Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all those Dad's out there. When we were deciding whether to have children or not there was one thing I was sure about, my husband would make a great dad. I was right. That is one of the three things my dad and my husband had in common. First, they were and are great dads. Second, they both loved me unconditionally. Third, they loved their girls! Three pretty great qualifications if you ask me.

My dad was never a part-time dad or a dad that did things only a "man" would do. He shared diapering and bathing duty. He never "babysat" his kids, something I hear even young women today say, for example, "I can come if my husband will agree to babysit the kids, otherwise I have to see if my mom can do it." I'm always astounded when I read things like that. Since when did having children, caring for them, nurturing them, spending time with them be something a wife had to ask her husband, the FATHER of their kids to do.

After large family gatherings my dad would volunteer to take all the nieces and nephews to the local park to give the ladies time to clean up and relax. My dad would bandage and take care of some of my more serious "OOPS" moments when I would mangle my fingers or knees and my mom would be too upset or grossed out to do it! My dad took me to the hardware store, the paint store, the lumber yard and the gravel yard, places I still like to go today. He let me help him put furniture together when he went through his "Yield House" phase. My dad was devoted to his mother, who was widowed when my dad was 12 or 13. He took care of her throughout her entire life and visited her regularly even when she didn't know who he was anymore.

My husband is a hands-on, 24/7 parent. He loves to spend time with our daughter and has been a natural since day one. He makes time, invents time, and looks forward to time and activities he can do with Alexa. In many ways he is better with her than I am. I have never, never worried about leaving her with Norman and he has never questioned his abilities or responsibility toward his child.

That old adage that a woman looks to marry a man like her father isn't exactly true for me. Like I said, the only thing my dad and Norm had in common for years was me. Dad didn't understand for a long time what exactly Norman did for a living. He had a hard time understanding the academic life. He also didn't understand how Norm didn't know one end of a wrench from the other and why I did most of the house and home repairs. But I guess when you go deep down to the most important things a woman would want in husband and a father, my dad and Norman were very, very, much alike. In that way, I did marry a man just like my father.

Happy Father's Day - Dad and Norman, I'll love you both always and forever, Donna