Do Dads Get Enough Love on Father's Day?
Compared to Mother’s Day, Father’s Day is kind of an afterthought. The National Retail Federation reports that Americans spent roughly 24 billion dollars on Mother's Day in 2019, and only 14 billion dollars on Father's Day. Take our restaurant as an example: At The Pig & The Sprout, Mother’s Day is by far one of our busiest days of the year, booking up weeks in advance. It was the same at every place I waited tables and bartended in my twenties. Don’t get me wrong, Father’s Day certainly keeps our servers hustling, but, as of right now, there are still reservations available a week before the big day. This would be unheard of on Mother’s Day.
Right or wrong, maybe people still consider moms the biggest contributors to the family and home life, or maybe advertisers have sufficiently brainwashed all of us into believing that moms need bushels of flowers and strings of jewels, and dads really want – what? A set of BBQ tools?
Whether dads get their due on Father’s Day or not is up for debate, but there’s no denying that there are great dads everywhere. One might even be living in your own house.
For laughs, learning and dads-piration on Father’s Day, check out the below list of must-follow Instagram dads.
Glenn Henry (@beleafmel)
Glenn Henry is an entrepreneur, emcee, husband and father who has amassed a loyal following on Instagram thanks to his hilarious and heartfelt videos documenting day-to-day family life as a stay at home, hands-on dad to Theo, Uriah, Anaya & Uziah. “One of my biggest motivations behind what I do both in fatherhood and in media is proving that Good Black Fathers exist,” says Glenn. “We are not represented nearly enough in mainstream media, Good Black Fathers…deserve to be celebrated, commemorated, and represented. I’m not the only one.” Try not to smile as Glenn takes complicated instructions from his three-year-old daughter on how to properly tie her headband.
Simon Holland (@SimonHolland)
Simon’s Instagram content is of the “it’s funny ‘cause it’s true” variety, and if you’re a middle-aged, middle-class suburban dad (or married to one), you may cry literal tears of laughter reading his daily posts. “We didn’t get a chalk or letter board to commemorate our kids’ last day of school,” Simon writes. “Thoughts and prayers appreciated as we navigate this difficult season.” His droll observations and stories of subtly undermining “rival dads” in the neighborhood are pitch perfect.
Fashion Dads (@FashionDads)
Please follow Fashion Dads. Laugh a lot. Then call your dad and ask him to text you a picture of his current outfit. Then submit said picture to Fashion Dads, because chances are your dad’s outfit will fit right in with the white-socks-with-sandals set featured on this hilarious page.
Rob Kenney (@DadHowDoI)
Rob Kenney grew up without a dad, because his dad left him, his mom, and his seven brothers and sisters when Rob was a young teen. "My goal in life became to raise good adults, because I had a fractured childhood,” says Rob. Now
a married father of two, Rob wants to share his Dad know-how with those who might be growing up without a dad as he did. His YouTube channel, “Dad How Do I?” has over a million followers, and features videos teaching viewers how to do simple tasks that a dad might teach them – things like tying a tie, fixing a running toilet or ironing a shirt.
