“A dad is the anchor upon which his children stand.”
Father’s Day is a special day every year to celebrate the fathers in your life. It can look different for everyone, whether you’re celebrating your father, spouse, stepfather, brother, son, grandfather, role model, or mentor— even if they’re not your biological father. It is a day to show them how much you love and appreciate these amazing men.
In this blog, I’m going to share with you a Father’s Day gift that promises deep appreciation! Since Father’s Day is this weekend, I hope your takeaway will encourage you to see and appreciate the important man in your life with some hands-on love.
The Changing Role of Father
Did you know that fatherhood in America is changing in important and sometimes surprising ways?
Families today are far more complex than traditional nuclear family structures, where conventional tasks of fatherhood were limited to begetting, protecting, and providing for children.
The fact is that the role of fathers has changed. Dads are no longer expected to be the sole breadwinner and have become increasingly involved in caregiving for their family members.
With blended families and step-parenting the norm, dads take on a lot of challenges to make their families work including building intentional relationships and starting new family rituals and traditions.
Thankfully, outdated gender roles no longer apply. Fatherhood has taken on new dimensions, including gay and transgender fathers.
Parental leave for men has radical and positive implications for the family and, indeed, for gender equality as a whole. It lays the groundwork for greater co-parenting sharing and a more even distribution of domestic labor.
Additionally, the number of stay-at-home and single dads has grown significantly in recent decades. There are record numbers of single dads as heads of households in the US.; men now lead about a quarter of all single-parent families.
Riding on the wave of men’s liberation, these fathers strive to obtain the emotional fulfillment of parenthood.
Later-in-Life Dads
An increasing number of men choose to delay parenthood or start again later in life. Later-in-life fathers are becoming more numerous. They are often known as “fathers of choice.”
The percentage of fathers over 40 when their kids were born has more than doubled in the last decade, while fewer than 1% of first-time dads are over 50.
For many later-in-life dads, a solid financial base makes child-rearing easier to provide. These fathers potentially bring their wisdom and the knowledge from life experience that can play a crucial role in raising happy, healthy, and adaptable kids.
More Hands-On
Today, men are more “hands-on,” and fathers who live with their children are more active in caring for them. They help around the house and participate in food prep and cleaning.
Regardless of how involved a dad might be in helping to raise his children, society still wrongly sees men as the lesser parental counterpart. The emotional quality of the father-child relationship matters more than the number of hours spent together.
Showing Love and Appreciation
The way to express love and appreciation for a man is to show him that he is respected, valued for his contributions, and is unique in your life.
Regardless of a dad’s age, family, career, and caregiving choices, they also experience significant stressors. Combined with the pressure to advance in a career, maintain a family and home, and the time and commitment it takes to parent children, many men find themselves with stress symptoms, stiffness, aches in the neck, and shoulder knots.
If your remarkable man’s love language is service, quality time shared, touch, words of appreciation, or is a gift-giver, you can’t go wrong with a neck and shoulder massage this Father’s Day.
Father’s Day Neck and Shoulder Massage
What man doesn’t love a neck and shoulder massage?
Dads carry the weight of the world, their families, and their kids on their shoulders. Muscle knots are those kinks in the back and the tight, ropy strands in the neck. Also known as trigger points, they are areas where the muscles have tensed up and refuse to let go.
Giving your dad or helping your children give a neck massage using Deha Muscle Soothe Oil is a great way to relieve that tension and melt those knots. Massages can also improve blood circulation, ease headache pain, improve his mood, and boost his energy.
Fleur’s Deha Muscle Soothe Body Oil’s alchemical wellness blend is formulated in a base of jojoba and arnica oils with a proprietary blend of vibrational essences to help energetically melt and unwind tight muscles tension.
Our synergy blend of organic essential oils has a long history of traditional topical use in folk medicine known to relieve muscular aches and pains and reduce pain intensity. With their anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties, our blend penetrates deep below the surface to relax muscles. They help enhance blood circulation, reduce inflammation, and temporarily soothe and ease muscle discomfort and soft tissue distress.
Use these steps to give a shoulder and neck massage.
This massage is done shirtless.
- Have your dad sit backward in a chair. Make sure he is straight but comfortable so you can stand behind him and he can place his forearms on the back of the chair.
- Apply Deha Muscle Soothe Oil onto your hands and then on his neck and shoulders.
- Knead the two muscles on either side of the neck next to the shoulders. Start with very little pressure, then squeeze harder.
- Work on the back of the neck.
- Have him lean his head forward.
- Support his forehead firmly with one of your hands. This lets his neck muscles relax.
- With the thumb and first finger of your other hand, make tiny circles at the base of the skull.
- Gently squeeze the entire back of the neck. Bring his head up to its normal position.
- Use a “thumb crawling” technique.
- Press both thumbs down, one on the outside of each shoulder.
- Move them in, pressing firmly at intervals of half an inch until both thumbs reach the spine simultaneously.
- “Crawl” your thumbs out again to the shoulder joints.
- Repeat this movement 4 or 5 times.
- With one hand on each shoulder, knead the upper back and shoulders. Work your hands away from each other, ending at the upper arms. Then reverse the process by massaging back to either side of the neck.
- Any knots, gently massage in a small circular motion adjusting your pressure.
- Make sure to rub his scalp, sides of the head, and temples too!
- To finish your massage, place a warmed face cloth or hand towel on the neck and shoulders to enhance the penetrating effects of the oils.
A Gift Cherished
Dads come in all shapes and sizes, and it doesn’t matter if he raised you from day one, barely saw you because he worked long hours to support your family, or you found him later on in life — as I have.
Your combined gift of quality time shared, physical touch, service performed, and spoken words of affirmation while you are massaging him will be appreciated and received with gratitude. Not only will a hands-on neck and shoulder massage be a cherished gift, but it is stress-reducing, memory-making, and soul-touching.
There is no better way to celebrate Father’s Day this year than by showing your love and care for the man who serves a fathering role in your life.
All my aromatic love,
Vidya
