Monday 17 June 2013

Every Day is Fathers Day (and it rocks).

So yesterday was fathers day, a day designed to make fathers feel slightly guilty about not being better dads.

I was afforded the luxury of getting up early with the wee bairn and doing my own breakfast and looking after him and his cousin while my partner went and spent the day out treating her father. Treats which included going out for breakfast with him at his expense and taking him to the cinemas to watch a film they both wanted to see at my expense.

I aren't complaining, my youngest wee bairn is only four years old and there is no way I can expect him to be looking after me. His cousin is the same age.  They spent six hours doing what four year olds do, that is to say playing loudly, arguing loudly, crying loudly and for the sake of variation making demands. Usually loudly. My day was spent facilitating and playing with a small element of feeding and consoling thrown in.

Then, in the early evening, my partner returned home so I took my youngest wee bairn over to see his siblings who live with the ex (his cousin had been picked up by my brother by now, she didn't just get ignored. Well...at least not very much).

They are a touch older, all being over ten years old. They had gotten me several gifts, which I found very touching. We spent some time playing, I helped my youngest daughter with her homework and then we watched an old episode of Doctor Who before I was sent home.

When I returned home I turned my mind to work and for a brief period my thoughts weren't on my children- but during my...ahem...research...I happened to go on a popular social media site and saw it was full of posts from fathers saying how great a day their children (or partners) had made for them, the special efforts that had been made to make this day extra special for the fathers.

The other stream was of people making acerbic comments about stay-away dads and former partners (and these I felt really sorry for, because they are entirely missing the joys of being a dad).

It got me thinking have I missed something? Should I have demanded royal treatment for the day? Should I feel aggrieved that nobody had bought me roast dinner in bed and tucked me in and told me a bedtime story?

And the answer is of course not. The joys of being a father isn't one day of being spoiled, it is the time every day that you are with your children being a parent. Playing with them, cuddling them when they fall over, helping them with their homework, these are the things that make being a father special.

For me every day is fathers day...and it rocks.

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