Clinton Township Newsletter

3 J U N E 2 0 2 1 Happy Father's Day! Carol Beder's Early in our marriage, maybe a year or two, I complained to my husband that I was pulling too much of a load because I was "doing this, this, this, and this." (I don't remember exactly what was on my list but you can just imagine because you all are doing these things daily as well.) He countered my argument with, "Oh yeah, well I'm doing this, this, this, and this!" I considered his gurative list, and I considered mine, and I realized I liked mine better. As far as I was concerned, that settled that for both of us, and we never complained about those lists to each other again. Instead, we began to thank each other for doing all of those very mundane, everyday tasks. Thank you for making an excellent dinner. Thank you for mowing the yard – it looks beautiful. Thank you for getting the kids where they need to go – you've made them really happy. Thank you for xing that whatever – it saved us a lot of money. Etc. It doesn't make the workload any easier, but it does make it easier to take. Despite considering myself a "modern" woman, early on my husband and I fell into "traditional" roles. After this discussion, I realized that that's okay. It takes a lot of work to run a household and keep a family healthy, safe, and nancially a oat. In short, a couple needs to be able to work well as a team, something (I'm guessing) a lot of dads out there know a lot about, as well as a lot of the moms. I arranged all of the social life for the kids, he did (and does) the taxes. I do most of the cooking, he does all of the yard work. I (try to) keep the house clean and neat ("try" being the operative word), he keeps the cars running and in good condition. When the kids were little, with both of us holding down one, two, and even three jobs at a time, we took a lot of turns with caring for our three children, guring out our career-work schedules as well as side-gig schedules and the schedules of our part-time daycare plus the help of my in-laws, all of which we were lucky to have access to. It was all very exhausting and wonderful and went by way too fast. I designed this June cover with the beach in mind, but my mother looked at it and pointed out the fact that the seahorse is a great representation of excellent fatherhood and, coincidentally, this month we are celebrating fatherhood. In doing a little research, I found this bit written by Jack O'Sullivan of a British organization called Fathers Direct*, which uses the seahorse as their emblem: "We have chosen the seahorse because they are great dads. So good that they don't just go to the ante-natal classes and practice breathing exercises while sitting on a bucket. They actually get pregnant, a step further, it should be said, than the ambitions of even the most enthusiastic dads in Fathers Direct. 'The female deposits eggs in the male's abdominal pouch – where they are fertilized – and then provides no further care,' reports the learned journal Natural History. 'Males protect, aerate, osmoregulate and nourish the developing embryos for several weeks before releasing them as independent young. Labour can last many hours or even days, and the male is ready to re-mate almost immediately after the young have emerged.' Phew, what a man! Not even a mention of epidurals. They produce an extraordinary number of young – more than a thousand from a single male seahorse may ll just half a tablespoon. The young rise to the surface to gulp air and swim off independently. The Daily Mail would approve of seahorses. They stick together, sometimes for life. Yet they aren't boring. When the sap rises, the male turns orange and the female goes bright pink. Courtship is positively tantric, lasting three days. Once together, seahorses mate again and again. So the seahorse is OK. As a dad, he's brilliant for challenging gender stereotypes. But the best reason why we think seahorses are a great symbol for fatherhood is that children love them." I couldn't have said it better. I'm hoping to see my father again soon who, like many of you, has been quarantined for far too long. (I love you Dad!) And I wish all of the fathers out there a Happy, Healthy Father's Day! *www.fatherhoodinstitute.org 21 Cratetown Road • Lebanon, NJ 08833 (908) 735-8336 • winneday@ptd.net Visit winnewald.com Now Enrolling 2021 Campers th 70 Summer Season - Ages 4-13 In the of Hunterdon County Employment Opportunities Available Some Slots Still OPEN for 2021! Julie Flnn

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