With Father’s Day tomorrow, I thought I’d take an opportunity to
shout out to my dad and say something I should have said long
ago.
Thank you, dad. Thank you for all the things you did for me
while I was growing up. Thank you for all the things you continue
to do for me, even though I am supposed to be a grown-up. In fact,
I’ve made a list of the things for which I am most thankful
– and which I hope to pass on to my son.
With Father’s Day tomorrow, I thought I’d take an opportunity to shout out to my dad and say something I should have said long ago.
Thank you, dad. Thank you for all the things you did for me while I was growing up. Thank you for all the things you continue to do for me, even though I am supposed to be a grown-up. In fact, I’ve made a list of the things for which I am most thankful – and which I hope to pass on to my son.
1. Thank you for never, ever leaving the toilet seat up. It must have been difficult. You lived your fatherhood in a house full of women, and you never once caused any of us to have a midnight splash. I’m sure there were times when you were tempted. Times when you thought, “To heck with them, I’m leaving the seat in an upright position.” But you never once fell into that trap, so to speak. I can only hope that Junior grows up understanding the sacrifice his grandfather made and that he learns by your example.
2. Thank you for all the late nights constructing Barbie Dream Houses. I’ve seen you try to build things, and it’s not pretty. But you did it – three dream houses. So what if the elevators never worked and the kitchens were on backwards? Those were great dream houses.
3. Thank you for teaching me to always check my order before leaving the drive-through. Because of your guidance, I have never had to suffer through a Chicken McNugget meal when I wanted a McChicken Sandwich.
4. Thank you for always letting us get the little yappy dogs instead of the big, beefy dogs. OK, once we got a big German shepherd – but thank you for letting us name her Pretty Princess Frou-Frou. And for not trying to hide her name when you took her to obedience school with the other German shepherds named Zeus and Killer.
5. Thank you for not questioning the enormous shoe bills. You knew that we girls were not boys. And that we needed several pairs of shoes. And you didn’t complain. At least not to us.
6. Thank you for teaching me how to drive. Sure, you had to pay more for your life insurance once they knew you were in the car with me. But you never gave up – even when I nearly ran over a neighbor and that neighbor never spoke to you again. And you even got back into the car with me after I flunked my licensing test because I crashed into the DMV building.
Oh, sure, you did make mom take me for my second test. And my third. But you took me for my fourth – and because I finally passed, I can officially thank you for teaching me that no matter how much I may stink at something, I should never, ever give up.
7. Thank you for realizing that the tattoo thing was just a phase. And thank you for being such a wise father and understanding that once I reached Milo’s
House of Tattoos and saw the needles, the phase would be over.
8. Thank you for only making me go fishing once. And thank you for not making fun of me when I cried after baiting my hook, thus killing my new best friend, Hermie the Wormy.
9. Thank you for teaching me how to work the remote control. It has given me tremendous advantage in a house full of testosterone. Because of you, I don’t have to spend my entire life watching “Animal Planet.”
10. Thank you for teaching me to ride a bike. And, for the record, I’m still sorry about your foot. To this day, I sincerely wish the doctors could have reattached your toe.
11. Thank you for never forbidding me to see my first boyfriend, who you hated. And thank you for not telling me until much, much later that you could never remember his name, so you told all your friends that his name was a word not printable in a family newspaper.
Most of all, thank you for being such a great dad.
Happy Father’s Day.
