I had a quick conversation with my father over the weekend. I rang him quite early on father day (sunday) as owning a restaurant I assumed he would be somewhat swamped with bookings for doting children taking Dad out for a meal to reward him for all his efforts over the years.
Apparantly not. He had just over x40 covers booked in for the whole day (1 cover = 1 family I am assuming here). When I tried to ring him on mothers day (unrelated call, it just happend to be mothers day when I rang him) he explained he loved me very much but had over x240 covers booked in for mothers day and could I call him some other time and hung up !
240 to 40, or 6 to 1 ratio for mums to dads. I mentioned this to a friend who confirmed a similar pattern of inequality in his family. “Yeah, my dad rings before mothers day and has a mini panic attack checking I got her card and some chocs or flowers or something and that I will be visiting her on the day……it’s like he’s scared or something”.
“and what does your mother do about fathers day ?” I ask.
“oh she just rings on the day and asks if I got him a card and if not did I want to say hello to him quickly !!”.
the equality also stretches to the amounts people spend on each parent. these reports for spending on mothers and fathers day show that mum clearly gets a bigger slice.
2009 mothers day spend
2009 fathers day spend
Possibly this difference can be attributed to there being a greater range of gifts for mum to choose from on the day ? I must confess that I was never quite sure what to do about fathers day in my youth. Was it a day I was supposed to do more with dad or a day to give him a break from me ? He is also not the easiest person to buy gifts for, he always seems to be working and his only hobby that I can recall is fishing, not an area where I have any kind of expertise.
Oh well, socks again I guess !
