Why It's So Hard to Get Gifts for Father's Day

The truth is, dads have no idea what they really want either

- Raymond Goh

Happy belated Father's Day to all us fathers out there! We've made it through another year of finishing the family dinner leftovers, so we definitely deserve a big pat on the back (burp).

This Father's Day, my eight-year-old daughter, JJ, in cahoots with our seven-year-old neighbour, planned a surprise for the two respective fifth-floor fathers.

It was incredibly sweet and cute. It was also totally botched as they discussed it as stealthily as excitable kids are wont to do (read: loudly).

And it didn't help that weeks before Father's Day, JJ reminded me repeatedly that "there's a big surprise coming up — but I can't tell you about it! I can't! I can't! I'm sorry, but I really can't!"

Of course, I loved the eventual surprise. And even more than that, I love JJ for it. May she continue to stupefy me poorly for many years to come (but not with a defiant pronouncement that she really loves her tattooed, teenage motorcycle-biker boyfriend named Skibidi Rizz).

GIFTS FROM THE HEART

It is often lamented that Mother's Day has become sensationally commercialised.

Instead of celebrating all the milky goodness that is motherhood, Mother's Day has turned into spending money on pretty flowers, expensive jewellery, luxurious spa massages, hard-to-pronounce degustation smorgasbords and so on.

Gone are the gifts that are endearingly handmade and charmingly rough around the edges. You know, presents with heart.