Father’s Day 2021.
It’s going to be weird.
It’s going to be different.
How do you show up for your dad on the one day of the year that gets to be all about him and make him feel like the special man that he is when we aren’t allowed to see each other?
Big B’s favourite thing to do is get us all together, crack open a few bottles of wine, have a BBQ, watch the sunset, tell jokes and sit in the backyard surrounded by his family.
Normally, we buy him a hideous Hawaiian shirt and a nice bottle of wine that we all end up drinking, and give him a hand-written card, which he will keep forever. He’s the guy who keeps EVERYTHING. Every card, every letter. I even once found an old camera film roll container that was filled with all our baby teeth. It was terrifying.
This year we will have to roll with the punches, so we have discussed dropping a few things over to Big B’s door (don’t stress, we all live in the same LGA!).
We’ll be dropping a DIY BBQ kit, which will consist of a few things for a BBQ, steaks, some side salads, cheese and crackers, a case of beer and a few bottles of red!
There will be a handwritten note from each of us along with some hand-painted cards from his grandkids, which he will probably store away with the baby teeth.
We have a game of trivia lined up at lunchtime hosted by yours truly, followed by some cocktail-making (by Rhian, for me) and then we will play Cards against Humanity online. They have a family edition where everyone can log on virtually and you will laugh your heads off.
Then Dad will have to cook his own Father’s Day BBQ and then we are going to do an online wine tasting course. I’ve done one before with some friends and it was so much fun. You start out all shy and civil and by the end, you are speaking fluent German playing charades while the hosts get the shits with you. Hopefully, the family version is slightly more tame.
Ironically, when you have young kids, all you ever seem to want on Father’s/Mother’s Day is some alone time, so we will probably set Rhian up with breakfast in bed and then send him out for a game of tennis with a mate and give him the day off parenting.
Those solo minutes are going to mean even more after being in lockdown in the same house as all of us for the last two months. I sure as sh*t know that that’s what I would want if it was Mother’s Day. JUST BREATHING SPACE!
I also know that he would love some quality alone time with me and not just at the end of the night when we are both empty carcasses depleted on zero battery on the lounge — but that probably won’t happen either.
Normally on Father’s Day, I like to pick out a cute pair of undies and it’s a signal to Rhian that he’s going to hit a home run once the kids go to bed. That’s how we got to start celebrating this day for him after all!
I choose my underwear for the day based on how likely I am to have sex. This year, I might just use a discarded Woolies bag and cut two holes in it for legs.
Read more stories from The Latch and subscribe to our email newsletter.