As Father’s Day is being celebrated across the world today, social media is filled with images of dads receiving gifts, family gatherings, and sentimental messages about love and appreciation. While it’s beautiful to celebrate the fathers in our lives, it’s equally important to talk about something often ignored—the quiet, unacknowledged weight of responsibility many fathers carry daily without complaint or recognition.
Kapil Gupta, CEO & Founder of Solh Wellness, shares a powerful observation that cuts through the noise of feel-good posts and hashtags. “We talk a lot these days about burnout, about work-life balance, about mental health. And that’s good. Necessary, even. But somewhere in all these conversations, we forget the ones who carry the weight silently, the ones who don’t post about it, don’t journal it, don’t hashtag it.”
These people, often fathers, leaders, and providers, aren’t just reliable presences in our lives. They’re the emotional and financial scaffolding many families and workplaces rest on. And yet, they rarely hear the simple question: How are you doing?
Gupta goes on to explain how fathers are the first ones people turn to in crisis, but the last ones anyone checks on once things settle. This Father’s Day, he urges us to broaden the celebration and recognise those who are constantly carrying others, whether emotionally, financially, or in the background of every team and household.
In today’s age of emotional awareness and wellness culture, we are quick to cheer on vulnerability, therapy, and mental health days. But we often forget about a subset of people who quietly believe those options aren’t for them. Being “the strong one” may sound like a compliment, but as Gupta points out, it’s also a heavy and isolating burden.
“Ask a father who’s raising a family,” he says. “Ask a startup founder who just made payroll by cutting their own salary. Ask the team leader who absorbs everyone’s stress so the team doesn’t collapse. Ask the frontline worker who hasn’t had a ‘mental health day’ since 2020.” These individuals don’t always cry out for help because they’ve been conditioned to believe they can’t.
And what does that burden look like? Sometimes it isn’t loud or dramatic. It looks like a silent nod. A forced smile. A pause before saying “I’m fine.” These are the small moments of suppressed struggle that rarely make it into the spotlight.
Gupta emphasises the need to stop romanticizing sacrifice and start seeing its cost. Celebrating someone’s selflessness while ignoring their suffering isn’t admiration, it’s oversight. We must look beyond the surface and respect the emotional labor that often goes unnoticed.
So yes, celebrate the fathers this year. But do it with intention. Celebrate the way they show up, even when they’re exhausted. Celebrate their consistency, their resilience, and their quiet acts of love. But most of all, see them. Acknowledge their stress. Ask them how they’re really doing. Give them space to speak, even if it’s just for a moment.
This Father’s Day isn’t about guilt or shame. It’s about balance. It’s about recognising that behind every steady household, every strong team, and every smiling family picture, there may be someone holding it all up, often at the cost of their own emotional well-being.
It’s time we stopped waiting for them to collapse before we offered support. Instead, let’s show up for them while they’re still standing tall. Because not all heroes wear capes, some wear worry lines, fake smiles, and an unspoken need for rest.
