The Dad Book

Since I first became a mom, I have celebrated 16 Mother’s Days, 16 birthdays, 16 Christmases, several other special days, and a multitude of “I love you so much, Mom” Days.  For each of these days I received a handmade card from at least one of my children.  Of course, I try to save them all, and I mostly succeed by putting them in a large cardboard box in the storage room in the basement.  When I am old and gray, when my kids have left the house and I have an over-abundance of free time, I will take them all out, slowly leaf through them, and look back on this period of my life.

Meanwhile, any time my husband is in the mood for a walk down memory lane, he can just open The Dad Book and start paging through.  Right there, on the bookshelf in his office, is an anthology of all his celebrations of the past 8 years.

I first stumbled upon The Dad Book in a magazine when Simona was a baby, and I was instantly impressed by the simple genius of the idea.  The Dad Book is, quite simply, one book for all Father’s Day, birthday, Christmas, special day, and just everyday good wishes.  Of course, I wasted no time implementing this idea in our house.  Over the years, before every special day, my kids have secretly passed the book around, and each wrote a special message.  Yes, there were some years of no participation from the teenage boys, some years of minimal effort or a taped-in drug-store greeting card, but that’s ok.  Today, The Dad Book, or more accurately The Dad Books since we are currently finishing up the second one, are a storehouse of memories.  They are an anthology of our children’s ages and stages, of small nuances of each child’s development, all documented in their own words and in their own hand. 

I encourage you to give The Dad Book a go at your house. It’s not very showy at first, but over time it gets packed with goodness. It is a gift that every dad will enjoy. Happy Father’s Day!