--- title: Father's Day 2016: Every Day Is Toddler's Day description: This Father's Day 2016, one dad of a 19-month-old toddler tries to get a gift from her that will repay him for all the sacrifices he's made canonical: https://time.com/4373110/toddler-fathers-day/ author: La Guardia Cross article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-17T14:52:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:41:01.957Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Forget Father's Day—Every Day Is Toddler's Day og:description: One dad asks his toddler for one day of love in return og:url: https://time.com/4373110/toddler-fathers-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Forget Father's Day—Every Day Is Toddler's Day twitter:description: One dad asks his toddler for one day of love in return twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Forget Father's Day—Every Day Is Toddler's Day by [La Guardia Cross](https://time.com/author/la-guardia-cross/) ## La Guardia Cross Jun 17, 2016 2:52 PM UTC by [La Guardia Cross](https://time.com/author/la-guardia-cross/) ## La Guardia Cross Jun 17, 2016 2:52 PM UTC My daughter is 19-months-old. When I fully embraced my responsibilities, when I accidentally touched the most vile bodily fluids with my bare hands, when I allowed the scents and stains to envelope my soul, when sleep became a mini-vacation, I knew I had finally arrived at fatherhood. I can only imagine the things I’ll know by the time she’s 895-months-old. I’ve spent the last 19 months anticipating one thing: Father’s Day. Father’s Day 2015 was mediocre. But what could I expect from a 7-month-old? Now that I’m dealing with a mobile and somewhat coherent mini-human, I want payback. I need her to muster up all the love and creative energy she has in order to deliver a gift that says: “Daddy, I get you. I understand the sacrifices you’ve made. I love you so much, and I’ll do my best to make life as easy on you as possible. I’ll pay for a babysitter.” Just kidding. Every day is Toddler’s Day, and Father’s Day will be the same. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4373110/toddler-fathers-day/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4373110/toddler-fathers-day/"},"headline":"Forget Father's Day—Every Day Is Toddler's Day","datePublished":"2016-06-17T14:52:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:41:01.957Z","description":"Is it too much to ask for one day of love in return?","url":"https://time.com/4373110/toddler-fathers-day/","keywords":["Parenting","dads","Fatherhood","fathers","Father's Day"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"La Guardia Cross","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/la-guardia-cross/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/parenting/","name":"Parenting"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4373110/toddler-fathers-day/","name":"Forget Father's Day—Every Day Is Toddler's Day"}}]}] ```