Getting Personal

                Experience Days for Daredevil Dads
            
                It doesn't matter what season it is. Winter, summer or autumn, all year round, dads are oddballs. Regardless of how old you are, they'll still treat you like a precious little child, someone who needs protecting, advising and sometimes even telling off. 

Interestingly though, fathers seem pre-disposed to worry about their children in a way that they don't seem to worry about themselves. 

When they are climbing onto the garage roof to do some 'maintenance', they're just fine. When they are re-wiring the attic with little-to-no electrical expertise, they'll be fine, too. They have a sense that they are impervious to harm, invincible, that they have the whole universe under control. It's a special type of hypocrisy (or self-confidence) especially reserved for fathers. 

Daredevil Double Standards

If you're a girl and you choose to go out in a short skirt he'll say: 'you'll catch a cold!' Decide to drive on a snow day and he'll tell you that you're bound to skid and die in a fiery car crash. On a hot summer's day you need to be careful to wear sunscreen or you'll get sunburn, or worse still, skin cancer. There is logic to these warnings. There is wisdom.

Sometimes it seems like fathers become concerned very easily. They will warn you about risks and dangers you've never even heard of. They'll tell you not to do things which seem perfectly safe with anecdotal evidence and a worried expression.

Then, when it comes to their own safety, more often than not they'll return to a lit firework, fail to respond to mum when she asks if she looks fat and do all kinds of other dangerous things without a care in the world.

So why are fathers so strange? How come it's one rule for them and another rule for the rest of us? The truth is: dads know the dangers inherent in all things and they worry about their children but secretly they're almost always daredevils. 

Thrill Seekers

Dads who love a bit of excitement are everywhere. They've been pretending to be prudent and wise all along. Really they are hungry for danger and they love taking part in exciting activities that make for risky business. That's why they're so fond of action films.

Some fathers end up buying a motorbike in a strange impulsive moment, eager for the thrill of the open road. Others book action packed holidays and pretend they're really going away to 'relax'. The truth is most fathers love a thrill ride. So, if you're looking for a gift for a closet thrill-seeker there are tons of things you could get which appeal to their daredevil nature. 

Experience Days

Experience Days are one of the best gifts you can get a danger-loving daddy. There is such a huge range of exciting experience days out there there's water sports, motor sports, flying lessons, ghost hunting, sky diving. The choice is endless.

One great thing about helping your dad to find a productive outlet for his thrill-addiction is that he'll also be relatively safe on Experience Days. After all, experience days have qualified instructors guiding the sessions, which is a damn sight less risky than some of the stuff which he probably gets up to on his days off. DIY for example, can be a lot more dangerous than tandem skydiving, even though tandem skydiving sounds a hell of a lot more scary and exciting. 

Choosing Activities

If you have trouble deciding which experience days would suit your dad, don't worry. One way to figure out what Experience Days your dad would most like to do is to draw up a list of activities and have a quiet chat with him. Say which things you'd like to do, then see how he responds. He would probably tell you what he likes the sound of. Then you'd have a clue which activity to choose. 

Most fathers also have a dream of doing something special. They have an old, unrealised childhood dream to be a pilot or a sailor or even operate a big yellow digger. Perhaps he's always wanted to fly a helicopter, race a real sail boat, or speed around the Silverstone race track in a Ferrari 360 experience days could let him do any of those things.

Make Him Proud

If your dad is always telling you to be careful while he takes risks, it might be worthwhile doing some activities together. Experience days don't just have to be for just one person and it might make him less worried about you. 

After all, if you can manage behind the wheel of a Lotus Exige at Silverstone race track you can probably drive to the supermarket and back when there's a little bit of ice on the roads.

Related article: Give life a lift with gifts that set the mind adrift (Experience Days)