A Gift from Dad

If our Facebook page is any indication, a good number of our readers are women.  If you are a mother reading this, I invite you to print it and hand it to your husband.

This weekend is Father’s Day Weekend.  Kids and moms everywhere will be endowing their fathers/husbands with gifts and words of gratitude.  I personally plan on driving a couple hours to spend the day with my father.  I’m grateful to have the opportunity to spend my 41^st Fathers Day with my dad.  I hope to be able to spend a good many more with him before all is said and done.  Conversely, this is my 14^th year as a dad.  In another 27 years, I expect my son will be able to say to me what I will be saying to my dad tomorrow – Happy Father’s Day.

In the meantime, I have to give my children a gift.  Fathers everywhere need to step up and give this gift to their children.  Failure to do so is, in my opinion, an abdication of responsibility as a father.

We owe it to our children to be an example of healthful living.

Consider the following statistics from 2005-06: 11% of children aged 2-5, 15% of children 6-11 and 18% of adolescents 12-19 are overweight (Source).  Children don’t become overweight by themselves.  Medical issues notwithstanding, overweight children are most often the products of parents whose lifestyles don’t reflect healthy habits.  The fact that 2/3 of adults in the United States are classified as overweight with half of those being labeled as obese.

What is your lifestyle teaching your child about his or her health?  Are you sending the message that health isn’t really important – that the human body can be abused with food and beverage that ages it prematurely?  Are you active or inert?

Children observe EVERYTHING you do – or don’t do.  And they WILL duplicate your behaviors.

The gift you can give to your children this Father’s Day is you for a long time to come.  Your child should be able to enjoy you for 50, 60, or 70 years of their lives.  Unless you are doing your part – eating a nutritious diet and getting regular exercise – you are stealing yourself away from your children.  Further, you are aiding and abetting the loss of your grandchildren’s Mom or Dad.  Your lifestyle today has a generational impact that will endure well beyond your years on this Earth.

Be well, not just for yourself but for the ones who call you ‘Dad’.