EDITOR’S LETTER: from the desk of Nicole Byers

I’m dedicating this month’s letter to my dad. I’m doing so in honour of Father’s Day, but also because he often bemoans the fact that the only times I’ve written about him previously has been to mock his more unorthodox parenting methods. Like placing a mirror in the middle of our dining table to discourage my sister and I from eating with our mouths open (no one wanted to see us chewing like cows, he reasoned, so we could stare at our own reflections). Or the time he unscrewed my wardrobe doors in protest at the apparent problem

I also had with keeping them shut.

It’s true that he was not the type of parent who believed in letting kids win just to make them feel better about themselves. Board games, cards, backgammon or sports – to this day the family still cheers with delight if any member gets a win over dear Dad.

Nor did we grow up expecting the obligatory “that’s amazing darling” when we presented him with our latest dodgy artwork, pasta necklace or clearly derivative short story.

But what I have failed to mention in the past, when hamming up these tales of childhood woe, is how much the me that is now a happy and wellrounded adult appreciates his raw, honest and loving brand of parenting.

After all, he had a point when he said the Top 40 hits my school friends and I played on high rotation were “not real music”. And it’s true that our propensity to slavishly follow the latest trends lacked originality.

In the end, what Dad taught me was the importance of finding and following my own passions, the value of individuality and not least of all how to deal with life’s

inevitable disappointments and defeats. Also to always keep my wardrobe doors closed.

I love you, Dad. Thank you for being you and for helping me learn to be me.

To him and all the other loving fathers out there – including the delightful Barry Du Bois who shares his own parenthood journey on page 36 – I wish you a very happy Father’s Day. Nicole Byers EDITOR-IN-CHIEF