Jun 18, 20232 min read

GSSA Honors Fathers all week!

"A father doesn't tell you that he loves you. He shows you." —Dimitri the Stoneheart

Today and all this week GSSA honors Fathers.

My Father passed in 1979. He was strong , kind and generous. I miss him and all the wonderful things about him. One of the things I miss the most was his hearty, joyful laugh.

The first Father's Day was celebrated in 1910, but it took more than six decades for the day to become official. Sonora Smart Dodd, was the founder of Father's Day. Dodd, who died in 1978, was raised by a twice married, twice widowed Civil War veteran with 14 children. As a result, she wanted to honor "loving service" of fathers.

Facts about Fathers

Father's Day is the fourth largest holiday for sending cards in the U.S., behind Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and Christmas.

"The percent of fathers who are stay-at-home dads is slowly rising. In 1989, about 4% of fathers were at home. By 2016, that number had risen to 7% ."In general, dads are more involved in child care now than they were 50 years ago. In 1965, fathers reported that they spent about 2.5 hours per week caring for children. In 2016, that number had jumped to eight hours."

"Of the 35 million fathers with children under 18, 1.7 million of them are single dads, in that they are living with a child with no spouse or partner present." Almost half of dads have children under 18 years of age, the rest have adult children and 1 in 4 are grandfathers.

Most Fathers feel being a parent is rewarding and central to their identity but over 60% said they spent "too little" time with their children.