Father's Day

My dad isn't the best of dads... nor is he the worst...

Hes a man... who despite the things he went through in life, raised his kids the best way he knew how., basically having no idea. I, being the oldest of his 4 children suffered through his mistakes as he tried to figure out how to get the whole "parenting" thing right, but I guess in the end he did a pretty good job because I turned out to be a very strong, young woman. I love my dad, and I know he loves all of us, even if he has a dysfunctional way of showing it.

Like every father he has had to face the challenge of raising a young man. The saying goes "like father, like son" (and it is so true in the case of my family) but but my father had a saying all of his own; "do as I say and not as I do", but I guess my brother is another challenge of a 1st for him. He is responsible for shaping and molding a proper young man. With me all he had to worry about was protecting me from getting pregnant, or so he thought...

Protecting his little girls is still a challenge for him, but he takes it in stride. I gave my father a good run for his money when I was growing up. I put him through a lot. He worried, got mad, yelled and all that good stuff, but my sister does not have to worry about all of that. I was the "test" child so to speak. He went through all the drama with me so he knows how to handle it with her. She has taken over the role of "daddy's little girl", and she holds that title dear to her heart.

With the birth of my daughter all the drama, anger, and disgruntled feelings came to a halt. We actually began to build a relationship that consists of more than holiday phone calls (happy birthday... happy fathers day... merry Christmas dad...) I'm going to quote yet another saying. "If I only knew then what I know now". My father has taken that and applied it to his life and is using what he learned in life from me and my siblings to become a wonderful grandfather, and for that I am proud.

I love you dad... Happy Father's Day