Today is Father’s Day and the dads who are providing for their families deserve all the credit, care and fussing over that their loved ones can come up with.

Such dads have it no tougher or easier than moms, of course. Both are very much underappreciated by a throwaway and cynical society that celebrates the selfish and the secular and turns up its nose at faith, family and self-sacrifice.

The number of children today who grow up in unmarried, single-parent households is appalling. The importance of having both a father and a mother in the home should be self-evident. But we hear more today about the “non-traditional” family than we do about the need for the basic family unit.

Today’s economy hasn’t made being a father any easier. Dad may be working more than one job if he is, in fact, working. The idea of pay raises, ones not canceled by the increased cost of health insurance, may be a distant memory.

But the dads who just keep on keeping on, and who still manage to attend the class trips, T-ball games and dance recitals and get home to do the laundry and walk the dog (that the kids promised to care for), well, they are dads worth their weight (which may be growing) in gold and love.

So if you have one of those, or at least one who does his best to do those things, then thank your lucky stars and, today, thank him. With a hug. Or a book. Or a cup of coffee and a little extra time with the newspaper and this afternoon’s U.S. Open round. He will appreciate that, as he does you.