For many of us our dads are the unsung heroes of our lives. All too often we take them for granted, but once a year we have the chance to set aside a day just for them. While this week has seen the usual ads for air compressors, chainsaws and drills, beyond buying a gift here are a set of Web sites that will help you plan and celebrate a very special Father's Day next Sunday. After several hours of frustration, I turned away from my usual Google searches and headed to the Yahoo directory in order to find some of the more popular Father's Day sites.
Yahoo! Directory Holidays and Observances Father's Day
Unless you are very certain of these sites' privacy policy I would recommend being cautious about giving your e-mail address or any other information to them. E-mail greetings are often a ruse for collecting e-mail addresses without being clear that you are signing up to receive spam. Because many are ad laden, I recommend maternal (or other care giver) supervision -- Dad would do it but we want to surprise him! Even though I turned off my ad blocker and pop-up blocker, I have many layers of protection when surfing unknown Web sites. My apologies if I missed anything untoward that a site does because of this. With that caution let's take a look at some of the most popular Father's Day sites on the Web.
This site has the history of Father's day and some other good information. I couldn't get the midi music to work, but that may be because I am on dial-up. Sadly it is littered with pop-ups and pop-unders. By the time I had accessed 2 pages I had 6 pop-up/unders. It is always sad when useful information is obscured by a plethora of ads.
Games, crafts, downloads. This site looks pretty good. There are coloring pages and other crafts. I particularly like the Poems for Dad section. This site has a lot of ads, but no pop-ups that I encountered. Links to PC and Mac Wallpaper with a wise caution to ask before decorating Dad's machine.
Billy Bear's Happy Father's Day
More pop-ups at the ever popular Billy Bear's. However, there are some great ideas for celebrating Dad's special day. Billy Bear remembers Grandpas, too. I especially like the promise book craft idea.
Happy Fathers Day - History, Quotes, and Facts
This site is part of Wilstar.com. Of course more ads and pop-ups (sigh), but overall a much cleaner and more attractive looking site. There are some great father oriented quotations, but most of them will go over the heads of most children -- most are not what you would put in a greeting card. Still, I got a kick out of them. There is a Father's day countdown clock and an online word search puzzle (Java).
The next site on Yahoo's list was Aristotle -- it is an ISP and the current site has nothing about Father's day -- skip it.
I especially liked the list of traditions even though I had never heard of the white and red rose before wearing before. Nice list of crafts and activities. No pop-ups that I could find.
Of course there are many more sites at the Yahoo Directory. It would have taken all week to go to look at each one. After having taken a look at the top of the list I must re-emphasize safe surfing. I support Web site's rights to be ad supported; but caution is called for especially when surfing with children.
I can't close this piece without remembering my Dad who passed away in 2002 and my Grandpa who died when I was 4 years old.. They are both very much part of who I am and I'm grateful for the Father's Days I had with them.
© 2004 Gail Allinson
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