The Saturday Post
Tomorrow is not only Father’s Day, it’s the centennial celebration of Father’s Day!
In honor of dear ol’ dad, here are a few Father’s Day facts, courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau:
The idea of Father's Day was conceived slightly more than a century ago by Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Wash., while she listened to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm.
A day in June was chosen for the first Father's Day celebration – 100 years ago, June 19, 1910, proclaimed by Spokane's mayor because it was the month of Smart's birth. The first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Father’s Day has been celebrated annually since 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it permanent.
How many fathers?
67.8 million -- Estimated number of fathers across the nation.
25.8 million -- Number of fathers who were part of married-couple families with children younger than 18 in 2009.
1.7 million -- Number of single fathers in 2009; 15 percent of single parents were men.
- 8 percent were raising three or more children younger than 18.
- About 47 percent were divorced, 29 percent were never married, 18 percent were separated, and 5 percent were widowed.
158,000 -- Estimated number of stay-at-home dads in 2009. These married fathers with children younger than 15 have remained out of the labor force for at least one year primarily so they can care for the family while their wives work outside the home. These fathers cared for 290,000 children. Among these stay-at-home dads, 59 percent had two or more children, and 57 percent had an annual family income of $50,000 or more.
24% -- Among the nation's 11.2 million preschoolers whose mothers are employed, the percentage who are regularly cared for by their father during their mother's working hours. This amounted to 2.7 million children.
Time with Daddy
53% and 71% -- Percentages of children younger than 6 who ate breakfast and dinner, respectively, with their father every day in 2006. The corresponding percentages who ate with their mother were 58 percent and 80 percent. (The percentages of children who ate breakfast with their mother or father, respectively, were not significantly different from each another.)
36% -- Percentage of children younger than 6 who had 15 or more outings with their father in the last month, as of 2006.
6 -- Average times children ages 3 to 5 were read to by their fathers in the past week, as of 2006.
66% -- Percentage of children younger than 6 who were praised three or more times a day by their fathers.
Happy Father's Day to all dads -- and to all moms playing the role of dad!