Moms do a lot for their kids but don’t forget about the dads

LETTER — I was watching the Olympics. A CBC reporter was interviewing the mother of a 19-year-old skier. I missed the names and it doesn’t matter.

The mother commented that “… there is nothing greater than a Mother’s love.” That is an insult to the other half of the parenting team.

Throughout the interview, there was no mention of a father so perhaps there’s history that warrants her wording. The expression, though, is heard throughout our culture and it’s time it either ended or was modified. “There is no greater love than a PARENT’S love!”

Every child has two parents. From here on, let’s assume there were two parents involved in raising most children; yes, there are exceptions and it’s mostly Moms who raise kids in single-parent families but even then, most Dads contribute financially (doing their share to enable sports activities) and have visiting times.

I have three boys and there’s no doubt in their minds that their father cares for them every bit as much as their mother. We have gender roles to play and we do that, so the love is sometimes shown differently (I wrestle, she hugs — well, I hug, too) but it’s there and expressed in equal amounts from both parents. I especially work hard at it now that we’re in two houses.

My ex has a brother who went to the Munich Olympics. When the Vancouver Olympics were close to starting, his Mom was invited to a “Mothers of Olympians” lunch. Why not her Dad? They are an immigrant family, coming from Holland with eight kids and having two more here.

Their father was a carpenter who worked six-seven days a week for many years, feeding those kids, providing food, money for sports equipment, etc. He paid for a color TV just so they could watch their son. He built the two houses the family lived in; as soon as they were far enough along to let the family move in, he went back to paid work during the day and finishing the houses in the evenings.

When his wife’s knees could no longer handle going downstairs to the laundry, at 83 years old, he built another house — most of it contracted but that’s how long he was that committed to his family.

There was some other “mothers” event recently in the news but I forget what it was now.

This topic is an old one for me. I think the first trigger was the Ottawa Remembrance Day ceremony when I realized the third wreath is for Mothers of Canada. I won’t rave any further on that one here but I sent a letter in 2011 to a bunch of organizations. Replies could be counted on two fingers and I don’t see any changes but at least the thought got expressed.

TOM RANKIN

Kamloops