Father's Day: What does dad want? What will dad get this weekend? Turns out it’s not what women want on Mother’s Day (that, gentleman,...

Father's Day: What does dad want?

What will dad get this weekend?

Turns out it’s not what women want on Mother’s Day (that, gentleman, is universally agreed to be a day off). It’s also not at all what their partners may think they want.

That’s the result of an online survey by Ebates, the electronic rebate company.

The company commissioned a survey of 2,215 parents nationally and found a disconnect between what women think the men in their lives want as a present this weekend and what those men actually want.

Sixty percent of women told researchers their partners would love a ticket to a sporting event, while only 36 percent of the men surveyed cited this as a top choice.

The majority of men (52 percent) instead said they’d like a smartphone or tablet. This was followed by a home cooked meal.

Meanwhile women were thinking that besides tickets, fathers also wanted power tools. (What? Aren’t they eager to finish the honey-do list?)

At least the genders agreed on one thing. A guilt-free weekend with friends ranked low for both givers and receivers.

What’s most interested about the results isn’t necessarily the gift choices — the participants were responding to a list of provided options. It was that women ranked those options in pretty much the reverse order of how the men ranked them.

Why the miscommunication?

I would never go so far as to suggest that fathers tend to be less communicative (though, this happens to be my second post on the subject of gender miscommunication today). I am partial to this view, however, because it happens to be the case in a family I know pretty well.

Here’s a good point for full disclosure: When I asked my husband what he wanted for Father’s Day, he answered, “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

This was before I read this survey so, naturally, I proceeded to buy him a family four-pack to a Nationals game.

Are you on the giving or receiving end of a Father’s Day gift? What are your top gift choices?