jokes in my day. If you don’t believe me, you can pull my finger.
That said, the folks in the card business have gone too far and now they really treat Father’s Day like it’s a national holiday to celebrate lazy frat boys. Furthermore, I noticed that, unlike on Mother’s Day, the humor tends to make fathers the butt of the jokes. For example, for moms, the card writers tend to say stuff like “despite all the times that I was a thoughtless idiot, you somehow managed to love me nonetheless. I love you Mom!” For dads, it goes something like this: “Dad, despite the fact that you are a clueless out of touch idiot, who is more interested in guzzling beer and guarding the TV remote control than parenting, somehow, despite my better judgment and the counsel of many, I managed to still love you... Happy Father’s Day!”
Well, if you ask me, something just stinks about this…It seems to me that there is a “silent but deadly” plot afoot and I think we dads need to say enough is enough and make these card companies give us more than just a burst of hot air. Or, at least we should make them leave the room.