When I was growing up I only remember there being Mother’s Day. As I think about it I realize that it never occurred to me to question why there was not a Father’s Day. I lived in Austria from age 6 to 13 and subsequently in the States where my family did not celebrate Father’s Day. We always honored our mother and grandmother on Mother’s Day.
Yet my father was a big part of my life. What I remember best was that he gave us children (three girls, one boy) opportunities to challenge ourselves. He did it in a way that the unspoken message came across as “of course you can do it”. Yet the actual voice I hear came as directives: “stand up straight, pull your stomach in, close your mouth when eating, elbows of the table etc. At the time I hated these reminders but tried to do as told. It was when I got quite a bit older that I realized that the indirect expectations and the spoken directives were both ways of showing love. He noticed and cared about how we presented ourselves and how we challenged ourselves.
Today I did a little search and found out that it was President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 who signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June Father’s Day. However, it was in 1972 during the Nixon years that the holiday was officially recognized. My children have grown up with Father’s Day being an official holiday. When it comes to parenting father’s and mother’s both have a vital part and I am glad that both are now officially honored.
