Post frozen edit correction: I just realized I started this with "The dad" instead of "My dad". I originally had a couple of sentences starting with "The article ...". I guess I shouldn't post so early in the morning.
Funnily enough, my own dad had a quirky idiolect where he referred to every family member with 'the' definite article: 'The wife', 'The son', 'The daughter' etc. Your mistyping sent me down memory lane!
