Looking forward to Dad's day

Sunday, June 17, 2007

NEVADA, Mo. -- An English proverb states "One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters." In the United States, fathers are honored in June, largely because that's the month Sonora Dodd's father was born.

Dodd came up with the idea of Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. The next year Dodd managed to arrange a Father's Day celebration. Lyndon Johnson fixed the third Sunday in June as Father's Day and Richard Nixon made it permanent.

Dodd wanted to honor her father, William Smart. Smart was a Civil War veteran who had to raise his six children after his wife died giving birth to their sixth child. Smart was a farmer and raised his family on a rural farm in Washington state. It was Dodd's father that made all the parental sacrifices and Dodd saw him as a courageous, selfless and loving father.

Optometrist Jeremy Fast said it's hard to describe his feelings about fatherhood. He and his wife, Lori, have a daughter, Stella Jewell Fast, 15 days old last Thursday.

"Just knowing she was a part of me made it special to actually hold her," Fast said. "I can't really describe the feeling but knowing that together my wife and I created a human being is very humbling."

The responsibilities of fatherhood are coming home to Fast as well.

"Just knowing I'm responsible for raising my child to be a good person puts a special responsibility on me," Fast said. "I love my nieces and nephews but with them you can send them home to their parents at the end of the day. Knowing that with your child you're responsible for how she turns out makes your decisions so much more important."

Fast's young daughter hasn't learned of the gift-giving traditions often associated with Father's Day, but this year, she'd have many choices, ranging from the latest in electronic gadgets to a necktie. Or, she might make her own gift. Instead of giving a gift from a store a gift from the heart is often appreciated as much, or more, as one picked up on a shopping trip.

Some ideas put forth on

fun.familyeducation.com are to have the child draw a picture of a favorite activity with Dad have the child sign the drawing and frame it. Gift baskets with small trinkets or food items are easy to assemble and children can help decide what to include. A "Jar Full of Love" could be just the thing to help a dad overcome a dreary day. Fill a jar or small wooden box with strips of paper that have a special memory, activity, all the good times spent with dad, and all the reasons he is special written on them.