So the wrighty tribe are back in Welsh Wales, mentioned to the olds we were coming and would they like a visit? Rat up a pump or however the saying goes?
Anyhoo, just had a half hrs walk out with el dogio (11pm osh) and dad,fangled dangle head torches on etc etc. Dad, my dad! Made my week and I’ve only just arrived!

The other kind of man-love 🙂

yes, well sai wrighty, my dad is a legend too – my girls are 3 and 6, he drives to our house, takes the youngest on her scooter to pick up the eldest from school, carrying the other scooter for the elder one, then comes back with both, he turned 70 in june 🙂

Say hi to all your great dads on my behalf. I used to have one. 🙁

But seriously… enjoy their company!

^ this
My Dad died when I was 13, give your Dads a big hug next time you see them.

With SaxonRider here – just told my parents the happy news that we were expecting twins and dad died a week later – exactly 6 months before they were born.

I honestly try with my dad but I guess we’ve never really been that close for some reason. He’s been a great dad though. We never wanted for anything, went everwhere in the caravan as kids but there’s always been a bit of distance for some reason.

Can’t figure out if it’s because were so much alike or so different at the same time?

He’s getting on now though so I do my best as I know I’ll miss the daft old bugger when he gone.

Sadly my dad died when I was thirteen, so much I could have learned from him; instead I’m stuck with a step-father who does nothing but slag me off to others no matter what I do for the ungrateful s-o-b, the fact that both his own children left home as soon as they hit sixteen says it all really. 😐

My dad battered the shite so badly for years out of my mum that by the age of 5 the courts stopped him having any contact with his kids till they were 16. I’m 36 and he lives within a mile of me and I’ve never as far as I recall shared a word with him, same as my brother and two sisters. In fairness, I wouldn’t piss on him if I found him on fire. I have an awesome mum and step-dad, and despite that I’m still jealous of you guys. So fair dues to the dad love.

Nice one wrightyson. Appreciate them while they are here.

I’m sitting by my dads hospital bed as I type this. He’s in respiratory failure, at the end of a long Parkinson’s decline. We’ve been told recovery isn’t an option , so I’ve just driven up from Sussex to be here for the end.

I’m one of those dads and yesterday in view of the carp weather GtiJunior aged 17 and I went to the Velodrome for a taster session, so that we could at least get some exercise. I was shocked at how slow I was after a winter of very little riding and towards th end of our session the poor lad came up behind me and, trying to avoid his slow old Dad, crashed and lost skin off his bum and elbow. I feel terrible now.

Mine died when I was two. Things like this thread or films always confused me until I had a son. My son is awesome

Mine was a bonkers guy at times and a great grandad, too. Go hug your old man and / or go for a pint.

To all the dads out there.

Barely know a thing about mine and never really felt the desire to, last time I saw him was ~40 years ago, he’s an expat living in the Ballearics for the last 43+ years and must be coming up to retirement age by now.

I barely knew my dad growing up as he was working so much. I think his job got him down so he was also very quiet, looking back now you would say he was slightly depressed.
Now he has been retired for a few years he is a different person and we’ve had some more personal chats and he is the first person I go to when I have a problem, which I never used to do in the past.

Mine was one of the bad ones
Constantly hammered, drank every lunchtime and every night for 50 years
Used to ‘borrow’ my paper round money to fund his boozing
Did spectaculaly stupid, idiot things when hammered then denied doing it
The list includes fitting a car battery backwards , snapping car key inside ignition barrel ( Drink driving was fashionable in the 80’s ), checking the oil in the engine , then not adding any so the engine died,
Agreeing to the classic pikey Tarmac your drive scam, £6000 later. . .
Amazing shows of anger and agression if a differing veiwpoint was offered.
Lived in a freezing flat with ice on the inside of the windows in winter.
Died 10 years ago following an NHS botched op.

Some really sad posts here, thinking of all you unlucky people really brings it home how fortunate I have been, I have been very lucky and always close to my family, dad took me out for a beer on my 18th and been out with him for a pint or two pretty much every Thursday night that we are both available , that was 32 years ago this coming August. The club has gone from being rammed with names on board for a game of snooker to a dozen of us max and two unused snooker tables!!

I always get upset or jealous (or a mixture of both!) when you see a dad-son out and about doing something.

My dad remarried and started a new family on the other side of the country – completely cutting me out at the age of 14. A decade later and still never spoken to or seen.
The reason behind it? Your guess is as good as mine.

Enjoy the time you have with them folks

It’s great that some of you are so close to your fathers and it seems you appreciate how lucky you are. Unfortunately I’m in the same boat as the other posters. Not seen my Father since my brother died. I had to restrain myself from hitting him the day before the funeral.

Never known a more spiteful, mean, drunk, abusive and self pitying man. Made everybody’s life a living hell and I grew up scared to death of him. Once dragged me through a graveyard in the dead of night when I was about seven, simply because he knew I was scared of them. The funny thing is I want to hate him for the beatings and emotional abuse, but I can’t. I pity him.

Now I have a son of my own I can’t imagine wilfully causing him or his mother any harm. My dad never has and never will see his grandson. So those of you who have great dads, give them a call or go see them today.

My Dad died when I was 20, almost 20 years ago. He was the best Dad I could have had.

My Mum just found all the emails, cards and letters he was sent when he retired due to ill health (he died a few months later, which no-one really expected, he had a heart condition but nothing immediately terminal), that we’d never before seen. Dozens of heartfelt messages from colleagues all over the world – it spoke volumes about what a good person he was.

Not seen mine for about 20 years or so. Was in London this week near to where I last met him for lunch and sort of kept my eyes open for him. Would like to track him down again but not sure how – he came over from Oz in the 1960’s and I think his right to be here is questionable at best.

Mine died 20 years ago.
He’d have been 101 this year.

I was one of the lucky ones.
Still dream about him, now and then.

Same with my mum.
Something happens to make me smile and I still think ‘I’ll tell the Old Queen about that later….’, even though she’s not here anymore.

I think of them them both every day.

As I said, lucky man.

never knew my dad. never met him.
but i have tried to bring my kids up how i would have liked to have been brought if it were different.
i am fair, honest and quite strict with em. let them do things they wanted to do, rather than make them do what i want. my son is a dad now, and he seems pretty good at it too.
hope my daughter becomes a good mum too.

I’m one of the lucky ones mine is still about, he’s 65 in April and retires at the beginning of it. Got his lump sum through has paid his mortgage off and went to buy himself a Harley Davidson , he’s been a biker his whole life and is generally laid back about most things .

It’s very strange how much we’re looking alike as we get older though but the old bugger still has more hair on the top of his head than I do 🙁

same as survivor, nice enough guy, and I love him, but he hasn’t been a “dad” since I moved out in late teens.

Mine was an arse. Never did anything for anyone other than himself, spent more time with his mates in the pub than with his wife and son.

Typical example, he has a son and daughter from a previous marriage. Son emigrated years ago, America or Australia or some such. He rang out of the blue one day, he was in the UK for a few days and wanted to catch up with his dad. Dad’s response was that he couldn’t because he was playing pool that evening.

He died last year after spending a year in hospital and two in a care home, vascular dementia as a result of chain smoking for 60 years. Not that I’d wish that on anyone, mind.

Mine was sort of ok but a bit of a humourless prat. He went off when I was 15, and we lost contact when I was 24 for 25 years. In contact now, but adds nothing to my life and never really did.

But he has defined how I bring up my kids, by what he wasn’t.

My Dad is still my best mate…..I went round yesterday to watch the rugby with him, both of us bloody loved it. Sat eating fish and chips and laughing our heads off! He’s still my first port of call for advice when stuff is going wrong. I’m 30 he’s 62!

dantsw13, my thought’s are with you. I can’t even contemplate what that is like.

Showed me zero affection, never once told me he was proud of me, never once told me he loved me (maybe when I was an infant), has a horrific temper and I was terrified of him, I feel like I’m a total disappointment to him.

The crowning glory came about 3 years ago when my mother (evilness personified) sent a xmas card to just me, omitting my then wife’s name completely.

When I complained to my mother he sided with her and I’ve never heard from him since which validates everything I’ve ever suspected about his view of me. 🙁

i miss my dad too, wish i had listened to him more though… but then my kids don’t listen to me!

Wow! Some of the replies here make me realise how lucky I am. Firstly at age 55 my dad is still here. He is 89 and just gave up walking round the golf course this year. Still pretty healthy and not on any medicines. He still wins more than his fair share of the weekly card games. He took me on my first rock climbs (he is a member of the Creag Dhu M.C.) took me canoeing, camping, bothying. When I was a teenager he put up a huge rope swing which attracted kids from miles around. After climbing the tree to tie up the rope he did a classic abseil down the rope to descend.

In his younger days he won medals at wrestling, and climbed well enough to put up new routes at decent grades. He didn’t consider himself a cyclist but once cycled from Glasgow to South Shields in a day during WW2 to visit relatives.

He was a civil engineer who supervised the installation of the first public water systems in parts of Caithness and Sutherland. Later on he designed roads all over the world. After retiring in his 50s he kept himself with a bit of freelance work, skiing, golfing hillwalking, building a house, publishing a book, and he is due to have a paper published in the New Civil Engineer magazine soon.

The crowd he went round with were hardy buggers. One of his friends from the 1950s took up running later in life and ran a 2:47 marathon at age 62. He was round visiting my dad last week. Still fit as fiddle at age 93. Drove himself to the south of France and back last summer as usual.

Legends.

I feel like I’m a total disappointment to him.

FWIW,

I blamed myself for years, as a child I couldn’t work out what I’d “done.” I realise now, it’s nothing to do with me, he simply had no interest in being a parent. One gene he passed to me I guess, only difference being I didn’t then have three children.

Point is, I don’t know your situation, but I’d not be so quick to blame yourself for it. Unless you’re a complete failure in life, if a parent has any ‘disappointment’ towards their children, the failing is with them not you.

Mine was a twunt of the highest order.

Your Dad. He’s the best bloke you know right…

No.

Pleasant enough day to day, did all of the “Dad things” like taking me to the football and the library and all that, but a spineless coward who never defended his kids from our abusive, bullying mother.

We have a cordial enough relationship now but if I needed help or advice, or someone I could trust or rely on, I wouldn’t be going to him.

My father died 25 years ago, miss him especially during the Rugby season as he was a great reader of the game and actually understood what was happening in the front row.

I’m Twenty years older than mine.

My dad was a good bloke. A miner who did his best to ensure I didn’t follow him on that course. We always had good food on the table and had holidays abroad. I learned about cars through being his spanner man when doing servicing – and also (I like to think) how to be a decent human being.

My Dad died 25 years ago RIP.
Miss him every day; he was a really good man
He and my Mum always wanted the best for their children – my brother & I – and put us first.

Lost my Dad in 2003, making me an orphan at the age of 46. He was great, hard working & funny. Took me all over the place when he could. I’m 60 now & still miss him (& Mum) like mad.
I think my 2 kids quite like me cos they call me ‘Dad, ya knob’. (32 & 28 so it’s fine)

Have plenty laughs with ya Dad OP!