Father’s Day Treats
It was Vatertag (Father’s Day) today in Germany, which always falls on a public holiday. It’s also known as ‘Männertag’ (men’s day), and mostly celebrated by men touring around with wagons filled with crates of beer, getting hideously drunk. Very different to the UK, where the shops are flooded with ‘best dad in the world’ products weeks before. We decided to play the expat family card and celebrate the British way – with a special breakfast, card and present for daddy.
The present was chosen by The Boy, and his explanation that it’s “for a father to read to his son, perfect for Father’s Day” was probably not entirely selfless. Lol. After breakfast, we loaded up the pram with a blanket, picnic and other miscellaneous items for a day out, and headed to our local park. It was heaving with people – unsurprising for a public holiday blessed with blue skies and blazing sunshine – but we managed to get a picnic spot in what little shade there was. However, we soon discovered that a picnic with an 18 month old who has earned the nickname ‘destroyer baby’ is not that relaxing, and the lack of shade at the park’s bicycle court (The Boy had brought his bike along) and playground, where you could easily have fried an egg on the metal slides and climbing frames, soon led us to defer to the nearest ice cream parlour instead.
Back at our apartment, The Boy and I baked a cake together and by the time it was ready and cooled, we had digested enough of our picnic and ice cream to make room for afternoon tea. Since our back yard offers infinitely more shade than our local park, and sports a nice seating area, afternoon tea turned in to an al fresco affair and we invited some of our passing neighbours to join us, so the kids had someone to play with and everyone was happy.
At the end of the day, daddy confessed to being somewhat exhausted – as he put it, “On Father’s Day, dad gets to spend the day with the kids, on Mother’s Day, mum gets a break from the kids”, lol – but I have it on authority that the bacon croissant breakfast, ice cream, and cherry cake made up for it!
How do you like to celebrate Father’s Day?
