Families have their own traditions for Father’s Day. In many families, the children will prepare breakfast in bed for Dad. Other families will encourage Dad to spend the day golfing with his own father. Often the children will buy or make a gift for Dad. It really doesn’t matter how you celebrate Father’s Day, just do something to make your Father feel special.

1. Home Cooking or Baking
What’s Dad’s favorite food or meal? This day is a great opportunity to get the kids involved in learning how to make family favorites. This tradition keeps recipes alive through the generations. Surprise him with something new like a fabulous strawberry pavlova.

2. Take Dad Out For Dinner
Find out what type of food Dad likes, and take him out for dinner. Did you know that some expensive restaurants have lunch menus that are more affordable?

3. Create a ‘This is your life’ Book and Present It To Dad
Interview people who knew your Dad as a child (his mother, brothers, sisters, cousins) and ask them about stories from your Dad’s childhood. It’s a great way to learn more about your roots, and create a story album of your Dad’s memories. Try to find photos or pictures of the places in the stories.

4. Have a Games or Sports Day
Get together with a few other families and play games. Each family could choose their favorite board game to share, or pick an outdoor game or sport everyone can have fun with like footie or croquet. Plan a treasure hunt with his Father’s Day present at the end of the hunt.

5. A Day Trip To Dad’s Favourite Place
It could be a local beach, park, or even a sporting event.

6. Have The Kids Make Him A Special Father’s Day Hat.
All you do is get a big sheet of paper, decorate it anyway you like, fold it like a cone and staple. This is not a hat he would wear everyday, but one he can save and wear on occasion.

7. A Gift Certificate Ceremony
Make book of tickets that Dad can redeem for things he wants. Ideas include cleaning the garage, mowing the lawn, the last dish of ice cream, back rubs, or even a day to go play golf. Make a special ceremony where the kids award them to Dad.

8. Make A Book For Dad
Do this by drawing the pictures and by writing in it. Making a book about some one they love can be very special to both of them!

Remember, it’s not the price or quality of the stuff you give him or prepare for him, but it’s the love, care and respect you attach with them, makes him the happiest.

Fathers hold a special place in a child’s life. Some Fathers are involved with sports teams, outdoor games, and having lots of fun. While other Dads enjoy helping children learn new skills. It could be anything from baking to building bird houses. It really doesn’t matter how Dads spend time with their children, as long as they do spend time together. Father’s Day is a time to remember just how special is your Dad.

There are many stories how the custom of honoring Dads on a Sunday in June got started. The most popular story about the origins of Father’s Day is said to have started growing its roots in the year of 1909. Mrs. John B. Dodds, from Spokane, Washington, campaigned for a Father’s Day celebration. The idea came to her while she listed to a church sermon on the virtues of Mother’s Day.

Mrs. Dodds thought about her own childhood, raised in a family of six children by a single father after the death of her mother. Mrs. Dodds thought of her father, who acted as both father and mother, and nurtured and cared for her and her siblings. There were many other fathers who selflessly gave of themselves to help take care of their own children, as well as provide for them financially too.

She wanted all fathers to be honored with a special day all their own. She campaigned and worked to spread her message, and even got the help of friends and family to write letters to influential people who could make this dream happen for her.

After much hard work, Father’s Day was first celebrated in 1910. Mrs. Dodds wanted the date of the holiday to be on her father’s birthday, which was the fifth of June. But the events had to be moved to the nineteenth of June so there would be enough time to prepare.

Over time, annual celebrations were held throughout the United States and Canada. In 1972 Richard M. Nixon signed a congressional resolution creating Father’s Day in the United States.

Today, this special day provides the opportunity to honor fathers, stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers, guys that act as big brothers, and any other men that have played the father role model your life.

- Use Logical Consequences

Consequences that are logically related to the behavior help teach children responsibility. For example, your child breaks a neighbor’s window and you punish him by spanking him. What does he learn about the situation? He may learn to never do that again, but he also learns that he needs to hide his mistakes, blame it on someone else, lie, or simply not get caught. He may decide that he is bad or feel anger and revenge toward the parent who spanked him. When you spank a child, he may behave because he is afraid to get hit again. However, do you want your child to behave because he is afraid of you or because he respects you?

Compare that situation to a child who breaks a neighbor’s window and his parent says, “I see you’ve broken the window, what will you do to repair it?” using a kind but firm tone of voice. The child decides to mow the neighbor’s lawn and wash his car several times to repay the cost of breaking the window. What does the child learn in this situation? That mistakes are an inevitable part of life and it isn’t so important that he made the mistake but that he takes responsibilty to repair the mistake. The focus is taken off the mistake and put on taking responsibility for repairing it. The child feels no anger or revenge toward his parent. And most importantly the child’s self-esteem is not damaged.

- Do Make Ups

When children break agreements, parents tend to want to punish them An alternative is to have your child do a make-up. A make-up is something that people do to put themselves back into integrity with the person they broke the agreement with. For example, several boys were at a sleep-over at Larry’s home. His father requested that they not leave the house after midnight. The boys broke their agreement. The father was angry and punished them by telling them they couldn’t have a sleep-over for two months. Larry and his friends became angry, sullen and uncooperative as a result of the punishment. The father realized what he had done. He apologized for punishing them and told them how betrayed he felt and discussed the importance of keeping their word. He then asked the boys for a make-up. They decided to cut the lumber that the father needed to have cut in their backyard. The boys became excited and enthusiastic about the project and later kept their word on future sleep-overs.

- Withdraw From Conflict

Children who sass back at parents may provoke a parent to slap. In this situation, it is best if you withdraw from the situation immediately. Do not leave the room in anger or defeat. Calmly say, “I’ll be in the next room when you want to talk more respectfully.”

- Use Kind, But Firm Action

Instead of smacking an infant’s hand or bottom when she touches something she isn’t supposed to, kindly but firmly pick her up and take her to the next room. Offer her a toy or another item to distract her and say, “You can try again later.” You may have to take her out several times if she is persistent.

- Inform Children Ahead of Time

A child’s temper tantrum can easily set a parent off. Children frequently throw tantrums when they feel uninformed or powerless in a situation. Instead of telling your child he has to leave his friend’s house at a moment’s notice, tell him that you will be leaving in five minutes. This allows the child to complete what he was in the process of doing.

Aggression is an obvious form of perpetuating violence in society. A more subtle form of this is spanking because it takes it’s toll on a child’s self-esteem, dampening his enthusiasm and causing him to be rebellious and uncooperative. Consider for a moment the vision of a family that knows how to win cooperation and creatively solve their problems without using force or violence. The alternatives are limitless and the results are calmer parents who feel more supported.

Research confirms what many parents instinctively feel when they don’t like to spank their child, but they don’t know what else to do. The latest research from Dr. Murray Strauss at the Family Research Laboratory affirms that spanking teaches children to use acts of aggression and violence to solve their problems. It only teaches and perpetuates more violence, the very thing our society is so concerned about. This research further shows that children who have been spanked are more prone to low self-esteem, depression and accept lower paying jobs as adults. So, what do you do instead?

- Get Calm

First, if you feel angry and out of control and you want to spank or slap your child, leave the situation if you can. Calm down and get quiet. In that quiet time you will often find an alternative or solution to the problem. Sometimes parents lose it because they are under a lot of stress. Dinner is boiling over, the kids are fighting, the phone is ringing and your child drops the can of peas and you lose it. If you can’t leave the situation, then mentally step back and count to ten.

- Take Time For Yourself

Parents are more prone to use spanking when they haven’t had any time to themselves and they feel depleted and hurried. So, it is important for parents to take some time for themselves to exercise, read, take a walk or pray.

- Be Kind, But Firm

Another frustrating situation where parents tend to spank is when your child hasn’t listened to your repeated requests to behave. Finally, you spank to get your child to act appropriately. Another solution in these situations is to get down on your child’s level, make eye contact, touch him gently and tell him, in a short, kind but firm phrase, what it is you want him to do. For example, “I want you to play quietly.”

- Give Choices

Giving your child a choice is an effective alternative to spanking. If she is playing with her food at the table ask- “Would you like to stop playing with your food or would you like to leave the table?” If the child continues to play with her food, you use kind but firm action by helping her down from the table. Then tell her that she can return to the table when she is ready to eat her food without playing in it.

This was recently in the news - something quite disturbing all parents should be aware of….

Belittling, shaming, or threatening a child may be as detrimental to the young victim as physical or sexual abuse, new research suggests.

Repeated verbal abuse from parents can contribute to depression and anxiety that lasts well into adulthood, researchers at Florida State University in Tallahassee report.

The study, published in The Journal of Affective Disorders, evaluated the impact of verbal abuse on the mental health of more than 5,600 people, aged 15-54. Thirty percent of participants admitted to being verbally abused both sporadically and frequently by their parents as a child.

“Those who were verbally abused had 1.6 times as many symptoms of depression and anxiety as those who had not been verbally abused and were twice as likely to have suffered a mood or anxiety disorder in their lifetime,” study author Natalie Sachs-Ericsson, an FSU professor, said in a prepared statement.

Poor self-esteem triggered by verbal abuse during childhood continues into adulthood, allowing the symptoms of anxiety and depression to settle, the researchers said. But, they added, therapy offers hope for these victims.

“Self-critical people can benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy, an approach that helps people identify their irrational thought patterns and replace them with more rational thoughts,” Sachs-Ericsson wrote.