A mug with ‘Best Dad’ or a pair of colourful socks or maybe a framed photo of his football team’s home ground - there’s all kinds of go-to presents we’ve probably bought our dad multiple times for Father’s Day.
But there’s also the ones we’d make ourselves at school.
Painting your hand and slapping it onto a card or drawing a photo of the two of you together, the homemade gifts are always the sweetest.
Advert
Yet this Aussie dad didn’t find his so cute.
Trent Howard was left furious after his six-year-old daughter made a ‘disgusting’ Father’s Day gift at school.
Coloured in by his little girl, the gift was a printed activity dice which featured options to ‘cheer up’ dads when they’re in a bad mood.
While one side featured a ‘frog for the times when you need to jump to it’ and another a ‘banana for the days when you have gone round the bend’, one of them had a rather bizarre option.
It reads: “Bullet - Take when all else fails.”
Trent’s daughter had coloured in the bullet and there was even a heart drawn on to it.
He told 9News: “To create this, and distribute this, disgusting.
“’If you’ve had enough, shoot yourself’ what else [could that be interpreted to] say?”
His wife, Renea, said the teacher at Connolly Primary School told her it was meant to just be taken as a joke.
She added: “They wanted to be funny, that was my interpretation of what the teacher had said to me.
“It wasn't funny.”
The Perth dad also said: “I have a weird sense of humour, [but] that's not part of any sense of humour to anybody.”
A psychologist also warned of the impacts this idea of a ‘gift’ could have for children as well as parents.
Bailey Bosch told 9News: “Children can take things very literally, it can play on their minds, they might not have the language to articulate what's distressing them.
“Let's also remember there are adults around that could be completely triggered by some words such as bullets or death.”
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, a previous study found almost 14 percent of children aged 4-11 experienced a mental disorder.
The Department of Education said the activity ‘showed a serious lack in judgement’.
It is also reported that the school has apologised to parents.
Tyla has contacted Connolly Primary School for comment.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
Jess Battison