Father's Day is Sunday, June 20. I hope you planned ahead.
According to the National Retail Federation, 75% of people in the U.S. plan to celebrate Father's Day. Sadly, I am one of those who will not. My father died over 30 years ago. I think of him often and will certainly think of him on Sunday. That said, it turns out he doesn't need anything.
Another sad story....a few years ago a friend of mine asked me if I had a picture of my father. He died before there were digital cameras and cell phones so you had cameras with film. Film wasn't cheap and you certainly didn't just snap pics of everything you saw. You had to be "cheeseparing" with the film. (I was trying to find synonyms for stingy because I didn't want to use stingy and I found cheeseparing. I thought I would use it since next week we talk about National Dairy Month.) I tried to find a picture of him among my photos at home and had a difficult time. It reduced me nearly to tears! Then I found one! To be clear, my mother has many and I am sure I would find others but we weren't really picture-taking people. Now with digital cameras and cell phones, I have pictures of everything including my big toe.
This week we talked about the origins of Father's Day, what people do for dad, and what dad actually wants. I reference a couple of different sites including the National Retail Federation (remember that site from the Mother's Day podcast?). I will be coming back to this site in the future because there is so much information on it that is interesting and relevant to some of my topics.
For websites with sponsored content, you may look at the following. As a note, I comment on the sponsored content on the podcast. How can you tell? Well, all the products dads allegedly want are branded. Really? Dad wants a JCrew sweatshirt? My dad wouldn't know JCrew from Eddie Bauer from KMart probably. Perhaps that was just him. When you see lists like this, think about the source. I include them as examples. Also, perhaps your dad wants a fleece throw with a map of the world on it. You can help him find Australia.
AskMen site lists 81 things Dad might want.
Women's Health Magazine lists another 61.
Full Frontal Father tells you what men really want (and there's a video).
Is Father's Day celebrated around the world the way Mother's Day is? It sure is. If you'd like to see where and when it is celebrated, I recommend TimeandDate.com.
The ARS (Arbitrary Random Stat) comes to us this week from a friend and colleague of mine. She mentioned this in a recent phone conversation and it caused me to investigate. Listen to the podcast and go to social media to see the ARS she picked for me.