I tried to go shopping for Father’s Day yesterday. I was unsuccessful. I know it may not sound like a difficult task, but that’s only because you don’t know my father, my father-in-law or my husband.

For years, the only gifts my dad would ever ask for were socks and sweatshirts and handkerchiefs. For Christmas, we would fill up baskets with these three extremely boring gifts and place them under the tree. After a couple of years, I realized it was probably not a great amount of fun to get the same practical presents for each and every holiday, year after year.

I tried to add more gifts to the familiar repertoire, but my dad likes things he actually needs or will actually use and when he thinks of something like that, he usually just gets it. I saw him at the store last week. He was buying things he really needed, and I asked him if he was still going to have ideas for Father’s Day presents. He said of course. Now, only a week later, I have been told that he really could use some new socks, and that’s all he could think of. With Father’s Day presents coming from five daughters, he should be stocked up by the end of the weekend.

I’ve been married for almost three years now, so shopping for my father-in-law is still a relatively new process for me, but after a couple of holidays and birthdays, I’ve come up with one conclusion; he has a lot of stuff. Apparently, my husband’s dad has come up with the same conclusion, because last time I asked him for gift ideas he said if he couldn’t eat it or drink it, he doesn’t need it. That narrows down the gift selection considerably. So far I’ve been relying on local restaurant gift certificates, but there’s only so many times you can do that and feel good about it, especially if they always use it to buy you breakfast.