My funny Father’s Day

How’s your Father’s Day going?

I’m a little late blogging because my Father’s Day has (inevitably) been a bit out-of-the-ordinary.

Normally I’d be on our way to lunch with my Dad on my sister’s gorgeous back deck, but my mum had a knee replacement on Thursday and she’s still in hospital, morphined up to the eyeballs until Monday.

Plus, my sister just opened her new business – Choices Flooring St Leonards – yesterday.

So we decided to make a mad dash to Newie last night for a hospital visit and quickie dinner with Dad at the Paymaster’s Cottage on the harbour.

Then it was back to Sydney first thing this morning. No rest for the wicked … or in my sister’s case, people who have opened new businesses.

I’m not quite sure what the rest of my day will hold. The kids are off having fun with their dad.

I found last Father’s Day a little confronting. My ex wanted to do something together as a family. I was still raw from our marriage break-up and found it a bit arduous. I was OK for the first hour or so, but then I just wanted to run far, far away.

This year I was far, far away. Well, a few hundred kilometres anyway, in Newcastle.

So there was no negotiation required on how we’d handle the celebration. I paid for the kids to get a gift each for him at the Father’s Day stall at school, then we ducked up to Target for a dart board as an extra gift.

I’ve been musing on the tough deal dads get in marriage break-ups.

They usually only get their kids two, three, maybe four days a fortnight. Sometimes even less. Sometimes not at all.

I feel sorry for the dads, they must find it soul destroying.

And then, when they enter new relationships and co-habitate with their new partners, they find themselves parenting someone else’s kids more than their own.

I don’t have any solutions to offer, but it does make me sad.

Sorry … that’s a bit of a downer on Father’s Day. But I just wanted to let all the separated/divorced dads who read the blog know that I feel for them and hope they get the chance to give their kids a big squeezy hug today and be spoilt rotten.

Kids need their dads just as much as their mums.

No matter how angry you are about your marriage break-up, it’s important to remember that.

Song of the day: John Mayer “Daughters”