Father's Day

[Guest]

what's your take on father's day?

 

do you acknowledge and make cards for dad in your nursery or is it not considered Political correct to clebrate dad's contributions?

 

I would be interested to hear form others. Last year I spoke to singel parents and asked if they had any objections to theri child making a card for their (absent) dad. For the chidlren for whom this was not possible, they made a card for a grandad or uncle or even brother they loved.

 

What are you views. I would love to hear from others.

[mundia]

Thats a really good question Leo.

 

We make both mother's and fathers days cards, if the children choose to. We dont insist, and some of them decline. We have quite a few children who call uncle or grandad 'dad' likewise a number who call auntie or grandma 'mum'.

most of our children live within an extended family, so there are always male and female figures, even if there isnt a 'dad' or a 'mum'.

But I have also worked in schools where there really isnt a male figure in the children's lives, and this is where the choice idea came from. In that school, some of the children simply chose to make another card for their mum!

 

Personally I couldnt celebrate one parents day without the other.

But id be interested to hear other views on this

[Guest]

yes exactly.

Choice is the main thing isn't it?

I find its worng not to acknowledge fathers just bec they live live within the family unit.

 

Do you work in a predominantly asian area? Just wondered!

bec all relatives there are refered to either as eldr dad, younger dad, elder mum, younger mum etc all in relation to the parents hierarcy within the family unit. Very confusing if you're not used to it but self explanatory once u get your head around the extended family!!!! And even non relatives are made honorary aunts, uncles and grandparents

my children used to ask refering to people they knew- " is this our real aunty or a pretend one"

[Guest]

Last year at my old school we did celebrate father's day, even though many of the children didn't live with their dads and one child's dad had died through Cancer when she was only 3. This was actually a really moving experience for me and the class, as this child wanted to talk about her dad and how important he was to her still, even though he wasn't there anymore. She said how he was a star in the sky watching over her and her mum and sister, which I thought was so beautiful and the rest of my class listened intently to her. Was lovely to see them so understanding and interested and lead to a quite mature discussion on death (something I never thought I'd have with my reception class!)

For others who did not have any contact they just made cards without the happy fathers day message and gave them to whoever they wanted to (nearly all my class could write to and love from, they were obsessed with making cards)

[Guest]

We had a problem with mother's day last year as one little girl's mother had died 2 weeks before. We celebrated 'Special people's day', which seemed to work.