It's easy to tease our dads or make them the butt end of a joke. After all, that's what we see the media doing on a daily basis. But recently, Al Fox Carraway noted on Facebook how this tendency completely misses the point of fatherhood:
I think people are surprised when they hear I work full time and Ben is home. He is in the thick of schooling & choose to do it online so he can be home with our kids. Though I know he is anxious for the day that these roles are reversed, it wont be quite yet. And he embraces & loves how things are now, too.
I come home from work every day & dinner is cooking. Laundry & dishes are done. Not b/c I asked him to but b/c he simply saw that it could be done. I find where he is in the house by following the sound of laughter & the trail of toy animals from the animal kingdom they built that day.
He somehow balances time to study, take tests, homework, kids, & during dinner he tells me new things we could do together as a family that he somehow still found time to research & tells me what he learned from his scripture study that day.
No, Ben is NOT “Mr. Mom.” HE IS A FATHER. And you like my daughter’s outfit? Well it’s cuz he picked it out, haha.
But this isn’t about our family, or about Ben. It’s *not even about stay at home dads.
It's about showing our appreciation to -not just to them- but to others. Let us change our social language when we “joke” about what dads are & are not capable of & their roles.
Let’s give our Youth hope & knowledge that these men do exist & to not settle for anything less than someone who will take joy & determination to work with them as a *team for the most fulfilling life. 'Cuz I don't think we talk about it enough.
It’s about the ideal men that Elder Christofferson describes as the one “who puts his family first.” It’s about the hardworking, multi-tasking, selfless dads. The willing fathers. The funny & playful fathers. The ones that do acts of service on their own out of love & not because they were told to. The ones who honor & love God & their priesthood. Where each decision they make, they think of their whole family. Cuz I don't think we talk about it enough.
So here is a huge thank-you to those dads. We need you. We appreciate you. You make life a little easier & you make us & our family better & happier.
On her blog, Carraway notes, "I think it’s awesome in our culture there is so much, and well deserving, praise for motherhood and absolutely everything that comes with it for the rest of their lives. But I’m bummed when I think of the just as deserving, if not more deserving in some cases, role of fatherhood who don’t get any or enough credit." So let's all be a little more mindful of how we talk about and appreciate the fathers in our lives.