Mother's Day and Father's Day exist to honor the hard-working parents among us. They're also a great occasion for fucking up, if you don't watch yourself. Canadian Justice Minister Peter MacKay is learning that the hard way, after sending male and female staffers two vastly different messages about their roles as… » 6/25/14 12:20pm 6/25/14 12:20pm

If you were paying attention to Twitter earlier today, you might have been more perplexed than usual by one of the trending hashtags. By midday, #EndFathersDay was awash with Proud Twitter Reasonables who simply couldn't believe that Twitter Activists Had Gone Too Far in calling for Father's Day — in supporters' eyes,… » 6/13/14 8:30pm 6/13/14 8:30pm

I never remember when it is Father's Day —it's always a surprise. It just creeps up on me and reminds me that I've never really had a father. Well, one worth celebrating anyway. I didn't meet my father until I was 17 years old and by then, I felt like I didn't need him anymore or maybe he was just a disappointment,… » 6/12/14 11:54pm 6/12/14 11:54pm

If you have a father — or father figure! — memory to share, let's get so emotional together. » 6/16/13 10:30pm 6/16/13 10:30pm

Some of it's good, some of it's great, and some of it is downright annoying — just like dad! » 6/16/13 8:30pm 6/16/13 8:30pm

Now, in the dying embers of Father’s Day, we should take the opportunity to kick a few lukewarm coals around and consider important cultural representations of fatherhood in television, because nothing is more important than television. Nothing. TV dads are usually pretty flawed (TV moms, too), because parental… » 6/16/13 6:00pm 6/16/13 6:00pm

Yes, yes — we all know that the highest calling for women in fascist countries is to birth beautiful, stout baby-soldiers for the State, but a new, conveniently-timed Father’s Day poll suggests that lots of men want to be dads one day. In fact, just about as many men as women aspire to carefully guide an infant… » 6/16/13 4:00pm 6/16/13 4:00pm

British writer Louis de Bernières — a man whose name is so tantalizingly close to “Béarnaise” that, repeated enough times, it will drive you mad with hunger — availed himself this Father’s Day of a media pulpit from which he could decry the institution that wreaks the most psychic destruction on children (particularly… » 6/16/13 12:00pm 6/16/13 12:00pm

I used to work at a popular women's magazine where I once pitched a guide to brides with dads who weren't dead but weren't around — I'd never seen anything like that before, and I figured there had to be a lot of women (myself among them) who were confused about the etiquette. Do you ask some 50-something dude you've… » 6/15/13 4:30pm 6/15/13 4:30pm

No ties, please. No cufflinks or gift certificates. No presents at all, really.

Kid, if you're struggling for some last-minute token for Father's Day, here's what I'd really like — this year and for years to come:

I want you to know there's no end game. The sports you play, the colleges you get into, the accolades you… » 6/15/13 3:00pm 6/15/13 3:00pm

With Father's Day around the corner (consider this a friendly reminder, go get him a tie or something), baby daddies around the country will be getting a Hallmark card, an Applebee's gift card, or at least a phone call to recognize all those times they ordered pizzas and let their kids wear pajamas all day when mom… » 6/13/13 3:30pm 6/13/13 3:30pm

In yet another desperate attempt to humanize their father, the Romney sons released a Father's Day video in which they detail all of the fun times they had with their dad. Guess what? The good times centered entirely around pranking each other. Oh, and for some mysterious reason also involved him nicknaming one of… » 6/17/12 8:00pm 6/17/12 8:00pm

Your dad might be great and all, but can he give birth to whole cloud of babies at once? » 6/17/12 6:30pm 6/17/12 6:30pm

This vintage McDonalds commercial illustrates the Very Special Bond of dads and daughters. Keep it in mind when you're hanging out with your dad tomorrow, or if you don't have a dad, watch it on loop until you feel like you do. » 6/16/12 6:30pm 6/16/12 6:30pm

A woman named Tanya Quaife, now grown and working at nonprofit for LGBT homeless youth in Los Angeles, tells the complicated story of her father on Salon in a piece rife with bitterness, sensationalism (sentences like "The detective told me my father's penis had shrunk to the size of a seahorse," a number of disgusted… » 6/16/12 2:45pm 6/16/12 2:45pm

I don't have any scientific proof on hand, but I feel like I've still never seen a study that says fathers clean more or do more child-rearing stuff than mothers. I know there are exceptions, but I'm talking on the whole. Women are often expected to be like, Here, take it all, take everything I've got because now I'm… » 6/13/12 6:30pm 6/13/12 6:30pm

If you were raised by a dad, or are raising kids with a dad right now, or are a dad yourself, or have ever met a dad, you probably would not say that fathers are worthless. And, you would obviously be right, they're worth a lot; they're just not worth quite as much as mothers—at least that is what a strange new survey… » 6/12/12 4:20pm 6/12/12 4:20pm

These days there's a discount to be found for just about any service, so perhaps we should not be surprised that Groupon has started offering a deal in New York City to name your baby for you. True, this is likely a Father's Day PR stunt, but still it's fun to consider the possibility of paying them to decide your… » 6/12/12 9:30am 6/12/12 9:30am