About a Dad

I kinda hate shopping for Father's Day cards for my dad. Mostly because, while we have a great relationship right now, we didn't have very much of a relationship when I was younger. So when looking for a mushy card (the kind that my daddy prefers - and truth be told, so do I) it's hard to find ones that don't wax poetical about how the father was there through thick and thin and taught you all those milestones through childhood, etc. and... my dad didn't. He was around when I was a kid (my parents didn't divorce until my 20s) but he was a workaholic and there were a lot of years where I think he just didn't know what to do with me/how to relate to me. (say, from about ages 5-17) Our relationship really developed when my parents were going through their divorce - which, in my opinion was the only good result in their divorce in the first place. (though I adore my step-parents too) I've always been a Daddy's Girl at heart, though, always wanting to please my dad, thinking he was a hero, and respecting him as a man. There have been years, even as an adult, that I bought him little girl cards instead of adult-daughter to father cards.

This year I was able to find one that talked about the bond between father and daughter and how they have a special relationship and that the best way to tell him how I feel is to say "I love you." So it was perfect. (Fuss got him one that talked about how she wanted to be able to fix things, too, just like Grandpa - which seemed especially appropriate since he's been taking things apart at the house while doing the work on the new room and she keeps telling him he broke things. She drew him a very convincing picture of a scribbled umbrella - she really just did some random scribbles, but it looked very much like an umbrella and we had been using the umbrella off and on all morning in the rain, so when I said "it looks like an umbrella!" she told him it was an umbrella. He liked it, but I think he would have liked anything she did)