President Barack Obama: 'Happy Father's Day from First Lady Michelle Obama'

Source:President Barack Obama- spending some time with someone else's baby, but I'm quite sure it's not his.

"First Lady Michelle Obama wishes a happy Father's Day to all the dads out there and shares why President Obama is a great dad. 

Every solution the President puts forward is inspired by a desire all parents share:  the need to build a better world for his kids.

In President Obama's words:

"What I think about is what kind of world am I leaving my two little girls.  And what I realized is that life doesn't count for much unless you're willing to do your small part to leave our children, all of our children, a better world.  Even if it's difficult.  Even in the work seems great. That's our responsibility as fathers and as parents."

From President Barack Obama

To start off I want to say Happy Father’s Day to all the father’s out there, especially my own big guy and to all the father’s that may read this post, like my older brother, the father of my two nieces and nephew, who I’m sure is giving their dad a great day. 

To add one not so positive note, I just wanted to add, that I was checking my daily email, to check today’s news and I only saw one article mentioning anything about Father’s Day, as if today wasn’t even a holiday or anything. I saw plenty of articles celebrating Mother’s Day last month as there should be, but Father’s Days barely mentioned at all. Like it’s some invisible holiday, not even worth mentioning, which is a shame to me, because father’s are just as important. We don’t exist as people without them, we are never born without them.

To me at least father’s are equally important. I couldn’t imagine life without my own dad, as I imagine a lot of people couldn’t and they not only deserve their own holiday but they deserve to be recognized for it as well. This is their day, their own holiday, that we celebrate, for giving us life and at least doing their part to raise us up and be there when we need them. 

I guess we all can talk about the importance of having our father’s in our life and what they mean to us and so-forth. But for me when I think of dads, especially my own, I think of the person who provides the discipline in the family and is the rock that keeps us together. My family being an excellent example of that, the guy you knew always loved you, which is why you didn’t want to piss him off.

To me mother’s and father’s, are equally important, but their roles are somewhat different. Mom, is there to provide the loving support, to make you feel better. That whatever problem you might be going through, it’s not the end of the world and we’ll get through it together. Where dad comes in and lays it all out for you, whether you want to hear it or not. Because he believes you have to hear it for your own good and then tells you how you can fix the problem. Gets on you when you mess up and embraces you when you do well. 

To describe my own dad personally: he’s a Teddy Bear, big tall guy physically, but personally as well. The Teddy is just as important as the Bear to describe my dad. Very sweet loving guy, who could crack your ribs with a hug, that’s how much love he can put into it. But someone you don’t want to piss off.

My dad has the old tough love approach when it comes to fathering. He’ll let you know when you are doing well and when you are not and need to correct whatever behavior is the problem. My dad and I don’t have a lot in common personally and look at the world differently. Perhaps that’s because we are a couple of generations apart or something. My parents had kids late in life, but what we do have in common, like football, baseball, cars, movies to a certain extent, politics and current affairs. Even though we don’t always agree on everything, like certain aspects of health care reform, we really have in common and can talk for hours about any of these subjects. To give you an example of my dad and here’s both the Teddy and Bear side of him.

The day of my high school graduation, June 1994. I graduated at Constitution Hall in Washington, one of the advantages of Bethesda Chevy Chase High School and going to high school in the Washington area. First the Bear: I was running late for my graduation, if you know me well, that shouldn’t be much of a surprise and my dad who drove us down there, was getting on me the whole time about running late. I eventually got there on time, but it was a rush. “This is a very important day, you shouldn’t have ran late and need to be more responsible." Etc. Which is what dad was telling me, after we all graduated and received our diplomas. 

My whole class and I leave the building together and go back outside. Now here’s the Teddy part: who’s the first person I see as I’m walking down those steps, my father being the first one to greet me, reaching out and giving me a big hug for graduating and showing his love. My dad is a great guy, but don’t piss him off.  

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