Happy Father's Day

A role beyond compare.

I take this opportunity to wish the men folk out there a happy Father’s Day and happy Grandfather’s Day this weekend. I trust you will be spoiled by your nearest and dearest or failing that you get to spend some time in the Garrick club or whatever your man shed of choice is.

I have long highlighted the value of mothers, a role that is explicitly mentioned in the Irish constitution and I believe is worthy of parade. But can anyone truly put a value on the role of a good father? We certainly have a good idea of what happens when the fathers go missing on a large scale: carnage. The support, guidance, love and devotion fathers give is beyond compare. I have seen it with my own father and my husband. The amount of time, love, devotion and sheer life energy is immense. Nothing can replace a father.

Sadly as the west continues on its suicide mission (it’s support for the death cult Hamas is surely not a coincidence) we are getting fewer and fewer fathers. This is not solely down to the young men. The younger women are not up for the deal of that horrible gender free term parenthood anymore, or at least on terms that look wholly unfair to me. They just can’t be bothered.

Previous generations of young women were at least kind and thoughtful. Was this kindness often exploited? Sure. But now we have a generation of young women raised on the bitterest form of feminism which produces the most callous and downright selfish generation of young women. See Meghan Markle.

If your son does manage to bring home a warm hearted young lady for Sunday lunch I’d hang on to her.

Ah yes the West – the only culture that turns it’s back on children. The all-round celebration of the childfree and childfree spaces abounds. When I was looking for cards with my daughter at the weekend below is what I saw amongst all the Daddy you are Awesome Cards.

This really sums it up. The irritation began to build. Don’t do it Laura, just move on. But I can’t. So here goes. I understand that some of these cards will be given in addition to the Father’s Day cards, but some will be given to those who just own pets. That’s what I have an issue with.

Look I do not want to come across as callous or indeed cruel but if you are not a father you don’t get to celebrate Father’s Day. You can celebrate your own father and the time and devotion he dedicated to raising you. But that’s it.

Because in truth the cat does not think you are an awesome father nor does the dog think you are the best dad ever. They love you for sure. Well the cat probably takes a dim view of your total abject submission to their whims because they are always an excellent judge of character. But when that cat puts its leg down and stops licking wherever it is licking to eat the cat food it gave you, is it happy? Sure. Is this the same as a son and daughter coming over to you for a hug? No it is not.

I understand that cats and dogs can often behave in a more civilised manner than the children. And that is the point, is it not? It is fathers that take on the child terrorists and after years of chiding, chivvying, dropping to hobbies, supervising homework and constant never ending love and devotion hopefully produce a civilised human being at the end. It is not easy.

Men do not have to do this with cats. Indeed, it is your darling wife that has purchased the cat and dog cards to show her appreciation for your efforts and I say good for her. Your wife acknowledges the care you have provided to your pets, which can be time consuming. The careful training of a dog can take months and the picking up of the poo, the minding, the petting, the walking are indeed time consuming. I understand that. We had a dog. Now we do not. Don’t ask.

But if your wife wants to show her appreciation for this effort you have put into the pets, which is really effort you have put into the marriage as a whole, then this is what wedding anniversaries are for. So celebrate your I am a great pet owner on that day. Or indeed your birthday. On your birthday you are an extra year older. Congratulations on not dying in the last 365 days! Also thanks for all you do with Felix or Garfield or Timmy the dog. In sum, you are free to take any of the other 364 days of the year to do you and the pets, but what I have serious objections to is pet owners hijacking Father’s Day.

Pets are not children. I know in the west people are now choosing pets over children, but let’s not feed this fiction. And to put it bluntly, unless you have a pet and have children, you are not a father. You had a father of you own, I assume. And if he was anyway loving you yourself understand the distinction. You might be an excellent doctor or plumber and husband and work in your community and look after your own parents as well as the goldfish and all of this is great. And it is always lovely to be appreciated – men as a whole are often underappreciated. But you are not a father. So don’t hijack the day from your friends and brothers who are.

However, if you are a man who has taken an extra level of interest, love and care in another child say a nephew or a child who does not have a present father and that child and his mother recognise the important role you have in their lives and wish to celebrate you as a father figure on Father’s Day – then you are in the club. Lord, knows I am not nothing if not progressive and modern. Everyone knows that.

(Baby John with granddad.)

You enjoy your Father’s Day lunch and accept your Father’s Day card and Father’s Day hug with gusto. In fact we could do with more men like you. And if you are youngish, tall and handsome and have the surname Jenrick I am happy to give you a little hug myself…

So there we have it. Happy Father’s Day to the fathers, grandfathers and father like figures. Put your feet up. Oh, you already have your feet up, just like every other day? Of course you do, you lazy so and so.

I’m sorry – I can’t help it. I never said I was wife of the year.