I just returned from church on Father’s Day and, after the obligatory pot roast (mmmm, pot roast), potatoes etc. sat down to have a think. Well, actually I sat down to have a nap, but started thinking instead, imagine my surprise.

What I thought about was Father’s Day sermons. Mother’s Day sermons tend to be paeans of praise for the glorious ideal of motherhood, while Father’s Day sermons are usually exhortations to Dads to keep in there pitching and do an even better job. I’m tempted to write this difference off to the fact the the preacher has to go home and face his wife and would prefer a little domestic tranquility on a Sunday afternoon, but I think something else is at work.

It think these differences in the way we address fathers and mothers have to do with our unconscious recognition of the way women and men receive feedback. Women, perhaps, respond better to encouragement while men respond to exhortation. Maybe.

Happy Father’s Day anyway.