Dads Getting Shafted on Father’s Day?

Geoff Williams thinks dads get the shaft on Father’s Day. Maybe he needs to come check out my house.

Williams bemoaned his package of boxer shorts and flip light for reading at night in a Parenting essay featured on CNN this week, comparing them rather unfavorably to the cherry tree and match bird bath he’d picked out for his wife for Mother’s Day.

Says Williams, “For her, and for many people, Father’s Day is an afterthought, a holiday just a few steps above the one that celebrates the groundhog and that other one that promotes trees.”

Maybe in their house. On the other hand, I’m the first to admit I am terrible to buy for. Because I feel GUILTY asking for anything. Yes, I’m one of those “oh, no, you don’t have to get me anything” people. You hate me, don’t you?

But I’m not twelve anymore. I can actually walk into a mall and buy what I really want. I’m also a mother now, so the best gifts are the fifty cent trinkets picked up by my daughter because “Mommy will like that.” Even if it’s a ring from the machine near the grocery store door which she will abscond with in two point five seconds.

And while Williams wife might gather the loot, there are quite a few of us moms out here, the moms who feel like gift-giving holidays are for the kids. If you want to get us something, how about something for the house (ahem, bird bath and cherry tree) or just letting us sleep in on Sunday morning? My friend finally convinced her husband recently that, yes, she really DID want a new set of pots and pans . . .  and it was money well spent. Or better spent than any on a fancy dinner which she would have spent clock-watching, wondering what her toddler and her teenager were up to at home.

Of course, for all our guilt over having someone spend on us, we Moms aren’t the skinflints Williams makes us out to be. I got a book for Mother’s Day (my fault, it’s what I WANTED). My husband? Got a new grill (again, in his defense, or maybe in mine, his old one was falling apart), a new belt and a new cologne he’s been wanting. Not too bad, Dad (and definitely not one of these).

At least in our house, the gifts fit the receiver more so - or at least as much as - the holiday. Does Father’s Day get the same treatment as Mother’s Day in your house?

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Tags: Father's Day, fatherhood, fathers, gift giving, gifts, Jeanne Sager, presents