Father’s Day is an interesting holiday to me. I appreciate the fact that there is a day to recognize all the fathers out there, but it’s one of those holidays that doesn’t quite have a specific way of celebrating since every family does it so differently. Some families like to give the fathers some time away from the kids. Some families like to do a big get together with other families so all the fathers can celebrate. To me, I love spending time with my family even though they sometimes drive me crazy.

I was lucky enough to start Father’s Day very early this year at the crack of midnight. My 5 year old daughter had nightmares after watching Inside Out 2 (more on that later) and could not sleep. Rather than fighting with this all night and trying to calm her down (only to have her wake back up), I decided to have her just sleep in the bed with me. This was a terrible idea for my own personal sleep since she tosses, turns, kicks, and does many other things while asleep (or half asleep). Also, it was guaranteed that she would have a few more nightmares throughout the night, but at least she will feel safe once she wakes up because I’m there next to her. Safe to say that I didn’t sleep much all night.

Luckily, my wife woke up early and had our newborn and 3 year old son in the morning. She wanted to do something special for me for Father’s Day by at least letting me sleep in. This was great because when my daughter woke up and started talking about Inside Out 2, I was groaning because I thought it was 7am…when really it was already 9am! I couldn’t believe it and tried to get ready to help since usually I would have the newborn by now and spent the morning with him. There was an omelette, hash brown, sausage, and avocado breakfast waiting for me along with waffles for the kids thanks to my amazing (and exhausted!) wife.

After breakfast, I was going to take the two older kids to soccer, but since it was probably the last session they would get to go together to, my wife decided she would also tag along. She usually opts to skip out so she can rest and be with the newborn, but this was going to be a full house at soccer. It was nice to have my wife there because she got to see the kids have so much fun.

When soccer was finished, we went back home to eat a quick lunch and headed to my in-laws house to hang out with them and the (very big) extended family. It is always nice (and a bit crazy) to see everyone. When we are there, it a game of “how can we get the kids to eat and not run around with their cousins” and “let’s go potty before you have an accident…and yes I know you were having fun, but you need to go potty now.”

The kids were exhausted by the time we needed to head home and it was a full day with the family. I never quite had this growing up since it usually was my immediate family only and we tended to not celebrate holidays. The older I get and now with kids, I do realize the importance of holidays because it gives everyone something to look forward to. It also earmarks some time that we all should save so we can spend it together because to me, that’s how you show people you love them - you give them quality time.

Happy (belated) Father’s Day!