Forgotten Fathers: Dads getting ignored on their special day

Majority country admit Father's Day is not as celebrated as Mother's Day

TORONTO, June 12, 2017 /CNW/ -- This Sunday, when Canadians are meant to be celebrating dear old Dad, it appears his special day may not in fact be top of mind. According to a recent survey by savings destination RetailMeNot.ca, nearly half of Canadians (49 per cent) state Father's Day is not a big deal in their family. While the majority of Canadians agree that Dad cares about his celebration, seven out of ten Canadians admit he doesn't get as big of an acknowledgment on Father's Day as Mom does on Mother's Day. 

Don't let Dad's strong exterior deceive you, he wants to be shown the love.  In fact, 40 per cent of Dads are likely to be upset over a forgotten Father's Day.  But even those who are looking to celebrate dad are reigning in their spending compared to Mother's Day - Canadians plan to spend nearly $50 less on Dad than they spent on Mom ($136 vs. $184).

With those funds, the top gifts Canadians plan to purchase for Father's Day (and the average spend associated) are:

1. Card ($8.50)
2. Dinner ($82)
3. Gift card ($47)

"Dads typically don't ask for much. In fact, the number one thing they want for Father's Day is a simple dinner at home, indicating they just want to spend time with family," says Sara Skirboll, Shopping & Trends Expert for RetailMeNot. "Why not take this one step further and gift him something that will bring you together, such as a pair of baseball gloves or a GPS for a fun family road trip.  You can give Dad what he wants and more, while staying in budget with some savvy spending, such searching for a promo code or deal before cashing out."

Sara's Top Father's Day Gift Recommendations

• Get outside – Take advantage of Canada's 150^th and the great travel deals. Plot out a trek or camping trip and give Dad the gift of experience for the two of you.
• Many hands make… less expensive gifts – Father's Day should be celebrated by the whole family! Pool together with the rest of your family and gift Dad that item he has been lusting over. For the techie, check out retailers like Best Buy who have some great sales heading into Dad's Day.
• King of the grill – With most Dads hoping for a dinner at home with the family this year in celebration of Father's Day, take advantage of the spill over sales from May and grab some grilling items Dad can enjoy all season long.

Other survey findings include:

• Bitter boys: 81 per cent of men believe Mom's Day outshines Father's Day, compared to only 65 per cent of women;
• Alberta hearts Dad: Albertans plan to spend $151 on dad this Father's Day, $15 more than the national average and $36 more than Ontarians ($115);
• Cough up kids: Sixty-three per cent of the country agree the kids should cover the cost of celebrating Father's Day.

RetailMeNot.ca regularly conducts consumer trend and spending surveys.

About the survey:
From April 5th to April 6th, 2017 an online survey was conducted among 1,514 randomly selected Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to education, age, gender and region (and in Quebec, language) Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of Canada. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

About RetailMeNot, Inc.
RetailMeNot (http://www.retailmenot.com/corp/) is a leading digital savings destination connecting consumers with retailers, restaurants and brands, both online and in-store. The company enables consumers across the globe to find hundreds of thousands of digital offers and discounted gift cards to save money while they shop or dine out. During the 12 months ended December 31, 2015, RetailMeNot, Inc. experienced over 718 million visits to its websites. It also averaged 23.2 million mobile unique visitors per month during the three months ended December 31, 2015. RetailMeNot, Inc. estimates that approximately $4.8 billion in retailer sales were attributable to consumer transactions from paid digital offers in its marketplace in 2015, more than $600 million of which were attributable to its in-store solution. The RetailMeNot, Inc. portfolio of websites and mobile applications includes RetailMeNot.com in the United States; RetailMeNot.ca in Canada; VoucherCodes.co.uk in the United Kingdom; retailmenot.de in Germany; Actiepagina.nl in the Netherlands; ma-reduc.com and Poulpeo.com in France; RetailMeNot.es in Spain, RetailMeNot.it in Italy and GiftCardZen.com and Deals2Buy.com in North America. RetailMeNot, Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol "SALE." Investors interested in learning more about the company can visit http://investor.retailmenot.com.

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SOURCE RetailMeNot Canada