THE FATHER'S SIDE

Times are changing. Let me count the ways:

1. More and more couples are becoming working couples. Each family or household need breadwinnerS.

2. Houses are getting more and more expensive. In-laws are bound to stay with you - there are pros and cons but don't shoot down the idea yet.


3. Women are losing the art of housekeeping, cooking, sewing, laundry-ing and child upbringing because they are trying to get in touch with the feminist side - in short, they are turning into men! (For the rest of us, it's usually just an excuse to not have to know all these things just because you are female. I blame my mother... who blames hers.)


4. LIfestyle requirements are getting more materialistic but tables are turning and people are going back to trying to figure out what 'family values' really mean. It's a trend that is becoming outdated as we speak.


5. Fathers are getting awesomer and awesomer.


Celebrating father's day.
It's common knowledge that Mother's day is the second Sunday of May but rarely do people know or remember that Father's day is the third Sunday of June. Actually, when they started celebrating Father's day back in the early 1900's during Sonora Smart Dodd's time (She was the person responsible for the popularization of the Father's day idea after she and her five siblings were brought up single-handedly by an awesome father after the death of his wife when Smart was 16), some actually laughed at the idea of celebrating their beer-bellied fathers during the weekends when they were actually home.


Time's a changing.


Eva's dad can make porridge for her, change her diaper, bathe and wash her bum bum when she poops, play with her, give her naps, make her milk, chocolate or water at the right temperature of her liking for her and still have time for his work, his wife and Facebook.


While I can still see many friends of his shunning the idea with helping out in parental duties' like checking the diaper when they smell something sour in the air, the winds of change is starting to take care of that. Nowadays, I see more fathers pushing the pram while their wives' shop in the departmental stores for the latest trend and baby fashion available, and there were times when I saw a father feeding the baby on the seats outside Jusco stores. 

Even when they can't - or prefer not to - help out with the chores, there are many things that they are doing for the sake of the family. 

Some give up smoking upon becoming a father, others frequent pubs and mamak stalls less to spend more time at home. Others are more sensitive to their wives, taking the time to actually sit down and play with their kids while the wife experiences the rare luxury of a proper bath that lasts longer than 5 seconds. 

No longer are fathers of today allowed to declare 'bringing the bacon home' the only thing fathers can do, and do best. A new game is at hand and if you want to celebrate your Father's day full-blown next year, get your head in the game and play your part. You will love it, I promise.


To fathers!