I love that I have a great daddy. Growing up he set high standards and was a disciplinarian. But he also was a good listener and playful. Thankfully he’s never blackmailed my brother’s and I with those reel-to-reel tapes and 8 mm movies of us acting and singing. I think The Cosby Show writers may have based some of that father on mine.

I’ll always cherish my “daddy day.” Each of us kids got a day to spend with daddy alone to do whatever we wanted. When I lived in Baltimore I especially liked going to Reeds drugstore with him to eat a tuna sandwich and drink Sprite out of the heavy fountain glass with the white paper cone insert. That seemed like a really fancy place to me.

My father took his responsibilities to his family seriously. We didn’t always have much. My dad was a college student from the time I was 2 until I was 14  when he finished his doctorate. But we had want we needed–a place to live, food, electricity, clothes, love and family time.

As much as I love k-dramas, I am thankful that my father is nothing like the majority of fathers on these shows. Those guys often gamble, run up debts, run out on their families, and are so irresponsible they allow their daughters to clean up their messes. Some are so hard on their sons that you wonder why they even have kids. I was allowed to enjoy my childhood as a child, not as a child being the adult taking care of an irresponsible parent.

So I thank my father and the other’s out there who manned up, to their responsibilities no matter how hard, loved and put their kids first.

Happy father’s day!