'Ask Dad' returns to provide Father's Day advice

It's a Father's Day tradition as old as playing the final round of the U.S. Open golf tournament, not knowing what gift to get your father and dads being asked, "Why isn't there a Kids' Day?" and answering, "Every day is Kids' Day!"

It's the annual "Ask Dad" column in this space, where an artificial father answers questions from alleged readers.

It's Dan Landers, not Ann Landers. It's Mr. Manners, not Ms. Manners. It's po-tay-toe, not po-tah-toe.

On to the mailbag:

Dear Dad:

My sister and I were close while growing up, but since becoming adults, our relationship has been strained. I've tried to reach out to her, but she doesn't seem interested in spending time with me or my family. I even had my 16-year-old son go to her house to mow her lawn as a favor. She was insulted, thinking that I was saying her lawn was unkempt. What should I do?

Frustrated in Fairfield

Dear Frustrated:

Relationships can be complicated, but I commend you for sending your son over to mow her lawn. That's a good job for a teenager. Hopefully, he realizes the value of mowing in a circular motion, with the grass being blown to the middle. When you do that, each lap results in the cut grass moving toward the middle and makes it easier to rake when you're done. Of course, if you have a bag on your mower, it doesn't matter, but in my day, we had to mow and then rake.

I hope this helped.

Dear Dad:

My 6-year-old son just started playing youth baseball and his coach is much harsher than his father and I are. I'm concerned that the coach will ruin my son's confidence. How can I approach the coach to suggest that he goes a little lighter on my son without seeming like an overprotective mom?

Vaca Baseball Mom

Dear VBM:

As everybody knows, baseball is a game of failure: Even the greatest hitters fail seven out of 10 times. It's important to learn how to handle failure, particularly if you're new to it. Although I guess not every great hitter fails seven out of 10 times. Ted Williams hit .400 in 1941 and Tony Gwynn had a career .338 average, which meant he failed 6.62 times out of 10. Gwynn was a master of hitting and my guess is that if he were playing now, he'd still be a .320 hitter, but with more power. I suspect that even the analytics guys who run baseball now would admit that he would be a great hitter in any era.

I hope this helped.

Dear Dad:

I am 50 and work in an office where there are a lot of people in their 20s. I love their youthful energy, but it drives me crazy that they spend all their time looking at their phones. Sometimes I'll be talking to one of them, they'll get a notification on their phone or watch and will just stop listening to me. They instead stare at their device. What's the best way to handle that situation without sounding like an old man shouting at the clouds?

Confused in Suisun City 

Dear Confused: 

Changes in technology always have good and bad outcomes – and young people (or old people) staring at their phones is one of those. This has always been the case. Remember when drive-in movies began piping the audio to your radio instead of those speakers that clipped onto your window? That seemed confusing and it took away part of the fun of going to drive-ins. I remember one time when I was in high school, I went to an old-time drive-in with two of my friends, Scott and Oscar. When the movie was over, Scott drove off with the speaker still attached to his car. WHAP! It sounded like he'd had a blowout, but it was just the speaker popping off his window and slamming into its pole. Oscar and I laughed about that forever. We still talk about it.

I hope this helped.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.