I’m sure I’m not telling you anything earth-shattering when I say that today is Father’s Day. I didn’t think I’d be seeing my Dad today, as he’s been on holiday, but we just managed to sneak a quite visit in this evening. I will, however, definitely be seeing him for longer tomorrow as it is his birthday and the whole family are going to the greyhound racing.
I have been racking my brains, trying to come up with an idea for writing a Father’s Day post without being overly soppy. I really don’t do sentimental, mushy stuff. It makes me feel icky. I was going to say that this is something I’ve gotten from my Dad,but to be honest in recent years he’s gotten much soppier. Still, it did give me an idea for how to write this post. Today I shall be celebrating all of the things I’ve inherited from my Dad.
Computer Gaming – Some of my earliest memories are of being sat in our computer room, watching my Dad games on the old Commodore Amiga. Later we would play together. Some of my favourites were Worms, Lemmings and I spent many an hour helping Dad play Tomb Raider (by reading the walkthrough!). I’m still a massive gamer now and love everything from RPGs to simulation games to good old fighting games like the new Batman series.
Country music – I’ve been listening to country music for as long as I can remember and that’s all down to my Dad. Shania Twain, Reba Mcintyre, Trisha Yearwood, Tim McGraw, Colin Raye – he introduced me to them all and I’m still a secret country girl when I want to be. Our long-time favourite was Mr GB, but then he screwed us over by cancelling his tour and costing us £200 so now I can’t even say his name!
Twisted sense of humour – If there is a dark, inappropriate gag to be made, you can be certain my Dad will make it. And now, so will I. We’re both deeply sarcastic and my Mum often despairs when the two of us get on a roll. My sense of humour and ability to laugh at even the most awful things is one of my favourite parts of my personality. It’s certainly helped me a lot recently.
Ability to stay calm in an emergency – or more importantly, how to identify a true emergency instead of over-reacting! It’s strange that I can be so anxious about bad things that haven’t happened yet, but when the real bad stuff goes down I manage to stay calm. I seem to kick into crisis mode and just know how to handle the situation with minimum fuss. My Dad is exactly the same and there is no-one I’d rather had around in an emergency.
My thirst for knowledge – (I can’t believe I’ve actually just written that, but I couldn’t think of a less pretentious way to say it). I remember sitting with my Dad asking him endless questions about Science, Geography, History – anything I could think of. “How does this work?”, “What does that do?” – I’d spend hours listening to him explaining things. Now I’m older I still love to learn new things and will constantly ask questions to get more knowledge. Even better, I can see Freya starting to do the same with her Dad, so it’s like we’ve all come full circle.
This last one is probably a matter of opinion. I think I’ve inherited it, and I certainly hope other people would agree.
Dependability If you need something doing, my Dad will do it, He’s always there to help out, whether it’s adding the finishes touches to a birthday cake or helping to renovate a hair salon in a weekend. He breaks his back (thankfully not literally) to help his friends and family and he hardly ever asks for anything in return. I’d like to think that I have same trait and I’m always willing to lend a hand. Although I’m possibly not always gracious about it.
I’m incredibly grateful for all of the things I’ve learnt (and am continuing to learn) from my Dad. I certainly wouldn’t be the person I am today without him. (I’ll leave you to decide if that’s a good thing?)
Happy Father’s Day to my Dad, to my babies’ dad and to all other dads including those no longer with us.
