June 17 is Father’s Day – if you’ve forgotten you better hurry and get your dad a gift.
Quite often, I joke about why isn’t there a daughter’s or son’s day? But then it got me thinking about the symbolic meaning behind Father’s Day.
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Father’s Day is a celebration honouring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society (thanks, Wikipedia).
The truth is I do not know all the facts behind the inception of Father’s Day, nor do I know why there isn’t a daughter’s or son’s day, but I do know that anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad.
As great as it sounds to say ‘why thank you father for thy love and care of thee’, I say ‘Hey dad, I know it is 11.30pm and it is the middle of the week, but I am craving a take-out meal.’
And my dad, being a dad, will say: it’s cold Shei and you can drive, so you go.
Then he will feel bad and jump into his car to take a drive for me.
This is just one of the many reasons that he is different from being just a father.
I am a middle child, we even have our own special syndrome – Middle Child Syndrome.
I cannot say I know what that means because I was never treated any differently to my siblings, another reason my dad is not just a father.
My baby brother is what we call a ‘laat lammetjie’, born many years after my older sister and I.
For 14 years, I was the baby, a big baby I suppose, and for these years I was the tomboy who enjoyed climbing trees and was often told by my dad to put more lotion on my face or hands because that was not on my to-do list.
My sister, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of me; she loved her lip gloss, high heels and going to watch cricket games with my dad, although I am pretty sure it was just for the snacks (clearly we like food).
We were grown up – past the nappy and babysitting stage – when the laat lammetjie was born and my dad had to become the child again as we watched kiddie TV programmes all over again.
I have said many good things about my dad but it does not mean we do not get angry at each other, have disagreements, roll our eyes or sigh here and there, it just means he loves me enough to overlook it all.
When I chose journalism as my career my dad often joked and said I must say ‘thank you dad (Faizal Razack) for everything’, then we quickly realised that I could not be putting his name all over the newspaper.
So this Father’s Day, dad, I want to thank you for imparting who you are into our lives, thank you for teaching us that if we want something we must pray about it.
Thank you for the countless laughs, sing-a-longs in the car, jokes you make that leave us with a ‘huh’ look on our faces.
Thank you for all the lotion you put on my face even when all I wanted to do was play all day and thank you for just, overall, trying to keep us in line with God’s word.
Happy Father’s Day.
I love you, dad.
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