Father's Day is a day set aside to honor, remember and spend time with our fathers, grandfathers or anyone else who has been a fatherly figure in our lives.
The idea for the holiday came about more than a century ago, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's website, and was conceived by Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Washington, as a way to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who raised his six children on a farm. June 17, 1910, was chosen for the first Father's Day celebration because it was the month of Smart's birth, according to the website.
"The first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued in 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father's Day," the website stated. "Father's Day has been celebrated annually since 1972 when President Richard Nixon signed the public law that made it permanent."
But fatherhood is changing in many ways over the years, according to a 2016 article the Pew Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank that examines trends and issues shaping the country and world.
Fewer dads now are their family's sole breadwinner, according to the article, and fathers also have taken on more housework and child care duties over the years.
More fathers also are staying home to care for their kids, too, according to the article. In 2012, for instance, 7 percent of U.S. fathers — about 2 million dads — with children in their households didn't work outside the home, according to the article. That's up from 4 percent in 1989.
"While gender roles are converging more and more, public attitudes toward stay-at-home fathers and stay-at-home mothers still differ," the article stated. "While about half of Americans — 51 percent — think that a child is better off with a mother at home, as opposed to in the workforce, just 8 percent say a child is better off with a stay-at-home father."
The holiday also can be a big moneymaker for places such as hardware stores, golf courses and other places.
Total spending for the day was expected to reach $14.3 billion in 2016, according to figures from the National Retail Federation. That's up from the $12.7 billion spent on Father's Day in 2015.
The amount spent on dads lags behind that spent on moms for Mother's Day, however. Spending for that holiday in 2016 totaled $21.4 billion.
But on what are people most likely spend money on when it comes to pampering their fathers?
The front runner, according to an annual survey by the National Retail Federation, is on special outings such as dinner, brunch or other types fun activities or experiences. Consumers were expected to spend $3.1 billion on such activities.
People were expected to spend a little under $2 billion on clothing and gift cards, according to the survey, and $1.7 billion on electronics.
Greeting cards, meanwhile, accounted for $833 million of the spending expected to take place for Father's Day, according to the survey.
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