Tell Us What Your Dad Means To You: A Conversation About Fathers on Father's Day

Although I'm now a father of a 4-year-old, Father's Day makes me think about my own dad -- and what he means to me -- more than anything else on that day.

I've always measured myself as a man and as a father against the example he has set for me and others, and the holiday makes me feel somewhat like I'm borrowing his (oversized) overcoat.

It seems the day has become hijacked by consumerism -- the yearly question of what to buy for Father's Day.

What I'd love to do is engage you in a conversation about our fathers -- not just the gifts we should be thinking about buying for them. With this in mind, I'll be asking people to share their stories about what their dad means to them.

I am also looking forward to hearing your personal thoughts and feelings about how your father has impacted you. For example, how has he inspired you?  What story about him would you most want to have passed down?

But first, please feel free to share in the comments thread the questions I should be asking folks about their dads.

And please continue to check in as we head into a holiday we should all be rejoicing about, not just fathers.

 

Follow Eric Villency on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EricVillency

Comments

[Pierogi kid]

04:13 PM on 05/24/2011

I lost my dad two years ago from complications of Leukemia he was 70. His dad went out for some cigarettes and never came back when he was three leaving my dad to grow up in abject poverty. He had met my mom and thus turned down an appointment at the US merchant academy and instead worked his way through college as an orderly in state mental hospital to become a elementary school teacher and a bus driver in the summer, marrying my mom and raising 4 kids . What I most admire about my dad is that he worked over 40 years at jobs he did not liked much in order to provide for his wife and kids. He was not some super 1960s TV show type dad who was always there happy and cheerful to help handle any problem I or my brother or sisters encountered. No, the guy was tired all the time but he was there and he sacrificed so much to give us the life he never had in order for us not to have to go through what he did, never complaining about it. I was able to pursue my aspirations only through his sacrifice. He was not the progressive ideal image of a father that gets celebrated and touted in media but to me he is a true hero, the type who do not get celebrated enough on father’s day. Thanks dad I know what you did.