Moms Talk: How Did You Celebrate the Dad In Your Life?

Welcome back to Moms Talk, a feature that is part of a new initiative on our Patch sites to reach out to moms and families.

Each week in Moms Talk, our Moms Council of experts and smart moms take your questions, give advice and share solutions.

Moms, dads, grandparents and the diverse families who make up our community are all welcome to weigh in and use the discussion forum as a resource. Each week, we'll pose a question and solicit feedback on a wide array of issues, but you should feel free to suggest questions you'd like to see discussed as well.

This week, our discussion turns to celebrating Father's Day.  You may have heard the joke before.  Father's Day is in June because about a month after Mother's Day someone though "Uh-oh, what about the dads?" 

It's true.  It has always seemed to me that Mother's Day is a much bigger affair in general society than Father's Day.  Mother's Day always includes a big family meal and special phone calls and presents.  Father's Day?  Golf without your kids?  A tie or socks? 

I've found that it's not too different in our family either.  We've created a little bit of a tradition of spending Mother's Day in Annapolis.  We have brunch, go on a boat, and then I get to spend a little bit of time on my own shopping for my own special little Mother's Day gift.  The whole day is a gift to me and it was specially designed that way.  By me.  

Father's Day is a little tougher at our house.  My husband is one of those "we don't need to do anything special" kind of guys.  And he really means it.  Right on the heels of my self-imposed "day just for me" it is kind of hard for me to swallow.

But plan something too elaborate, and he would cringe.  I know it.  Let the day go by without doing something special to acknowledge that its Father's Day is obviously not an option.  I tried to send him off to play golf with his friends.  No dice.  I tried to get him to pick out a special something for us to buy for him.  "I don't need anything.  We should put our extra money towards our paying down the mortgage." So practical. 

So this year, we had a lovely low-key day with some good friends out in a vineyard where the kids could play and we could too.  We had a quick Father's Day toast.  He got to spend the day with the kids who made him a dad without all the pomp and circumstance.  What did you do for the dad(s) in your life for Father's Day?  How did it compare to your Mother's Day celebration?