Have you seen all the commercials and advertisements lately reminding you to remember your "Dads & Grads"? This marketing catch phrase really irks me. Since when did Father's Day get lumped in with another holiday? So dads aren't even important enough to get our own day now and we have to share?
Seriously, can you imagine this happening with Mother's Day? If Mother's day took place during music appreciation month would we tell people to celebrate Moms and Brahms? Or if it was near Veterans Day… Moms and Bombs? Not a chance.
When it comes to holidays, we really appreciate mothers. Mother's Day is traditionally the day of the year when the most phone calls are made. The commercials for Mother's Day are sappy, heart-warming flashbacks to a mom cooking a child a meal and bandaging up a knee. We are usually told we should get mom a nice big diamond necklace, or a spa treatment, or something to give them a break from all their hard toil and sacrifice they do for us.
With dads… it's more like you can pick him up a gift on the way to graduation and save yourself an extra trip. Or if stores do advertise specifically for dads… they focus on the things dads do apart from the family. According to the marketing gurus… dads do only two things: they golf or sit around on their duff with other dads and watch sports on TV. The rare, exceptional dad… can both golf and watch TV.
Ok, so maybe it isn't quite that bad. But I find that in general, society just doesn't respect fatherhood much or even expect much from fathers. And sadly, it's often with good reason. Far too many fathers have been absent, unfaithful, irresponsible, and focused primarily on themselves. I have to admit that many more moms have been carrying the load of parenting and being the better spiritual leader in their families.
I think it's time for us dads to step up… and finally be worthy of those incredibly fashionable "#1 Dad" t-shirts we seem to get.
Maybe then - we'll even get our own holiday.
