by Michelle Stein posted in Parenting

If you haven't picked up a token of appreciation for the special father figure(s) in your life, it's time to get cracking. Gifts are the reason Father's Day even exists, after all.
Did you know that Father's Day officially became a national holiday in 1972, a full 58 years after Mother's Day earned its national holiday status" It's true. The movement toward dedicating a day to dads began in the early 1900s, and it took a while to finally stick. Ultimately, it seems we have men's clothing retailers to thank for making the holiday a reality.
Because retailers saw an opportunity for a boost to their June sales, they were enthusiastic proponents of the Father's Day movement. (Although, an initial lack of coordination caused this vision to backfire when different industries announced Father's Day would be on different days. Oops.) In 1926, retailers worked together to form the National Council for the Promotion of Father's Day. "It brought in civic leaders to make the holiday lucrative without making its industry ties too overt," reports Time. "'The key to the success of Father?s Day was to make the commercialization of honor appear noncommercial,' writes sociologist Ralph LaRossa in his 1997 book The Modernization of Fatherhood: A Social and Political History."

Gifts may have helped Father's Day become an official holiday in a historical sense. And yes, commercialization still plays a huge role in this day ...