We know that dads, grandfathers, uncles, and other father figures are an important part of the lives of young kids everywhere. The relationships started when kids are young have lifelong impact. Every moment spent together laughing, singing, reading, or just having a good time together is special. This Father’s Day, we’re celebrating those moments in the lives of our staff. Read more about how our dads and granddads impacted us. Thank you so much to dads everywhere! Your care and support of the kids of your life makes a world of difference!

Tania

My dad is my hero and one of my best friends. He is always supportive and loving. When I was a toddler, he would drive me around in his truck so I could fall asleep. I am not sure where he got the phrase ‘Bye te cuelgo’ but he uses that often. All my friends when they see me post a picture of my dad and I they always hashtag ‘Bye te cuelgo’.

The story behind this is that my dad doesn’t like talking on the phone for long periods of time. He gets overwhelmed, so when he decides he wants to end the call he will say ‘Bye te cuelgo’. By saying this he is being polite and is signaling he is done with this phone call and the other person should wrap up. It’s pretty funny because I have seen it first hand and when I asked why he hung up-he very calmly stated that he had already said ‘Goodbye, I’m hanging up’. I can’t argue with that – he made a valid point! Now when either my mom, sisters, or I call, we say ‘don’t hang up, ok I got a lot to say’. Love my dad!

Dwyn

Ever since I was a young child, visits to New York to see my grandparents were a special favorite. Not only did it mean we could visit the neighborhood where my mom grew up but it meant spending time with my grandpa. My grandpa is one of my favorite people and was then too. Whether it was eating at his favorite diner, playing in the nearby park, or hanging out in his house, we always had fun together.

One year, my family and I visited New York so my parents could visit a wedding. My brother and I were very young so instead of going to the wedding, we got left with my grandpa. We could have spent the day in Queens and my brother and I would have been perfectly happy but instead, my grandpa took us into Manhattan. We went to the Museum of Natural History, which was a big hit for both me and my brother. I remember being so excited about the fossils, which seemed especially massive given how small I was. Spending the day with my grandpa felt so special and exciting!

Sara

My father taught me to love words. Whether he was creating bilingual puns, reading me Edgar Allen Poe’s Annabel Lee before bed or Pablo Neruda poems at the breakfast table, a love of language was something he imparted on me from the day I was born.  A true linguist, he worked with me for hours on my school essays to make sure my writing in Spanish and English was close to perfect. Even in college when I took Literacy Translation classes, one of my favorite activities was calling him up to discuss the best way to translate both the meaning and sound of a line of poetry from Octavio Paz. There was no one with whom I could talk more at length about the subtle difference between saying “nauseous” or “nauseated” and and the hundred meanings of “querer” than I could with my father.

It has been five years since I have argued with my father over syntax or the use of Castilian versus colloquial Spanish or since he came upon a metaphor he simply had to share with me. Even though he passed away five years ago, there isn’t a poem I read, or translation I write where his voice, mind, and hands aren’t reading, speaking, or writing alongside mine.

Laura

My dad tried 6 times for a son.  Four daughters and two losses later, my parents decided to count their blessings and be happy with the rambunctious girls they had.  Even still, he was over the moon 30 years later when his first grandson was born.  Now he’s got 3 little grandsons and 1 baby granddaughter.  His favorite activities are dressing them all up in matching outfits and playing soccer with them. The first-born said “goooool!” long before he said “mama”, much to my dad’s delight.

Kaitlin

My father has always been a salesman or trainer of salespeople for as long as I can remember. He is incredibly outgoing and will strike up a conversation with anyone in earshot. He also is never afraid to ask for what he wants. As a child who just wanted to blend in and not rock the boat, it used to mortify me that my father would ask for things.

He would ask for a better table if we were seated in some undesirable location like by the restrooms or the kitchen. He would also ask for substitutions that weren’t offered on the menu like a side of tomatoes instead of breakfast fruit. My father always approached these requests politely and did not insist if his request was denied. While as a child I may have slunk down in my seat hoping to become invisible, as an adult I am grateful that my father taught me that sometimes to get what you want all you have to do is ask nicely.

Savitha

There are so many things I could say about the kind of father that my husband, George, is to our three-year-old son, Avi—his unadulterated exuberance for parenting, his unconditional love for our son, his sheer delight in discovering Avi’s new skills, and his simple joy at hearing Avi’s laughter. George is musically talented (he’s a pianist, drummer, and all-around music aficionado) and his love for music pervades his parenting too. He has introduced Avi to a wide, eclectic variety of music. There’s always a song playing in our house, thanks to George: Aaron Copeland in the morning, Splish-Splash at bath time, Señor Mouse in the car, and Kraftwerk’s Robots at daily dance parties before dinner time (um, yes, we have daily dance parties—don’t you?).

George has a gift for making up silly songs and he has always ‘composed’ music for Avi, from the ‘Avi Baby’ song, a simple little ditty we sang for diaper changes, to the crosswalk song for parking lots and zebra crossings (‘Look both ways, Look both ways, Cuidado, Cuidado’). Together, George and Avi have discovered new music they love, like the Laurie Berkner Band (their heart-thumping routine around We are the Dinosaurs makes me cry laughing) and Caspar Babypants (Run, Baby, Run is another dance-party favorite). I think it’s safe to say that George has music is one of the gifts that George has given Avi and it’s made us, well, a more harmonious a family than we’d otherwise be.