![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2018\/06\/800px-Fathers_day_father_with_kid_on_lake.jpg\")
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This is another in that category of posts in which I gripe about a thing which has the appearance of being a strawman because by the time my dander is well and truly up I can no longer dig up the articles or tweets that irked me in the first place.<\/p>\n
Yesterday was, of course, Father\u2019s Day.\u00a0 In the\u00a0Actuary household, it was also my oldest son\u2019s birthday, so we combined the two, sort of \u2014 my husband and son went on a bike ride (which they like to do together occasionally so as to not have to deal with the slowpokes in the family, myself, yes, included), and then we all met up for lunch, where we watched the Germany-Mexico World Cup game (yes, it would have been better if Germany had actually won).\u00a0 Afterwards, we bought tickets online and again split up to meet at the movie theater to watch Solo, except that the air conditioning wasn\u2019t working in that theater, so they refunded us and gave us vouchers to use later in compensation, so that was at least a good effort.<\/p>\n
But, of course, you know you\u2019ve seen the articles on how women who are single mothers should be honored on Father\u2019s Day, and the complaints about how children without fathers shouldn\u2019t be made to feel left out on Father\u2019s Day, though the chorus seems weaker than the corresponding complaints about Mother\u2019s Day, which I suspect is just because school is already out and children are less likely to be doing crafts, even though there are certainly far more children without fathers in their lives than without mothers.\u00a0 (Of course, on Mother\u2019s Day you also get complaints about the lack of special honors for women who are not mothers.\u00a0 Either, we hear, Mother\u2019s Day is bad because it implies that the only quality of a woman that is valuable is her mothering care of her children, whereas we should be celebrating the voluntarily childless and consoling those involuntarily so; or Mother\u2019s Day is bad because we should honor all of the ways in women care for others.)<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s start with this:\u00a0 do you have a father?\u00a0 Is he living?\u00a0 Did he do an OK job raising you, or at least make a good effort or have a few redeeming qualities?\u00a0 If so, do something to show your appreciation to him.\u00a0 Do you have children, and is their father trying his best at fatherhood?\u00a0 If so, do something to show your appreciation.\u00a0 If neither of those two categories applies to you, but you have a platform to share your opinions on the world (nationally-syndicated opinion column, small-time blog, Facebook account), then give some support to fatherhood.\u00a0 If you have the interest, learn about an organization that helps fathers develop parenting skills, or if they\u2019re poor, helps them gain job skills to support their children, and consider supporting it.<\/p>\n
If none of this feels relevant to you, then walk away.<\/p>\n
After all, consider Veterans\u2019 Day.\u00a0 Not all of us are vets, nor do we all have a veteran in the family.\u00a0 We do not feel compelled to say, \u201cwell, in order to be fair, there should also be a day to honor community volunteers, or firefighters or actuaries, so that everyone has a Special Day.\u201d\u00a0 Because there does not need to be a \u201cfair\u201d and equal allocation of Special Days, nor does everyone get their turn at being the honoree of a Special Day, nor should all Special Days be structured in order to ensure that everyone has someone to honor on that Special Day.<\/p>\n
And now I\u2019ll get off my soapbox \u2014 about this issue at least.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Image:\u00a0 https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Fathers_day_father_with_kid_on_lake.jpg; By Laubenstein Karen, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is another in that category of posts in which I gripe about a thing which has the appearance of being a strawman because by the time my dander is well and truly up I can no longer dig up the articles or tweets that irked me in the first place. Yesterday was, of course, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":9884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n