Celebrating Dads on Father’s Day
Fatherhood has changed dramatically over the last century. Once limited to being a hands-off leader of the family, fathers have become a loving, supportive, involved parent that we turn to for help, advice, and sometimes the keys to the car. This Father’s Day, June 16th, we celebrate all the amazing fathers and father figures in our lives!
The Evolving Role of Fatherhood
Let’s look back at the fathers of yesterday to celebrate the great dads we have today!
Fathers from Colonial Times to the Civil War
Traditionally, fathers in the US were stoic figures who taught their boys to work and found suitable husbands for their daughters. While showing the love they had for their children at home was discouraged, soldiers from the Civil War expressed their true feelings toward their children through letters from the battlefield.
Fathers of the Progressive Age
The industrialization of the nation freed up a father’s time to spend with their children, but World War I and II forced many fathers to leave their families to fight overseas. During the turbulent times of the Great Depression that followed gender roles became more flexible, allowing fathers more time with their children while their wives worked outside the home to support their families.
Fathers After WWII
Parenting went under the microscope after WWII, with many studies focused on parental roles and their affects on children. Results found that fathers of this time participated more in the lives and development of their children than ever before, but traditional parenting stereotypes were still in place.
60âs Fathers
Cultural and political shifts impacted fatherhood tremendously in the post-WWII baby boom, but the Vietnam War stymied the movement to further expand a father’s role in the family. Time away from their families and undiagnosed PTSD issues kept many fathers from fully participating in family life.
Fatherhood by 1999
Fathers evolved rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s. Economic stability gave fathers more time to spend at home and participate in their childrenâs lives in new ways, setting up new expectations for their children and encouraging them to chase their dreams. Harsh discipline was traded in for guidance and encouragement to do better.
Fatherhood in the 21st Century
The gender equality movement of the 21st century has allowed fathers to push aside the old concepts of being a sole provider and disciplinarian in favor of becoming an equal co-parent alongside their significant other. Today’s dads are now involved in all activities of the home, from child rearing to grocery shopping, allowing them to be more confident, emotionally available, and playful with their children.
And then there is Vatertag in Germany
In Germany, Father’s Day always takes place 39 days after Easter Sunday which makes it happen on a Thursday. Father’s Day is also the same date as Ascension Day. Vatertag is also known as Mannertag in the east part of Germany.
Participants go for walks and treks with handcarts, wagons, wheelbarrows, bicycle trailers, and other modes of transporting beer, grills, pretzels, snacks, portable speakers, etc. Also, it is tradition to decorate the carts with birch branches. The story is that in the old days, men would take to the fields for a fruitful harvest. In true German tradition, after the prayers, celebrating with beer, mead, and ale would commence.
Hats off to all the great fathers out there on Father’s Day!
Chanticleer Celebrates Father’s Day with Inspiring, Fun, and Compelling Stories about Fatherhood!
Want to Read some Great Books about Dads?
Check out our Father’s Day Reading List!
GOD, THE MAFIA, MY DAD, AND ME
By Lori Lee Peters
2022 Grand Prize for Shorts
God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me by Lori Lee Peters begins in the voice of a child, compelling not just for its narrative honestly, but for the fact that it might not be reliable. As the book opens, we learn that this narrator firmly believes she will be killed.
Readers can easily see through the childlike hyperbole, but that doesnât detract from the intrigue. How did a kid come to such an extreme conclusion? Is there any seed of truth to it? These questions will hook readers from the start.
Author Peters set out to write a book about her dad. God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me tells the true story of her father, and his fascinating work helping the FBI tackle Mafia activity in Lodi, California. Yet in the end, this is a memoir in which the compelling lead character â young Lori â overshadows her father in many ways.
ONE OF FOUR
By Travis Davis
Based on real people and events in 1918 France, One of Four by Travis Davis begins with a young French girl, Camille, who stumbles upon a diary lying next to an unknown American soldier. He was killed among his comrades in a German ambush near the banks of the Aire River, as he tried to protect his fellow soldiers. When Camille comes of age, she leaves her hometown to seek a better life in Paris. There, she is killed after joining a German resistance group. But before her death, she tucked the soldierâs diary in her Bible and hid it in a local bookstore.
Decades later, a man by the name of Walter travels to France with his son, Alex, to whom heâd become estranged after the painful divorce from Alexâs mother. He hopes this will be a journey of healing and exploration and that their time together will revive their shaky relationship. While there, Alex purchases the Bible left by Camille many years ago. By reading the hidden diary entries of the soldier together, Alex and Walterâs relationships takes an unexpected turn.
TROUBLE THE WATER
By Rebecca Dwight Bruff
Overall Grand Prize Winner
Robert Smallsâ life should have been one for the history books.
Smalls was born a slave in Beaufort, South Carolina, in 1839. When the first shots of the Civil War were fired upon Fort Sumter, Smalls was an experienced helmsman aboard a small cargo ship plying the coastal waters of South Carolina and the neighboring states. Once the war broke out, he found himself working to support a cause that kept him, his wife, and their children locked in chattel slavery.
But in a daring escapade that fell somewhere between a raid and a rescue, Smalls planned, with the help of his fellow crew members (also slaves) aboard the CSS Planter, to abscond with the ship, its cargo of munitions taken from Fort Sumter, and bring their families. The plan was to sail the ship as though its white officers were still on board, pretending to be carrying out their ordersâat least until the ship was out of the reach of Fort Sumterâs guns.
THE WORLD PLAYED CHESS
By Robert Dugoni
Robert Dugoniâs novel,The World Played Chessexamines the demands of society and family, through the dawning adulthood of three different men in three different eras.
Vincent Bianco, a Southern California lawyer raises his teenage daughter and high-school-senior son. He unexpectedly receives the Vietnam journal of William Goodman, with whom he had worked construction in 1979. Goodman scribbled the journal in pencil during desperate breaks in his service in Vietnam. This record describes Goodmanâs harsh initiation and horrifying acclimatization to the war.
Mirroring the Marineâs rapid maturation in the jungles of southeast Asia, Bianco recalls his own privileged coming of age. He compares it with his son Beauâs coming of age in present-day 2016 and 2017.
A STORY OF WHOA
By Chris Corbett
In A Story of Whoa, Chris Corbett shows one way that parents can explain the often loud and frightening problems of the world to children, and how anyone can make a difference.
Whoa watches the news every night with his father, where tragedy, injustice, and cruelty so often take center stage. Seeing these terrible things happening on TV, Whoa decides the time has come to step up. With his fatherâs support, he learns every martial art he can, ready to do battle with the toughest challenges in the world!
With patience and encouragement for Whoaâs many KERPOWS!!!, his father helps him discover that fighting injustice often goes beyond physical strength.
We would like to wish all fathers, fathers-to-be, stand-in fathers, and those who possess the fathering instinct, a very Happy Fatherâs Day!Â
Thank you for joining us in celebrating the Fathers in our life!
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Thank you again to the authors who wrote these wonderful books, and to fathers and father figures around the world! You are so loved and appreciated!
The Clue Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Suspense and Thriller Mysteries. The Clue Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).
Once on a grand adventure to a new life with her husband and young family, Dorcas suddenly finds herself the sole shepherd for her children into the unknown, in David Fitz-Gerald’s historical fiction novel, Lighten the Load.
