Happy Father’s Day
6 May 2008
To celebrate Father’s Day, we meet three dads who spent a day at their children’s nursery
Father’s Day is a time for children to say ‘thank you’ to the special men in their lives for all they do. To highlight the importance of the male role in young children’s lives, ‘Take Your Dad to Nursery Day’ was recently held in nurseries across the country. Dads, grandads and other male carers were invited to take part in a range of activities from singing and painting to science workshops, rocket-making competitions and football games.
Tom Van Doorsselaere said: ‘I have been to the nursery before, but it is my wife who normally drops Daan off. Today has been lovely. I have been able to meet the staff and spend time with them, seeing how they look after and play with Daan every day. It has also meant I have had some special time with my son.’
Andrew Garvey commented: ‘Due to work, I rarely get to drop Kaisey-Mai off at nursery. It has been a great experience today, not only to be able to spend time with her, but to see where she spends every day. The babies’ room at the nursery is a lovely room full of books and toys for her to play with’.
England rugby star and father, Will Greenwood, supported the ‘Take Your Dad to Nursery Day’ campaign. He said: ‘As a dad myself, I know how important and rewarding it is to provide a positive male influence for my children. Watching my children grow and develop is an incredible experience. I think it is such a shame that more men don’t consider careers working in the early years, because it is so important for children to have good male role models in those early stages. I went down to my own son Archie’s nursery on ‘Take Your Dad to Nursery Day’ and had so much fun reading stories to the children and taking part in the activities.’
Dr Bashan Govender explained: ‘It’s been a really good experience to be able to come and see what happens every day when Judan is at nursery. He is always talking about the things he does here, but today I got the opportunity to experience it first hand and I was really impressed.
