Happy Father's Day

I would like to take this time to wish a Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers out there.  Special Father's Day wishes go out to my dad, my two brothers, my brother in law (my sister's husband) and my other brother in law (my wife's brother) who is as much a father to our nephew as any biological father and also like a brother to me.

Sometimes I stop and think about the differences between Mother's Day and Father's Day, at least in terms of how they are celebrated in different organizations that I have been a part of.  My company does a lot of things for their employees.  There are a lot of activities throughout the year to try to make things fun for the employees.  They also have a lot of raffles and things.

Each year for both Mother's Day and Father's Day, they hold a raffle.  It doesn't cost anything to enter, and the value of the prizes are equal, usually a $100 gift card.  The difference lies in where those gift cards are from.  This year, for Mother's Day, they gave away a $100 gift card to a spa.  For Father's Day it was a gift card to Home Depot.  So, mom gets pampered, but dad gets to buy things to do chores around the house.

I am going off of my increasingly failing memory, but I believe that last year the prize for Mother's Day was a $100 American Express gift card and Father's Day was once again Home Depot.  I know there are a lot of dads out there that would enjoy the Home Depot card, and a lot of moms would to.  It just seems that a generic gift card like the AmEx card would be more appropriate.  Sometimes us dads like to be pampered to.

It also reminds me of how they used to celebrate these holidays in a church I used to belong to.  For Mother's Day, they would have a nice sit down mother/daughter banquet.  For Father's Day, a cookout.  I'm not saying that the dads got the short end of the stick, but you be the judge.  There is definitely a difference between the views of mothers versus fathers, but I don't think us dads would have it any other way.