Celebrate Father's Day

You may not realize this, but you have Richard Nixon to thank for a nod to all the dads on Father’s Day.

Yes, it was President Nixon (he, of Watergate infamy) who signed a proclamation in 1972 making the second Sunday in June a federal holiday. The fact that Mother’s Day had a 58-year head start says everything about how we’re jsut now starting to realize the impact father’s have on their children’s happiness and sense of well-being.

“Paternal involvement seems to predict adult adjustment better than does maternal involvement,” Psychology Today reports.

If you’re still wondering what to get your dad to show how well he helped you turn out, read on.

• Daughters. If you were daddy’s little girl, frame a photo of him teaching you to ride your bike in the park or roller skate. Although he probably didn’t know it at the time, taking an interest and participating in your development helped give you the “self-esteem” needed to conquer the world (or, at least, your small corner of it).

• Sons. In the late ’80s, Hollywood captured the essence of the father-son dynamic in the movie “Field of Dreams”—showing that even as some men feared becoming like their fathers, they still wanted to bond with them. If that sums up your own father-son relationship, buy the DVD to watch together, and see who tears up first when Kevin Costner’s character joyously plays catch with his late father after (erroneously) thinking the voice that had commanded him to turn his cornfield into a baseball diamond (“If you build it, he will come”) was referring to someone else.

• Sons and daughters. If you are still unconvinced how big of a role fathers play in your life, you need only see a video by the Swiss watchmaker Baume & Mercier (www.baume-et-mercier.com) that is destined to go viral. It perfectly captures the moment when grown children realize their father has made them the adults they are today. Called “Celebrate Giving, ”viewers watch a young man flash back to scenes from his childhood—his father is omnipresent, even comforting him over his first heartbreak—while out to dinner with his pregnant wife and parents.