THE AUTHENTIC ECLECTIC
Put Your Hands Together: Deserving Dads Who Mold and Prepare Our Little Humans
Do you qualify for a participation award?
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I refuse to dole out willy-nilly, “Happy Father’s Day” greetings to every man who has fathered a child.
Really, ten minutes to gratify yourself doesn’t deserve kudos. Woo-hoo, you spread your seed? How awesome!
No. Just, no.
I am not crass, just honest. My loving father deserved the acknowledgment daily, so one day a year to go the extra mile made sense. You know what they say, only the good die young. And, he did.
My dad made it logical and easy to see why fathers are honored.
What doesn’t make sense is celebrating a seed sower.
Falling victim to commercialization, like every Hallmark-hosted holiday, men now have expectations that may or may not be deserved each year in June.
There is no participation award unless you’ve actually participated in fathering.
Fathering a child is not raising a child. You don’t make the cut, regardless of how many offspring you created to run the earth, because you satisfied your own need. Fathering needs to be a verb to qualify.
Oh, you want a new tie? A day in your recliner? You’d like your grass cut or to attend a sporting event? A massage? Do you want to golf for the day, maybe fish or hunt? Deal.
Just answer a few questions before you receive your bounty.
- Do you know your child better than your job, your boss, or other employees?
- Have you listened to and learned about their dreams, their goals, and their desires?
- Do you help them celebrate their differences and elevate their uniqueness?
- Have you talked to them and not at them?
- Do they know you as their soft place to fall?
- Have you supported them when no one would?
- Do they look to you as their hero?
- Have you refrained from imposing your thoughts on them?
