Dads - On Fathers' Day... Your Shortcut - From the Vault

0:00Hey Squizz kids it's Christy here! Now usually bringing you a from the vault episode involves heading downstairs, brushing away a few cobwebs and digging through the dusty shelves. But not this week, this shortcut was only released this Tuesday, so it hasn't even made it to the vault yet. We wanted to play it again because today is Fathers Day! So why not grab your dad or the person who does the dadding in your life and listen together? You'll meet some brilliant dads, some slightly less brilliant dads, and hear more than a few truly terrible dad jokes. Happy Fathers Day to all the dads and father figures out there, we hope you have a brilliant day. Here's your Squizz Kids shortcut to dads! This is a Squizz Kids podcast.

1:02Your fresh take on what's happening in the world around you. Some dads brave the Antarctic winter to protect a single egg. Others disappear before their baby's hatch and almost all of them believe their jokes are hilarious. This is your Squizz Kids shortcut to dads for Fathers Day. The podcast where we explored a who, what where, when, why, and how of the wonderful world around us. I'm Krusty Kijarena. And I'm Bryce Corvett. Krusty, since you're here, what do you call a fish wearing a bow tie? Fish wearing a bow tie, I don't know what do you call it? So fish decated. Oh, oh, boy. Oh, I'm practising. Here's another one, why did the scarecrow win an award? I didn't even ask the specter to tell me. I absolutely am. The answer is because he was outstanding in his field. Oh! One more, one more, one more.

2:04What's brown and sticky? Ah, a stick. Ah, yes, Chris, do you've heard that one before? Price, every kid on earth has heard it. Is there a reason that you're subjected me to your best or possibly worst dad jokes today? Well, yeah, there is. Father's Day is coming up this Sunday, Chris. And I thought I should make sure that my dad joke material was ready to roll. Of course, because nothing says Father's Day quite like a joke everyone's heard before, followed by dad laughing at it harder than anyone else. Exactly. Do you want to hear the one about the roof? No. That's okay. It's over here, anyway. Oh, no. Today we'll find out what being a dad looks like in the animal kingdom. How dadding has changed throughout human history and why we celebrate Father's Day and the many different people who can do the dadding in our lives. But first, Christy, did you hear about the restaurant on the moon? Price, don't. Great food, but no atmosphere.

3:06Oh, listen carefully. There's a squeeze at the end. How? Price, your dad jokes may be terrible, but compared with some fathers in the animal kingdom, you're doing very well. Thank you, I think. We're going to play a little game. It's called Dad or Dad. Okay. I'm going to name an animal father and describe his parenting. Uh-huh. You decide whether he belongs in the dad hall of fame or whether he's a dad. Easy. Although I feel I should let you know before we start that I've never abandoned my children or eaten any of them. Good to hear. Okay. First up, the Emperor Penguin. Yeah. One lays a single egg. She passes it carefully to Dad. He's going to balance it on his feet and cover it up with a warm flap of tummy skin and guard it through the freezing Antarctic winter. While Mum heads out to see to feed. That is impressive. Now, how long is he standing there for?

4:07For around two months. Whoa. The dads all huddle together against the winds and they can blast more than 150 kilometres an hour and they take turns on the warmer side of the group. And during that time they don't eat. Hmm. Dad or a dad? Uh, definitely a dad. Possibly the only father who can truthfully tell his child, I stood barefoot in the snow for two months for you. Next prize, the Seahorse. The dad that gives birth. That's right. Set the female places her eggs inside a special pouch on the male's body, he fertilises them and carries the developing babies until he goes into labour and releases them. Sometimes hundreds at a time. Whoa, that is a dad haul of famer right there. You'd think, not so fast because once those tiny seahorses are born, they're on their own. Mum and dad provide no further care. Ah, outstanding pregnancy and delivery.

5:09Less impressive follow-up service. Yeah, not every animal dad sticks around in many species. The male's involvement ends after mating. The babies might be raised entirely by mum or as with sea turtles and lots of fish, they get no parenting from either parent. So does that make them a dud? Sounds like it, but not by animal standards. Remember, animals aren't following human rules about good and bad parenting. Different species have evolved different ways of producing the greatest number of surviving offspring. So sometimes caring for a few babies works best and sometimes producing thousands and leaving them to fend for themselves is okay. Fair enough, but what about the dads that eat their own children? Or at least their own eggs? Yeah, that is true. Some male fish carefully guard a nest and they clean the eggs, they fan fresh oxygen-rich water over them, and then they eat a portion of the brew.

6:11Gosh. It's got a name, it's called filial cannibalism. Oh, so dad spends all day protecting the kids and then after a hard day at work has a few with them for dinner. Yes, scientists think that there could be several reasons for it. Dad might eat damaged eggs to stop diseases spreading or reduce an overcrowded brewed so that the others have a better chance. Or just to regain some energy that he's using to guard them all. I'm going to say that one is both dad and dad. Fair nature is complicated, it doesn't hand out world's best dad mugs. And what might look shocking to us might be a survival strategy for another species. And human dadding is complicated too, Christine. It doesn't involve balancing eggs on our feet or eating the children happily, but the job description has changed enormously over time. For Christine, what did being a dad look like before the barbecue tongues and soul drop off

7:11existed? What? Well, Bryce, there's no single moment when someone invented the dad. Human fathers, they've always helped their families in different ways and what was expected of them depended on where and when they lived. In many early communities, Christine's survival was a team effort. Adults gathered food, hunted, made tools, cared for children and taught them the skills they would need. A dad might show his children where to find water, how to track an animal, or which plants were safe to eat. That's right, and as societies grew and developed laws about property and inheritance, fathers in many cultures became the official heads of their household. So in ancient Rome, for example, the eldest man held enormous legal power over the rest of the family. Dads were expected to provide discipline, make important decisions, and prepare their child for the adult life. Which could mean teaching a son the family trade, arranging marriages, or making sure property

8:13and family status passed down to the next generation. And of course, not every family or father behaved in exactly the same way. History usually records what society said dads should do, not necessarily what happened inside every home. They have always been strict, dads, playful dads, loving dads, absent dads, and dads who changed nappies. Even if nobody thought to write that last part down. Then during the Industrial Revolution, so in the 1700s and 1800s, work changed enormously. More people began leaving farms and small workshops to earn wages, in factories, mines, and offices. That helped to create the idea of dad as the breadwinner, the person who went out to earn money, while mum stayed home to care for the children. But that picture too was never true for every family. Plenty of women worked for money too, and poorer families often needed every available person, including children, to earn money or to produce something.

9:15Still, the breadwinner dad became a powerful stereotype. By the mid 1900s, the ideal dad in advertisements and television often went to work, came home, read the newspaper, and left most cooking, cleaning, and childcare to mum. Yeah, his main jobs were supposedly earning money, mowing the lawn, maybe fixing the stirious objects out in the shed, and occasionally having mum and aunts wait until your father gets home. The rather alarming phrase, when you're the father and you just arrived home. I can only imagine. From around the 1970s, expectations began shifting again. More women entered paid work. Families changed, and people increasingly questioned why particular jobs had to belong to mums or to dads. Fathers were encouraged to become more involved in everyday work of raising children and not just providing money. But feeding babies, changing nappies, cooking dinner, attending school events, and offering

10:15emotional support. Phew, today many dads have much more hands on. Some stay home as the main carer, some work part time, and some take parental leave when a baby arrives. Dads also pack lunches these days, plant hair, organise appointments, help with homework, and know which coloured sippy cup will prevent a three year old from having a complete breakdown. Oh, that's important. Although Australian figures show that women still generally perform more unpaid housework and caring than men, so the job description has changed, but families haven't necessarily divided every job equally just yet. No, that's absolutely right. And meanwhile, popular culture has created a new creature, the modern stereotypical dad. And here comes with his own starter pack, beginning with the determination to carry every shopping bag from the car in a single trip, even if it cuts off the circulation to all of your fingers. That's right, and he has a sneeze loud enough to frighten birds from nearby trees.

11:19Not to mention an intensely gassy belly. Oh, yes, plus the ability to fall asleep during a movie that he chose, then wake up and insist he was merely resting his eyes. Now, of course, Chris, these are only jokes and stereotypes, not every dad, barbecues, fixes things, follows sport, or tells terrible puns, and plenty of mums do those things too. Being a dad isn't a personality type or a list of household jobs. That's right, and there isn't one perfect way to divide responsibilities. What matters is that people raising a child provide care, safety, guidance and love, and that everyone in the family feels supported. 100%, which raises an interesting question. If dads have existed for as long as humans have, why did we only start eating their own special day? Why? Brice, the modern Father's Day story begins in the United States in 1909, when a woman

12:21named Sonora Smart Dodd was listening to a church sermon about Mother's Day. Sonora's mother had died when she was young, and her father had raised Sonora and her five brothers by himself. Yeah, that's right. And Sonora thought that devoted dads like hers deserved a special day too. She campaigned for the idea, and the first Father's Day celebration was held in her hometown of Spokane in 1910. From there, the idea gradually spread around the world, but not everyone celebrates it at the same time. Yeah, the United States, the United Kingdom, and lots of other countries celebrate Father's Day in June. Here in Australia, it's held on the first Sunday in September. Father's Day began appearing in Australian newspapers and communities around about the 1930s, although nobody knows for certain why September became our chosen month. Today, Father's Day is also big business. Shopps suggest that the perfect dad can be recognised by his urgent need for socks, barbecued tools, shaving products and mugs, announcing that he's either the world's best dad or

13:25the world's fartiest dad. Oh, essential. Australia even has an official Father of the Year award which has been presented since 1957. But most dads don't need a National Judging Panel. Their award might be a handmade card, breakfast in bed, or a slightly wonky clay object created at school. Oh, we love those. And celebrating someone doesn't have to involve buying anything. You can spend time together, make their favourite food. Take them somewhere they enjoy or tell them something that you appreciate about them. The best gift depends on the dad. One might love fishing, another might prefer football, gardening, gaming, cooking, music or a peaceful afternoon doing absolutely nothing. Yeah, it's also important to remember that families come in lots of different shapes. You might have one dad, two dads, a stepdad or a foster or adoptive dad. You might have a granddad, uncle, older brother, coach, teacher or a family friend might

14:26be the important father figure in your life. Yeah, you might have two mums or live apart from your dad or not have a dad in your life at all. And for people whose dad has died or whose relationship with their dad is difficult, Father's Day can bring some complicated feelings. However your family looks and however you feel about the day, however, that's perfectly okay. Because as we discovered from our penguins, seahorses and humans, Fatherhood is about much more than biology. Learning is all about the showing up, caring, guiding, protecting and the loving that someone does. Hallelujah to that, although a truly committed father figure will apparently also embarrass you in public and tell jokes that make you grown, which reminds me, Christy, when does a joke become a dad joke? I'm almost afraid to ask. When it becomes apparent, get it? A parent? A parent? On that note? Time for the quiz.

15:28This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening. Question number one. Which animal dad carries developing babies in a special pouch and gives birth to them? Is it A, an emperor penguin? B, a seahorse or C, a stick insect? That's right, it's B, a seahorse. Question number two. When is Father's Day celebrated in Australia? Is it A, the first Sunday in June? B, the last Sunday in August or C, the first Sunday in September? I hope you know this one, it's coming right up, it is C, the first Sunday in September. Woohoo! Question number three, true or false? Being an important father figure always means being a child's biological dad. The answer is of course false, you don't need to be a child's biological dad to being

16:32an important father figure in their lives. That's right and that's all we have time for today. Thanks for joining us as we explored the who, what, where, when, why and how of dads for Father's Day. Now get out there and have a most excellent Father's Day. Over and out.