In a family without the presence of a culturally idealized father, how is the societal holiday of Father's Day handled?

If there is no father or grandfather, there’s nothing to handle. Don’t make it complicated when it isn’t.

Best wishes, calls, and cards to all the fathers you do know—those of you and your partner[s], fathers of your children, wherever there is goodwill toward a male parent.

I think that it is largely up to the individual. My father abandoned me for several years for me to live with my grandparents. I will not celebrate fathers day for him, but I will for my grandfather. If there is no father or idealized father figure, then it doesn’t have to be celebrated.

My father is deceased and I will likely drive out to the country to the cemetery where he is buried.

Perhaps they celebrate Father’s day because the father is no longer around.
Each family has it’s own way of dealing with these special days.

There is no Fathers Day in most societies.

@partyparty That’s how I did it for years. Of course, I doubt that my biological father qualifies as “culturally idealized” unless you consider beatings to be ideal.

Also bear in mind that different cultures have different ideals. As @ItsAHabit points out, Fathers Day is a non-issue in many places, but we Americans have 63,861,397 “Hallmark holidays”, so I think that the way we are supposed to handle it is to buy a card from Hallmark :P

@jerv I can understand why you would not wish to celebrate father’s day. Beatings… that must have been horrific for you.
Hope you haven’t been left with scars, and pity that person who was your biological father.

Why not just ignore it?

There’s nothing to celebrate when it comes to my father, so I just ignore it. It’s a non-issue.

Some simply don’t celebrate it.

ignored.

I don’t celebrate specific holidays like that. I just celebrate my dad every day.

We have a perfect father to my kids in the household and we could care less about Father’s day – your family can always make holidays up that are meaningful to you.

It can be a pretty hard day for some people if their father was abusive, died when they were young, or if they have bad memories about him. I’ve wondered how people handle holidays before, too.

It isn’t. Don’t kid yourself.

If there is no father, there is no father’s day.

In a family that has a less than culturally idealized father, it is handled in a less than ideal way.

Lame Happy Father’s day cards, awkward hugs and strange little “I’d rather be a good liver, than have one” statues spring to mind.

I have never had a father. When I was younger and we would make those silly father’s day crafts, I would make them for my grandpa or my uncle. Now, I say happy father’s day when I see a dad I know and occasionally, I get my mom a father’s day card and we have a good laugh. Mostly though, I don’t even notice it pass until a day or two later when people are telling me what they did with their dads.

I just asked my Grandson this question and he said he and his brothers just ignored it, just like Mother’s day – then he chuckled.