This Sunday, June 16th, is Father’s Day. This day will be my husband’s first Father’s Day since our daughter was born last July, and you know what? I haven’t bought a gift.
Since we were blessed with our beautiful girl almost a year ago, both of our instincts have shifted from nesting to purging. We realized that for two adults and a baby we had (and still have) way too much stuff. The process of sorting and cleaning out unnecessary and unused items is a long one, one that we are still working on. In order to keep the processing moving forward, I have decided to make gift giving more about sentiment and making memories.
This won’t be the first holiday or occasion I have celebrated this way. For our first wedding anniversary I gave my husband a magnolia tree, a somewhat loose interpretation of the paper anniversary gift. The idea was to plant the tree together for our first anniversary and watch it grow along with our family and our relationship. Recently, I celebrated my mom and mother in law by setting up a photoshoot with each grandma and my daughter for Mother’s Day. Coming up with creative and special ideas isn’t always easy, but I love that these gifts leave a story and memory.
For my husband, I decided to give him the gift of time for Father’s Day. My husband works shift work, 12-hour days rotating from day shift to night shift. He also works a ton of overtime. There are times when we only see him for an hour in the morning before I head to work and he goes to bed after working all night. At times we find ourselves frustrated with each other; this type of schedule is hard not only on him but me too. When either of us have days off the time is usually spent cleaning the house, doing the yard, running errands, and all the other adulting we have to do. So, while I cannot physically add hours to the day, I want to give him time to relax and time for him to enjoy his family.
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My plan is to take a staycation with him and our daughter. As he has Saturday off, but not Sunday we can’t venture too far. I have rented a condo in Port A for us to have some fun at the beach and not be tempted by all the projects we need to be doing around the house. I want to celebrate him being an awesome dad by setting up an environment different than the daily grind where he can relax and just enjoy his role as dad. I want to give him the gift of having time to sleep, soak up some sun, and enjoy quality time with his family. Hopefully this precious time together brings us fond memories later, and as an added bonus this gift doesn’t take up any room in our closet.
No matter how you celebrate, I hope all you dads out there enjoy your day!
