What does dad want? | Editorial

Published 12:27 pm Thursday, June 14, 2012

Fathers aren’t what they used to be.

In our islands and across the country, they seem more engaged in family matters than prior generations of dads.

Many have gone beyond coaching Little League to coaching for the SATs and college admissions, staying home with a sick child while mom goes to work, going to parent-teacher conferences —sometimes even without mom.

We figure modern dads don’t smoke cigars (at least, not at home), wear bow ties or turn over their daughters’ problems to mom. Advice, not admonishment, might be more in the spirit of Dr. Phil than Dr. Spock. Or are we barking up the wrong tree? You tell us.

Tell us whether your thinking and your fatherly feelings have evolved. Whether your relationship with your father has changed since you became a father. Whether you treat your kids, male and female, differently than your dad treated you.

We’re interested partly because we don’t fully understand “fatherhood”, and partly because we’re not sure what to write about it. We don’t even know what fathers really want for Father’s Day. Do you?

So tell us what it means to be a father. Tell us what Father’s Day means to you, or if you want a card or a gift or maybe a hug and “I love you” from your son or daughter.

Send trenchant, or even humorous, comments to srasmussen@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/sanjuanjournal. Maybe we’ll learn something, and maybe we can get enough good material to put your comments together into a meaningful editorial about fathers and about Father’s Day — even if it is after the fact.