Happy Father's Day. We're still away but I'm reprinting this post that appeared a few weeks BEFORe Father's Day last year. Why don't football players ever shout "Hi Dad!" into the camera?
Search "Mothers Day Gift" in Technorati and, as of today, two weeks AFTER Mother's Day 2008, you'll find the phrase in nearly 20,000 blog posts with any level of authority.
Search "Fathers Day Gift" and, as of today, three weeks BEFORE Father's Day 2008, you'll find the phrase in just short of 10,000 blog posts.
**As an interesting side note, if you check these same terms in Technorati this year, the number of posts is about half of the total of a year ago.
No Time Mom lists all of three contests or giveaways for Father's Day.
According to AOL Money & Finance:
"Historically, more collect phone calls are made on Father's Day than on any other day of the year. While Mother's Day is the biggest holiday for phone calls in general, it's dads who get the top honor of their progeny sticking them with the bill for the call."
"When it comes to buying gifts, I can buy for the females in my life all day long…mum, sister in law, friends…a walk in the park, but when it comes to the men it’s a different matter entirely - my dad and brother I find especially difficult because neither seem to have any idea themselves what they want!"
Isn't it funny how we trip over ourselves to offer Mother's Day gift suggestions, yet the selection of material regarding Father's Day gifts is, shall we say, pallid? Maybe other fathers seem so macho that we believe they need gifts reeking of testosterone and immaturity like an enormous remote control or personalized beer.
But my father, The Man From D.A.D., loves personal and intimate gifts. We made him a needlepoint belt with all the kids' names, which he's been wearing proudly for eight years; for all we know he thinks it's hideous but he'd never say so and it's practically the only belt he wears. His book shelves are loaded with my pottery, ranging in quality from the ridiculous to the sublime, including a bowl embossed with a poem Cleo wrote (guess that makes it poetry pottery). Robey planted an oak twig last year which The Man From D.A.D. protects from mowing with its own fence, and monitors daily.
Now, we could give the high tech gifts and sometimes we do, but I don't think that's as much of a sign of fatherly worth and love as something from the heart rather than the wallet. And maybe our father is unusually sentimental so that he seriously treasures the personal mementos we regularly supply, but I doubt it. I think that many dads would and should be thrilled to receive something personalized from their kids or grandchildren.
This year we're going to have FeeFiFoto print a picture of the grandchildren on a ceramic tile that will blend perfectly with all the other family-oriented memorabilia in his office. He'll love it.
What are you doing for Father's Day?
