Making a meal of it
Coffee chainshains and burger joints bin £227million worth of unsold food every year. Shameful. All those salad boxes and over-priced paninis slung in the garbage when they could be distributed to the needy. Costa, Burger King and Starbucks are among those accused of “doing nothing” about food waste. If they can’t be bothered helping, why don’t they charge less in the first place? Four quid for a toastie…no wonder they’re unsold. Just in time for the holiday season, Edinburgh Airport takes fifth place on a list of the world’s worst. It joins London Gatwick and Manchester in the top five. None of which bodes well for those of us with flight plans this summer. As if we don’t have enough to worry about with so many security concerns. Memo to airport bosses: It’s less than two weeks till the schools break up. Get your act together. Anyone remember Robbie Coltrane’s spoof Orangeman from the 80s, Mason Boyne? Came back to mind last week as DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr couldn’t resist joking that “the future’s orange” as his group lined up in the shadow of Westminster. Oh dear. Here we are hoping for something approaching statesman-like behaviour in this sorry mess. Apparently not. And it’s not at all funny. Poor Demi Moore, who revealed last week that she’s lost her two front teeth to stress.
Who knew that could even happen? Makes you grind your molars in panic just thinking about it. The actress is remarkably relaxed with her gumsy look.
“My children love seeing me without my teeth because they by annoyed I’m of Lib departure the Tim Farron. Dem leader to me ages It has taken he him. Ironic recognise interestin g when only became tangled up in he got himself uality. homosex on his views church and between Caught had to follow politics, he So is he his beliefs. DUP? joining the think it makes me look more vulnerable and human,” she says, with all the delusion of someone who can afford the world’s best dentists and who’ll never have to eat her dinner through a straw.
Still, at least we know why it’s been such a long time since she got her teeth into a meaty roll, sorry, role.
According to research, the average cost of a Father’s Day gift is £25, a whole tenner less than is spent on mothers on their special day.
Doesn’t that give us a wee insight into the position of dads in society.
It pains me a little to admit it, and I may never repeat it to my other half, but they’re a bit undervalued.
It’s easy to be cynical, particularly when we see so many men who’ve done the necessary to become biological fathers, then hit the highway as soon as the hard work started.
They’re not the undervalued type, by the way. They’re the very fortunate type who often have remarkably forgiving offspring. And they don’t deserve a £ 2.50 card, never mind a £25 pressie.
Still, there are plenty of dads out there who are every bit as caring, inspirational and nurturing as any mum you might come across. Maybe we just don’t give them enough credit. Okay, maybe I don’t.
But no one who watched DIY SOS the other night and witnessed the selfless devotion of gay couple Garry and Kyle Ratcliffe as they cared for their four adopted children – all vulnerable or with special needs – could fail to be moved.
Didn’t we all blub like a baby as their house was rebuilt for the unconventional family they clearly loved so much? I found myself thinking how lucky those kids were to have their two fathers.
And it’s not long since Rio Ferdinand poured out his heartache at becoming a single father to his three children after losing his wife Rebecca to cancer. Wasn’t he just a dad trying really hard to get things right for them?
Of course, we could argue that if they had been women going about their parenting duties in such terrible, trying circumstances, then no one would have paid them much attention. It’s simply expected of females.
But enough cynicism for one day. We should still praise the guys who are stepping up to the mark and show a little gratitude to the ordinary dads who quietly spend every day doing their best for their kids.
Can I advise hugging them today, even if all you’ve bought them is a pair of Minions socks and a box of Maltesers, which will come nowhere near £25? A nice hug speaks volumes. It’s cheap but effective.
I say this as someone who lost their dad at a young age and has spent a long time observing friends interacting with their fathers, their children with their grandads, my husband with his dad and with our kids.
Clearly, it’s nice to have them around for the big life events: the special birthdays, the marriages, the graduations. But it’s the little things they do that seem the most important.
It’s coming round, unbidden, to put up a shelf or change a tyre or tidy the garden while you’re at work. It’s picking you up from town late at night when you can’t get a taxi or driving you to the airport for a holiday flight, even if it’s a red-eye.
It’s helping with homework or taking football practice or sitting through hours and hours of a dance show, pretending they’re not at all bored. It’s being on the end of a phone when you need to talk. It’s just being there.
And when they’re hugged in return, they seem to like it. Even the toughest of them.
These are the everyday things that too many men who call themselves “dads” don’t even realise when they choose to absent themselves from a kid’s life, for whatever reason.
So happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful dads out there. We think you’re doing alright, just as good as us mums. And that’s a gift in itself.