Happy fathers day to all those daddies who are so dedicated to their families, who serve as amazing role models to their children and provide endless love and support to their wives. Happy Father’s Day to my Daddy who has spent 35 years openly caring, loving, sharing and growing as a parent. I love you, Daddy!

{my daddy - may 2008}

I read this blog post this morning by a Dad Blogger and it gave me a lot of food for thought. He says, in part:

I’ve made the argument previously that the most important role a father plays is not as breadwinner or provider, but as role model.

Even though we’ve had a really rough year, it would have been easy for Tony, the breadwinner, to throw up his hands and just give up. But he didn’t. He stepped up. He didn’t just step up by working harder but also by working CLOSER. He had been hoping to work for himself for a long time both for the financial freedom and also for the parental freedom. He loves his job as Dad and he isn’t shy about admitting that when he is gone sitting in an office doing the same work he could be doing surrounded by his kids, he grows resentful. I saw it in his eyes every day as he left for work and I saw it in his eyes during our conversations about how he hoped to be able to work for himself some day but that now we weren’t ready, now it wasn’t the “responsible choice”.

Over coffee, my friend and I talked about this very thing and she pointed out something I had not considered during all of those days and all of those talks when I wouldn’t let Tony branch out on his own because it wasn’t the “responsible choice”. She pointed out that, actually, working for himself was *exactly* the responsible choice. It was the choice that will lead to financial stability AND parental involvement, both. What is irresponsible about that? And although the timing was not ours, we are considering it a gift. I am proud of Tony, most of all, for the role model he is to my family. I am proud that he is teaching them that when the going gets tough, the tough step up. I am proud that he is teaching them that risks aren’t always irresponsible and that believing in yourself and your own abilities is ok. To steal a line from Laurie’s blog on Father’s Day, I am proud that he’s showing them that life is 90% effort and only 10% ability. I’m proud that he’s showing them that you can be anything that you want to be, even when you are already an adult and a parent. I’m proud that he’s showing them that you can achieve your dreams AND be present every single day in big and small ways. I’m proud that he’s always trying to find a way to be together as a family and that he actually really ENJOYS being together as a family. Although I often don’t feel worthy, I’m proud that he considers me his best friend and openly adores me and teaches my boys how to treat a woman by example.

{adored}

Another quote from Sol Smith:

The best way that I can think of to celebrate fatherhood is to practice it with care and understanding–to embody everything that I saw my dad do right as best as I can.

I love this and I do think this should be the gift of each and every one of us this year. I don’t want Father’s Day to be just one day. I want to appreciate, acknowledge and admire my husband’s role of father every single day. I want my children to know that he is an EXTRAORDINARY father, he is going above and beyond in order to provide not just financially but emotionally, intellectually, psychologically. He has raised the bar and I hope they never take that for granted, even when he makes them eat their chicken, take out the garbage or redo their math.

I love you Tony and the father, provider, role-model and friend you are to every member of this family.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Holidays & Vacations, Things I Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.