Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to you, Moddy, and all the other dads on here. May you have the least stress-filled day possible.

Except for Moddy, who's apparently going to a Nats game.

 

Thought I'd share this story abou my dad just because I like sharing it and my dad hates when I tell it. When I was right years old my parents surely didn't have a lot of money and my dad had worked an extra job on weekends to save up and buy me and my sister brand new mountain bikes. At the time I still believed in Santa Claus because I've always had an active imagination and always wanted to believe in things like that. But that was the first year my parents signed all of our gifts from themselves instead of from Santa. So after we ate dinner that day my dad took me up to the cemetary behind our house and showed me how to ride the bike, teaching me to change the gears and not to pull the front brake when flying down a hill. After about 20 minutes I asked him why we didn't get any gifts from Santa that year. Dad look me square in the eye and said, "Come on RHCP, you know there's no Santa Claus." I remember feeling like I got hit like a ton of bricks and dad says he still remember seeing my face go pale. He said the toughest thing about breaking the news to me like that was he knew he was going to have to tell mom what he did and he was going to be in hot water.

But despite that my dad has been the best dad I could ever ask for. He was tough on me growing up and I can't thank him enough for it. I still remember the sound in his voice when I won my APSE last year and found out I got first place. That may have been the best moment of my life because I knew I had made my dad proud of me.

Happy Fathers Day out there to all the dads. I hope someday to join the club.

 

Maybe I should feel bad for not getting my stepfather a gift, but hopefully things will be OK. Given the circumstances, I probably couldn't begin to repay him, anyway. Except that I'll be gone for a spell in a couple of weeks, so there's a little guilt there. A little.

 

Wrote this last night on Facebook:

It has been 26 years since my father died. I'm sure some day goes by that I do not think of him, but I suspect that no two days go by that I do not. And I never run into a difficult problem when I don't wish I could call him and ask his advice. In the end, I have to trust that he gave me the right tools for the job, if I'll just use them correctly.

I find that I am struggling in unexpected ways today.

 

It's been a shared day of celebration in the E household. Not only is it Father's Day, but it's my wife's birthday. So we alternated between opening cards and gifts.

 

I just posted this on Facebook:

My dad died in 1982 at the age of 67. I was only 33 at the time and a day doesn't go by when I don't think about him. I bet he's having a Molson Stock Ale and watching the US Open right now.

 

I feel you on this. My dad is going in for a pretty major surgery tomorrow for an ongoing problem and every time I think about the worst-case scenario I think about this very thing.

 

This is a first Father's Day for me since my wife and I took in two foster kids in January. Not exactly the most relaxing of days, especially with a crabby 6-year-old daughter. Oh, and spending 90 minutes at Outback Steakhouse due to S-L-O-W service didn't help matters.
Happy Father's Day to all the dads (and granddads and great granddads if applicable) on here.
I know I'm fortunate to still have my dad (not to mention my father-in-law) around. Hejira and JR, my thoughts go out to you and your families.
Moddy, thanks for starting this thread.

 

HH: I understand. I've lost my father too, though not quite in the same way. In my case, my father has decided placating his new wife is more important than his four kids and his baker's-dozen grandkids (only three are mine ). It was just the final straw in a lifetime of that kind of thing. I'd love to have a relationship with him, but you can only drive the wrong way down a one-way street for so long.

I've channeled my hurt into making sure my relationships with my own kids don't follow that pathway. In that respect, my dad has been a great role model - an example of what NOT to do. I'm a thousand miles from them and not able to see them as much as I'd like, but I hope some day they'll understand.

And Murphy, kudos to you and your wife. I'm an adoptive foster parent, and it's a great feeling. I hope someday my adopted son will say of me, to quote Brad Paisley, "I hope I'm at least half the dad that he didn't have to be."

 

I miss Daddy, Papa and Grandpa. I hope I continue to make them proud.