Father’s Day has always been an interesting one for me. My father left when I was very young, although I’ve always had a relationship with him, and I think him leaving was the best decision for everyone involved. However as a child of 6 y/o I didn’t understand that yet (1)

As a child I very much looked up to him and it wasn’t until I got to my teen years that I started to see his shortcomings more clearly. We had a calling out when I was 14/15 which led to me changing my last name which was his, Jones, to my mother’s name, Dyer (2)

He didn’t fully understand we had fallen out due to his lack of self-awareness, a quality which has persisted in making a good relationship with him difficult. He has an unrelenting optimism which means he fails to see the hardships in my life, as well as the flaws in his (3)

No human is perfect, and fathers are no exception, but in the inevitable comparison every child makes between their parents, his faults become starker in relief. As he ages those issues become more pronounced and create barriers that prevent us fully understanding each other (4)

I know that I can be too hard on him, but again he doesn’t realise my full opinions because he chooses to look away from what is difficult. I also have the regrettable knowledge that he’s the one person in my life I wouldn’t choose to be friends with if we were not related (5)

I wish I had some satisfying resolution to this thread but relationships with fathers are often about making the best with what one has, and that is what I continue to do (6)