Parenting Column: Scars of Fatherhood

June brings many things to celebrate at my house. We celebrate beautiful summer days full of sunshine, warm summer evenings glowing with fireflies, a certain little girl’s birthday and then there’s Father’s Day. A special day to honor the one who brings home the bacon, kills all the spiders that creep and crawl around the house, fixes (or tries to fix) all that is broken and puts the fun in family.

I don’t think many of us are prepared for parenthood and what we expect it to be and what it really is can be vastly different. There are so many things about being a parent that we just don’t see coming. This has been especially true for my husband. He doesn’t overthink things which can be a blessing and a curse at the same time.

My husband has certainly paid his dues. I often say he’s a bit like “Tim the Toolman Taylor” from Home Improvement. There are often minor accidents at our house and he’s usually right in the middle of it.

He’s teaching the boys things they’ll need to know as adults like mowing the lawn. Our son, the middle child, was 10 when my husband thought it would be fun for him to learn how to drive the riding lawn mower. Hubby changed his mind when our son let off the brake and couldn’t stop quickly enough pinning him against the truck in the process. There’s nothing like a little pain to really get the point across.

The most memorable mishap was at our son’s 2nd birthday party. My husband had a cast on his right arm from another mishap in the garage (when he fell from a ladder that he leaned against the wall rather than opening and securing to fix a leak in the ceiling and landed on the hood of the truck with his wrist in just the right position to fracture it). We had a backyard full of kids and an inflatable jumpy. My husband was at the window made of net talking to the kids when our 5 year old joyfully bounced across the jumpy into the window that gave way so that our son crashed into him causing him to lose his balance. Many of us were watching as he toppled back and over in a sort of somersault across the kids’ picnic table. That one ranks high on my “funniest things ever” list. Fortunately he only hurt his pride a little as he stole the prize for “most entertaining”.

Another mishap occurred when he was teaching that same child how to play croquet when he was 6 years old. The method my husband chose was to crouch low in front of our son. He probably should have given that more thought. Our son held the mallet with both hands like a golf club but ready to swing forward from his legs and he did so with all his might clobbering his Dad smack in the middle of his forehead. Alas, I did not witness this one. He came in the house to tell us all about the incident and make an icepack for his head. It was hard not to laugh as we stared in awe at the large red circle on his forehead. It looked like he had been branded.

Our children would say that their Dad is funny, smart and loves ice cream, motorcycles and movies. All in all, despite his mishaps, he’s a pretty great guy. So how can we express how much we appreciate and love him? 

One thing I know he would appreciate is a gift pack from . We’ve received these as gifts before and have thoroughly enjoyed the prepaid tickets, popcorn bucket good for three different visits and drinks.

Like most Dads, he would also appreciate dinner at his favorite restaurant.  Don’t forget that you’re not the only one with this idea, so it might be a good idea to go early.

Of course, Father’s Day wouldn’t be complete without an awesome frozen treat—I’m sure the road will eventually lead to Bruster’s or Yogli Mogli for some frozen goodness with a cherry on top.