You LOVE them, you HATE them, you SUPPORT them emotionally and then you FIGHT with them.  Families and children bring out the BEST in us and sometimes they cause our WORSE traits to pop up.

But when all is said and done, family members represent our connections to ancestry and contribute greatly to our basic likes and dislikes.  From a strictly scientific approach, our families are responsible for and the results of the DNA that makes us who we are.

Nothing brings a family together more than a special day of celebration.  This Sunday is Father’s Day and it’s one of those opportunities to celebrate as a family, whether that’s represented by a shared meal, a special card or a phone call.

As this day approaches, the memories of the many experiences I had as a parent began to spin around in my mind.  There’s one experience that made me chuckle and I wanted to share it with you.

When my son was a toddler, I marveled at his awe of everything I did and his eagerness to be included in anything I was doing at the time.  As he entered his teen years, I decided to include him in a few more “grown up” projects around the house, like mowing the lawn.  BUT, the inclusion process was becoming more challenging as he grew older, so we had a talk about FAMILY RESPONSIBILITY and how everyone in the family had to do his or her part.

After sufficient (and some impressive) grumbling, he apparently realized that my logic was too solid to refute.  So he regularly took his turn behind the mower, although I’m sure I heard some definite mumbling over the roar of that mower.

Later, when my son was ready to go off to college, we again talked about FAMILY RESPONSIBILITY, only this time it was about his new job: to learn all he could about his future profession and to achieve the best grades possible so that he’d be “marketable” upon graduation (and I thought to myself “and finally off my payroll”).

As he entered the professional world and eventually made a name for himself in his chosen profession and then married and started a family, I was pleased that all my talks about FAMILY RESPONSIBILITY had paid off.

Then one day the tables turned on me when my son called to ask for help in a not-so-minor remodel project to construct a nursery for his newborn son.  That was when I realized that I had become a victim of my own words when he said, “Dad, I need some help but first let’s talk about FAMILY RESPONSIBILITY!”

Dads, enjoy your day.  You’ve earned it!