Americans are expected to spend far less on Father’s Day this upcoming weekend than they did on Mother’s Day this past May, and that’s exactly how dads want it and how it should be.

According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent $38 billion on their moms in 2026 compared to an anticipated outlay of $27.9 billion on dads. But even with a $10 billion differential, it’s still more than $27 billion too much.

Spending money on physical gifts is one way to express love and appreciation, but there are far more meaningful and memorable ways to do it.

When my father died, we found a stack of letters and cards he had saved from my four siblings and me. They were in the top drawer of his bedroom dresser, right next to his socks and boxer shorts. You don’t have to be Columbo to recognize the significance of the placement: it’s a drawer he accessed every single day.

Many of them went back half a century. There were plenty of homemade cards on construction paper written in pencil, crayon, and marker. Loose-leaf paper, too. They contained simple, even misspelled, words, but the sentiments were poignant and profound. There is something sweet about seeing a child expressing love in their own very imperfect but developing handwriting.

Over the years, the neck ties and polo shirt gifts were no doubt worn, and the Craftsman tools and grilling accessories were well-used, but they all eventually wore out, broke, or were replaced. It was the cards and notes that remained.

The late Joyce Clyde (J.C.) Hall, founder of Hallmark, had a vested interest in the value of the written and printed word, but the motivation and success of his Kansas City-based empire were built on an emotional truth he summed up in a single sentence. Talking about why his company took off in the early 1900s, he said, “A greeting card is a way of expressing what is often difficult to say in person.”

Expressing one’s deeply felt love isn’t the only difficult thing surrounding the upcoming holiday. Father’s Day can be a challenging day for some. U.S. Census Bureau data reveal that over 18 million children (1 in 4) are growing up in a home without a dad.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have a father in their life, but it does mean they won’t ever find him in his chair or tinkering in his garage workshop. It means they can’t just grab their gloves and have a catch in the backyard or a bowl of ice cream or cereal together.

There are myriad reasons behind the rise of fatherless homes, ranging from death to divorce. But there are also millions of children not enjoying the benefits of an everyday dad because their father never married their mother at all. One thing is constant, though: the child without a dad at home did nothing to deserve it.

Republicans and Democrats understandably argue over the role of government in our lives. They rightly spar over taxes and critical social issues. Red state and blue state battles have serious consequences for everybody. But many of the world’s woes aren’t rooted in the political but in the personal – specifically, how faithfully and earnestly men take their marriage vows and meet their responsibilities as husbands and fathers.

When it comes to children and family, there should be bipartisan agreement on this: Every child deserves to have a married mother and father in their home.

They’re entitled to a dad who loves their mother. He should be a good man who doesn’t do bad things. They’re owed a dad who would rather be with them than friends at a bar or scrolling on their phones. Loving dads read great books with redeeming themes to their children. Fathers of girls have tea parties and dads of boys wrestle with them.

Committed dads don’t just take their children to church but also model the faith by how they live, how they talk, what they watch and read, and the type of friends they keep.

I once knew somebody who used to quip, “I don’t have a life – I have kids.” He was implying that his children were cramping his style and keeping him from doing what he really wanted. Children deserve dads who don’t see them as tedious burdens but as wonderful blessings.

Paul J. Batura is a local writer and founder of the 4:8 Media Network. He can be reached via email Paul@PaulBatura.com or on X @PaulBatura.