By mutual, if unspoken, agreement, my wife and I are not big supporters of the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day industries. We’re not righteous about it—indeed, we’re hypocritical enough to coerce our children to create cards for their loving parents—but we don’t plan a day of staged activities either. And when New York Family’s friends at the website and app Mommy Nearest asked me to be one of a group of dads to write about their Father’s Day expectations, I worried that I was going to be the downer in the crowd. Not in this column though. Not with my readers. For you, I even have a Father’s Day joke to share, courtesy of my wife.
This year my Father’s Day “gift” was a get-out-of-shopping pass; while my wife and my daughter spent much of the day shopping for camp gear, I spent the day not doing that—and, ultimately, chose to make a last-second, mad-cap dash to Yankee Stadium with my son to see an afternoon baseball game.
But then, at the end of the day, when I reunited with my wife and daughter at home, my wife surprised me with a Father’s Day card of her own. You can see the photo here, with the words: “Honey, You’re King For The Day.”
Here’s what I found on the inside: “But let’s not forget who’s queen.”
My wife smiled and explained, “That seemed about right.”
Eric Messinger is the editor of New York Family. He can be reached at emessinger@manhattanmedia.com
