I have a pretty special Father. A really great one in fact. The amount of respect I have for my Dad is pretty much more than I can explain. He is one of the most self sacrificing people that I know. He is honest, he is caring, he is smart, funny and the list goes on. One of my favorite things about my dad is how much he loves my Mom. My whole life I have never felt like one parent was in charge, I have always felt like my parents were a team in everything. This is something I appreciate especially now that I am married because I realize how hard they work to have such a great relationship with one another, as well as how much love and respect they have for each other to never put themselves first in the relationship. My whole life I have felt important because I always thought my Dad was important. I realize this is fairly pompous, but as I grow older I also realize just how important my dad has been in the shaping of legislature in Idaho (now Utah) as well as just how his influence affects others around him. One thing that I love about my relationship with my dad especially is how much he makes me feel important, and not in a "you can do anything you set your mind to" type of parenting approach, but more that he has always been very honest to me about my strengths and weaknesses and has encouraged me with both. Another thing that works really well with my relationship with my dad is that for some reason our strongest traits seem to be the same, and while that occasionally means we have had a few, (several) head butting and angry conversations, it also means that almost no one can push me like my dad to do and be better. When I was little, about 5 I loved soccer, I started playing at 4 and thought it was so fun. I was a competitive little thing at the time and the youngest on my team, my dad started a deal that if I scored a goal he would buy me a Barbie. Nothing in my world was as great as a Barbie. Eventually it would be if you score two goals you can get two Barbies etc, until it had to be 3 goals to get one Barbie etc, I finally got up to 9 goals a game and other kid's parents saying they would also buy me Barbies that we had to stop that little deal. Even though it probably seems silly, I have known my whole life that I had to work for what I wanted, regardless of what it was that I wanted and I am very grateful that I was taught that at such a young age. My Dad has always saved quarters in containers and I would always tell him I would count them all if he let me have them, (yeah, right) one year he told me that once his container was full we would go do something fun with it. That year though he was sick a lot, I was in high school and it just never happened and I always bugged him like a brat about it. About 5 months into my freshmen year of college though, my dad gave me a huge bag full of quarters that was from our "something fun" stash and he said I could have them all for my laundry. I treasured those quarters for a long time. I still had quite a few of them until last year. They especially meant a lot to me because although my parents probably could have put all of us kids through college from an early age we all knew that if we wanted to go to college we would have to get a scholarship. What is funny is that all 4 of us had full ride scholarships to the universities we went to. So, when my Dad gives any financial help it has always made me feel like I must have done something really special to earn it. From an early age we had to work for whatever we earned. For example when I was 11 and started to "work" to buy my school clothes (yep 5th grade folks) my dad and I sat and wrote up a contract of what I would do during the summer each week to make money and we both signed it. We have continued to do contracts through middle and high school, and I know my Dad has kept each one. Last week we went to lunch with my parents and out of nowhere my Dad started writing on a napkin and it was a contract that he and my mom would pay a certain amount of money for beauty school if I would give them free hair cuts for the rest of their lives, considering I would have done that regardless, I got a pretty sweet deal and signed that sucker as fast as I could. Considering how much I know my parents would have liked me to finish my last year of college before starting beauty school, I am so thankful for their help and their encouragement of me doing what I really want to do, and to be honest if we would have had this same contract 3 years ago when I graduated High School I know I wouldn't have appreciated nearly enough, and not even close to how much I and (we) do. That whole being married, being students, being poor, and then buying a house basically means no money for the rest of our lives. And if I don't finish beauty school I have to pay the money back per the contract. I mentioned earlier that one of my favorite things about my Dad is how much he loves and respects my Mom and how he has always been a perfect example of what a father and a husband should be like. I appreciate that even more now as he is also now the Dad of my husband and is such a great father to him as well. My Dad has always been a worthy and active Priesthood leader in our home. He has always put the gospel and our family above everything else. He has always worked so hard to be able to have a job that would provide well for our family and make it so that my mom could stay home with us kids because they felt like that was their first priority. There is no doubt in my mind that I was meant to be in my family and also meant for the last so my parents could focus ALL of their energy on me so that I could turn out at least decent with all of my craziness. I love my Dad so much and wish him the happiest of happy day to celebrate him! Lucky and blessed me. Hope you all have a fabulous day celebrating the Fathers in your lives.
xoxox
M
I have a pretty special Father. A really great one in fact. The amount of respect I have for my Dad is pretty much more than I can explain. He is one of the most self sacrificing people that I know. He is honest, he is caring, he is smart, funny and the list goes on. One of my favorite things about my dad is how much he loves my Mom. My whole life I have never felt like one parent was in charge, I have always felt like my parents were a team in everything. This is something I appreciate especially now that I am married because I realize how hard they work to have such a great relationship with one another, as well as how much love and respect they have for each other to never put themselves first in the relationship. My whole life I have felt important because I always thought my Dad was important. I realize this is fairly pompous, but as I grow older I also realize just how important my dad has been in the shaping of legislature in Idaho (now Utah) as well as just how his influence affects others around him. One thing that I love about my relationship with my dad especially is how much he makes me feel important, and not in a "you can do anything you set your mind to" type of parenting approach, but more that he has always been very honest to me about my strengths and weaknesses and has encouraged me with both. Another thing that works really well with my relationship with my dad is that for some reason our strongest traits seem to be the same, and while that occasionally means we have had a few, (several) head butting and angry conversations, it also means that almost no one can push me like my dad to do and be better. When I was little, about 5 I loved soccer, I started playing at 4 and thought it was so fun. I was a competitive little thing at the time and the youngest on my team, my dad started a deal that if I scored a goal he would buy me a Barbie. Nothing in my world was as great as a Barbie. Eventually it would be if you score two goals you can get two Barbies etc, until it had to be 3 goals to get one Barbie etc, I finally got up to 9 goals a game and other kid's parents saying they would also buy me Barbies that we had to stop that little deal. Even though it probably seems silly, I have known my whole life that I had to work for what I wanted, regardless of what it was that I wanted and I am very grateful that I was taught that at such a young age. My Dad has always saved quarters in containers and I would always tell him I would count them all if he let me have them, (yeah, right) one year he told me that once his container was full we would go do something fun with it. That year though he was sick a lot, I was in high school and it just never happened and I always bugged him like a brat about it. About 5 months into my freshmen year of college though, my dad gave me a huge bag full of quarters that was from our "something fun" stash and he said I could have them all for my laundry. I treasured those quarters for a long time. I still had quite a few of them until last year. They especially meant a lot to me because although my parents probably could have put all of us kids through college from an early age we all knew that if we wanted to go to college we would have to get a scholarship. What is funny is that all 4 of us had full ride scholarships to the universities we went to. So, when my Dad gives any financial help it has always made me feel like I must have done something really special to earn it. From an early age we had to work for whatever we earned. For example when I was 11 and started to "work" to buy my school clothes (yep 5th grade folks) my dad and I sat and wrote up a contract of what I would do during the summer each week to make money and we both signed it. We have continued to do contracts through middle and high school, and I know my Dad has kept each one. Last week we went to lunch with my parents and out of nowhere my Dad started writing on a napkin and it was a contract that he and my mom would pay a certain amount of money for beauty school if I would give them free hair cuts for the rest of their lives, considering I would have done that regardless, I got a pretty sweet deal and signed that sucker as fast as I could. Considering how much I know my parents would have liked me to finish my last year of college before starting beauty school, I am so thankful for their help and their encouragement of me doing what I really want to do, and to be honest if we would have had this same contract 3 years ago when I graduated High School I know I wouldn't have appreciated nearly enough, and not even close to how much I and (we) do. That whole being married, being students, being poor, and then buying a house basically means no money for the rest of our lives. And if I don't finish beauty school I have to pay the money back per the contract. I mentioned earlier that one of my favorite things about my Dad is how much he loves and respects my Mom and how he has always been a perfect example of what a father and a husband should be like. I appreciate that even more now as he is also now the Dad of my husband and is such a great father to him as well. My Dad has always been a worthy and active Priesthood leader in our home. He has always put the gospel and our family above everything else. He has always worked so hard to be able to have a job that would provide well for our family and make it so that my mom could stay home with us kids because they felt like that was their first priority. There is no doubt in my mind that I was meant to be in my family and also meant for the last so my parents could focus ALL of their energy on me so that I could turn out at least decent with all of my craziness. I love my Dad so much and wish him the happiest of happy day to celebrate him! Lucky and blessed me. Hope you all have a fabulous day celebrating the Fathers in your lives.
xoxox
M
