The idea for Father’s Day came from a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd who was an only daughter of six children, her mother died in labor, and she helped her father raise her siblings.  She thought of her father, William Jackson Smart who raised the children alone and the first Father’s Day was celebrated in 1910 on June 19th. In 1966 it was proclaimed, by president Lyndon Johnson, that the third Sunday in June was to be celebrated as Father’s Day, and in 1972 Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father’s Day.

I want to take this opportunity to wish all the Fathers out there, including my Father, Richard, a Happy Father’s Day.

I’d also like to wish all the Work-at-Home Dads a Happy Work@Home Father’s Day, which is today!

Here are some interesting facts about how Father’s Day came to be (from Answers.com):

• The idea for the first Father’s Day was conceived by Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington. When Sonora was 16, her mother died in childbirth with her sixth child. Sonora was the only daughter and shared with her father, William, in the raising of her younger brothers.

• While attending a church service, she started thinking about her father, William Jackson Smart, a widowed American Civil War veteran who raised the six children, who had essentially become a mother as well as a father to them.

• Sonora Smart held her father in great esteem. While hearing that church sermon about the newly recognized Mother’s Day, Sonora felt strongly that Fatherhood needed recognition as well. She approached the Spokane Ministerial Alliance and suggested her own father’s birthday of June 5 as the day of honor for fathers. The Alliance chose the third Sunday in June instead.

• The first Father’s Day was celebrated June 19, 1910 in Spokane, WA.

• The idea of Father’s Day became popular and embraced across the nation. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson came to Spokane and spoke at Father’s Day services.

• In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day.

• In 1972, President Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father’s Day to be held on the 3rd Sunday of June each year.

Father’s Day Quotes:

He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. ~ Clarence Budington Kelland

If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated,
let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any
fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right. ~ Bill Cosby

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.
Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.” “We’re
not raising grass,” Dad would reply. “We’re raising boys.” ~ Harmon Killebrew

We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become parents. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Good parents give their children Roots and Wings. Roots to know
where home is, wings to fly away and exercise what’s been taught them. ~ Jonas Salk

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly
stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was
astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. ~ Mark Twain

It doesn’t matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was. ~ Anne Sexton

He was all questions. But small boys expect their fathers to be
walking lexicons, to do two jobs at once, to give replies as they are
working, whether laying stones or building models…digging up a shrub,
or planting flower beds…Boys have a right to ask their fathers
questions…Fathers are the powers that be, and with their power and
might must shelter, guard, and hold and teach and love…All men with
sons must learn to do these things…Too soon, too soon, a small son
grows and leaves his father’s side to test his manhood’s wings. ~ Roy Z. Kemp

A MUST FOR THIS FATHER’S DAY:

• Don’t simply tell your Father that you love him. Show him that you cherish him and appreciate him for everything that he is in your life.

• Become more a part of him. Find out what made him who he is on Father’s Day.

• Ask him about his parents and grandparents.
• Ask him about his brothers and sisters.
• Ask him about his friends.
• Ask him about his hobbies and passions.
• Ask him about his work.

• Share in his life. His experience is a treasure.

• Be present with your Dad on his day.