Opinion: It's a good day to remember why dads are important - Yakima Herald-Republic

For a job as important as fatherhood, it’s astonishing how little training is available. Sure, you can take family classes or something, but let’s be honest: Most dads learn the business on the job, because (surprise!) a lot of men just can’t be bothered to read directions.

So a lot of them find their way by trial and error, or by trying to do what their own fathers might have done — or perhaps by doing whatever their own fathers wouldn’t have done.

This Father’s Day, we again salute their efforts. Whatever path they took to get here, they’re still our fathers.

But today, as dads around the Valley bask in their Barcaloungers, hang out in their hammocks or get ready to grill up some epic eats, we extend a gentle request:

Keep trying.

Study after study shows the importance of positive male role models to kids — especially boys. Lacking a father’s guidance undercuts their confidence and personal development or leaves some to drift out on their own and find influences that might not be so positive.

Given the number of substance-abuse problems our Valley has endured, and after the recent spate of violent and tragic incidents around Yakima, we don’t need to go too far to find heartbreaking examples of what we mean there.

But those are the extremes. Perhaps more than ever, boys need fathers who can teach and model the traits of a good man — kindness, truthfulness, patience and respect for others.

And the rest of the community needs men who don’t cut off other drivers in traffic, scream profanities at Little League games, treat women like property or start fights over whether someone’s wearing a mask or not.

Sure, maybe appropriate behaviors seem obvious to many of us. But they’re still learned somewhere along the line — and the experts say fathers, whether they realize it at the time or not, are among the most influential teachers.

We don’t mean to preach. We just want to remind fathers that the reason there’s a Father’s Day is because dads are such critical people in our lives.

A day like this seems like as good a time as any to take stock of how they’re approaching such an important job. It’s a good day to remember that we love them, but we’re also relying on them to do their parts.

So keep trying, dads. We’re rooting for you.

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June 20, 2021 at 03:00PM
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Opinion: It's a good day to remember why dads are important - Yakima Herald-Republic
"Opinion" - Google News
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