Father’s Day Favorites

What do you get the dad who has everything? Giftagram has ideas and inspiration for a variety of interests (apothecary, barware, sweets, books, health and so much more), genders, ages and budgets. This convenient and well-curated venue makes it easy to find something awesome.

A growing cache of research shows that fathers are getting ever more involved in their children’s lives. Not only is the idea of the attentive, present father a fairly recent concept, it’s one with virtually no precedent in the animal kingdom. Consider that 95% of mammals are raised solely by their mothers — and there are no known cases of male-only care.

Group dynamics often alter how we do things. Case in point, parenting at a summer party. Do you stop the kid in the sandbox who’s throwing sand and knows he shouldn’t? Or do you urge his parents to participate in the grand experiment of parenting and stop their son from blinding your child? Sometimes it takes a village, a very cranky village, to raise a child.

Sometimes your father isn’t who you thought he’d be. Growing up in Dallas, the worst place for Anthony Hamilton to be was … home. Home was always cold, no matter the temperature outside. His father could make the pictures on the walls shiver, and the kids would scatter like roaches when his rage started to build. Then he met his Uncle James, who became his mentor, someone who gave him “an opportunity to see, love and be loved by a man in the form of a father.”

Mourning can be a long journey. A former OZY editor recalls how after 36 long weeks of ultrasounds, birthing classes and poring over becoming-a-dad books and blogs, he finally got to hold his newborn baby in his arms. But she was badly bruised, and looked almost like she was sleeping. She never stirred, never cried to life with the wail all new parents await. She had arrived stillborn.

OZY reader Brenna McShane recalls how she and her dad would drive downtown together each workday morning. One day, when they were about three blocks from her office building, he simply said, “Always look at the world with new eyes.” “A minute later,” she writes, “I kissed my dad’s cheek, said goodbye and never saw the world the same way again.”

on The Carlos Watson Show!

When it comes to mothers, we all know the types — tiger moms, soccer moms, hockey moms. Classifying mothers into subspecies has become all too common. Fathers, however, have largely managed to avoid the Linnaean parental taxonomy imposed upon mothers. Here’s a breakdown of our favorite 16 types of fathers. Does yours fit any of these types?

As dads nationwide unwrap gifts and fire up barbecues, it is important to remember that a lot of kids don’t have a father to celebrate. In the U.S., having a decent childhood should not depend upon the circumstances of our birth, argues Joe Sanberg, but nearly half of kids who grow up without their fathers also grow up in poverty. And this kind of economic strain doesn’t just make life difficult, it chips away at people’s humanity.

Do you have a favorite Father's Day memory? Share it with us on Instagram by tagging @OZY, and using the hashtag #OZYDads in your caption for a chance to be featured.

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