Upon hearing of the “Date with Dad” event, many people in my generation are confused -- even though the last one was not long ago at all.
To be honest, the original name, "Date with Dad," sounds a little creepy and heteronormative, which can turn LGBTQ folks away from the idea.
What if a student didn’t have a dad? Many students, like Janet Riemer, had someone other than their fathers take them (either because they passed away or were unable to come for whatever reason). As said in Janet's interview in the 1950s page, Janet Riemer’s future father-in-law took her instead.
What about mothers? There was actually a Mom’s Day event...although that one is not documented as well as the Dad event was in the Quairs. Mom’s Day pops in and out of Quairs and is hard to track.
That said, by 2007, when before the only well-documented, parent-related activity was the Dad event for so long, only Mom’s Day got a big mention...and that mention happened to be the size of a page. All that Dad’s Day got was “Dad’s Day” written in a sentence.