You can easily name the television show just after hearing the name of the iconic dad in the series… Archie Bunker (somehow endearing despite his flaws), Howard Cunningham (friendly and kind), Ward Cleaver (solid and level-headed), and even Herman Munster (optimistic and fun-loving).
Times have changed, and so too have the typical roles and relationships of dads.
In 1989, there were roughly 1 million stay-at-home fathers in the U.S.; today, that number has more than doubled. In 1960, 50 percent of American families consisted of a stay-at-home mother and a working father in their first marriage. Today, there are only about 14 percent of such families in the U.S.
In our societal past, both real and fictionalized fathers were most often the family breadwinner. They were typically more distanced from their children’s daily affairs. Dads were seldom seen rolling up their sleeves and diving into traditional moms’ roles such as cooking, doing laundry, cleaning, changing diapers…the list goes on.
Today’s dads play many roles proudly and successfully.
The typical modern households of today sometimes have stay-at-home dads, or co-income earners, sharing responsibilities including housekeeping, driving carpools, helping with homework, braiding their daughter’s hair, etc. Today’s dads are multi-skilled, hands-on, and interactive with their kids.
Dads, as they have historically been, are precious and essential; they increasingly are pals, heroes, confidants, coaches, playmates, tutors, and role models. We treasure the dads and in fact, the uncles, brothers and grandfathers in our lives, and value the opportunity to celebrate them all through Father’s Day.
At GreenFields of Geneva senior living community, we will celebrate Father’s Day this year with our event Burgers and Brews, at which we’ll have a burgers buffet and then sample beer from Geneva’s Penrose Brewing.
This Father’s Day, and every day, let’s honor Dad in all his roles.
