When your baby is born you will likely be housebound for a while. That means that you’ll be home to help your wife and tend to your wee one. This is awesome, sure you’ll be pretty sleep deprived, but it’s still awesome. There’s nothing better than gently hugging on your son or daughter, and on …
Continue reading A Quick Tip for Expecting DaddiesSeptember 2008
You are browsing the site archives for September 2008.
Great news today for parents and their children that enjoy playing online. Parents.com and KidZui.com have formed a partnership to enhance the KidZui experience and bring more families to the kid-friendly site. For those of you that aren’t familiar with KidZui yet, it’s geared for kids ages 3-12 and provides a free browser and online …
Continue reading Parents.com and Kidzui Form Healthy Alliance for Parents and KidsI was helping my father to get online just a few days ago – I helped him buy a wireless USB adaptor, so that he could share his neighbour’s wireless wi-fi signal (with her full permission, I should say). However, I’d forgotten just how much of a pain it was to install a new device. …
Continue reading Why can't my Father get farther online?I’m going to admit it right here, right now:  I am not a Super Dad.  You know the guys, the ones that no matter what event you go to, they are there with their kids, only they probably got there a little earlier, and are undoubtedly better prepared.  Deep down you wonder how they manage …
Continue reading Ward Cleaver Did Us WrongCalm down fellas, this is not going to be an expose about your favorite Showtime series. This is going to be a quick look at a four letter word that parents and kids should make themselves comfortable with and use much more frequently. NOT ALL FOUR LETTER WORDS ARE BAD The late, great George Carlin …
Continue reading The Real “L†WordReading this post about how it’s a Federal offense to buy too much cold medicine has me bummed out. You see, this impacts things like Benedryl, which we’ve been permitted by our doctor to give to my daughter from time to time when she can’t sleep. She often has a racing mind and can’t find …
Continue reading I Want Benedryl BackThis is a blogpost about a beautiful way to enrich your child’s life by Dad-o-Matic author Joe Hage.
Find out more about Joe at http://joehageonline.com.
Continue reading Dad's Life Lessons On The WallOK…so my daughter is 11.5 months…which means her first birthday party is days away. I don’t remember my first birthday party, but if the pictures of that event tell a story, it is that it was a simple affair.  My family and my parent’s neighbors were there. There was a cake and there was candles. And …
Continue reading The First Birthday PartyIt’s that time of year again, when parents have to avoid drug stores and Wal-Mart as often as possible, if only to get away from multiple requests for a second costume, or another set of make-up, or a third pumpkin carving kit. It’s also the time of year when we look at costumes that are …
Continue reading Halloween Costumes for KidsShe’s Having a Baby is another one of those underrated comedies that touches you in ways that you never forget. John Hughes broke free from his high school brat pack mold (Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, Pretty in Pink, etc.) and totally captures the amazing experiences of marriage and parenthood in this wonderful movie. It includes …
Continue reading This Woman’s Work (She’s Having a Baby)My son was born a little over three years ago now. He surprises me daily with a new word, phrase or expression that makes me laugh. Friday at dinner, I was annoyed we were out of ketchup. He cocked his head to one side and said, “It’s okay, Daddy … you’ll live.†Fatherhood has grown …
Continue reading Fears Of A New FatherBefore I get to the point(s) of this post I figure I ought to introduce myself. My name is Dave Brodbeck, I live in Sault Ste. Marie, ON Canada where I work as a professor of psychology at Algoma University (go Thunderbirds!) Much more importantly, I have an awesome family, I am married and I …
Continue reading Autism, Recognizing The SignsThe song “Father & Son” by Cat Stevens has become increasingly poignant and powerfully meaningful to me as I raise my three children. They continue to grow up faster than I want them to but what can you do about it? All I can do is try to be the best example I can be …
Continue reading Father and SonGreat segment on NPR this morning about how as the U.S. financial system implodes around us, Americans could be turning to video games to take their mind off their troubles, much the same way that we turned to $0.05 movies during the great depression. While movie tickets sold have been flat for about the last …
Continue reading Today's Video Games are Yesterday's Movies?I’m sitting across from Paul Kontonis from For Your Imagination and I wanted to plug Dad-o-Matic, but Paul is cooler than me, so he shows me DadLabs instead. Turns out he’s got over 200 videos already on the site by dads for dads. It’s really great to look at, and I highly recommend checking it …
Continue reading We Love DadLabsGay parenting is getting a lot of ink this week. First, new dad Clay Aiken was on the cover of People Magazine with his new son Parker, next to the headline, “Yes, I’m gay.†Today, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a non-partisangroup dedicated to improving adoption practices nationwide, released a study that concluded that …
Continue reading Gay AdoptionsScrapbooking is one of those hobbies that have been around for decades, but like most niches it has become increasingly popular thanks to desktop publishing, digital cameras and the internet as a whole. My wife Patty and I know of several people who are involved in this hobby, but we are not one of them. …
Continue reading Scrapbooking For Dads I spend a lot of time online.  Working at an interactive agency, part of my job is staying up on the latest online trends which includes having accounts at several social media, community and networking websites. Recently, I inadvertently came across the profile of someone I knew, my niece, and I was surprised to …
Continue reading Hey – She's Not 22!I can safely say that it’s not easy being forced to watch children’s programming. Many of the programs are too slow and repetitive, like the ones that have long pauses to wait for your kids to do as their told. Or the shows feature grown ups who dance around like they’re all hopped up on, …
Continue reading Children's Television Doesn't Have To SuckThere is nothing more shocking in a man’s life then to be slammed into baby reality with a screaming mini you. Since the birth of my little girl (Sylvia June) two weeks ago, I had an idea what I would be getting into when she would be home. I knew it was going to be …
Continue reading Sleep, Sleep & NO SLEEP…In this age of financial crisis and mega billion banking bailouts, it hardly seems worthwhile to be concerned with $ 5, $10 or $20 a week. However, if you are a kid, and that 5, 10 or 20 bucks is your allowance, you are allowed to be concerned. More importantly, if you are the proud …
Continue reading The BUXX Stops Here!Recently I came across a site called Glubble. Glubble is a FREE parental control system for the FireFox browser that once installed you can have complete control over your kids online browsing experience. The system is geared for children up to the age of elementary school and may (in my opinion) be pushing it for …
Continue reading Glubble, a New and Safe Way for Your Kids to Play OnlinePlayspace Finder is a resource that mashes on top of Google Maps and gives parents a place to mark down a playground, notate what’s there, provide pictures, ratings, reviews and more. It’s a really great idea (and by great, I mean “simple”). I did a quick scan of some areas around my house, and there …
Continue reading Find a Place to PlaySaw this post by Julie Bonner, where she talks about her daughter getting a cell phone before the age of 11. Now, some of you just raised an eyebrow. You’re wondering if that’s a bit early for a ten year old to own a cell phone. I’m going to say that it’s not, from my …
Continue reading When Should Kids Have Cell PhonesI have 4 sons. Oldest just got married this summer and is living in Florida with his new wife. They will be coming home next mouth so he can defend his Masters project and be done with that. One of our other sons is in his last year of nursing school and he is getting …
Continue reading Using technology to communicate with your teenThe “C-word” – it’s one of the worst words in the English language. Whenever I hear one of my two children utter this word, they know that there will be consequences. Under no circumstances are my children allowed to say, “can’t.” Here’s how I’ve helped eliminate “can’t” (and a few other words) from the conversation. …
Continue reading The "Bad" WordsNow that we’re here, why not get it sent to you for free? Want to get it in your email inbox? Enter your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner Or if you want to get it in your reader or choice: Subscribe in a reader Now that we’re here, stick around. Okay?
Continue reading Please Subscribe for FreeBullies have been a part of childhood for centuries, but their reigns of terror are swiftly becoming short-lived these days thanks to all of the bully awareness and Anti-Bully prevention programs that exist today. Obviously, it’s impossible to totally prevent bullying but we can always improve how and when we intervene whenever it does take …
Continue reading The Bully PulpitMy dad is a great dad. He indelibly shaped my personality, mores, and outlook in life. Now that I am a dad too, I appreciate what he did even more. It wasn’t easy to narrow them down, but these the top ten lessons that he taught me. Don’t take any shiitake from anyone. My dad …
Continue reading The Top Ten Lessons My Dad Taught MeWhen I was six, my grandfather would take me on his sales route. He sold candy. (How popular is a candy salesman?) He started buying me comics at various stops like Flo’s Variety on the hill, and Depot News downtown. I owe a lot of my ability to read to comics. And to this day, …
Continue reading Comics and KidsI’m a big sharer, or at least I think I am. I have over 11,000 photos on my Flickr account, over 100 videos on 12seconds, and a handful on YouTube as well. But if you go through them, you’ll notice only a few of them include pictures of my 16-month-old son. When my wife and …
Continue reading The Tricky Balancing Act of Online Sharing and Privacy ConcernsIf you are reading this blog, you more than likely understand technology, Web 2.0 and actually use the Internet. And if you do, you are may be like me and have a lot of articles and post you really want to read. The problem, not enough time in the day. However, there might be an …
Continue reading Dads — Take Your Reading With YouI have three kids. My wife, mother and I all have iPhones. This is not a coincidence. It didn’t take long after the introduction of the iPhone to realize that the iPhone was a great tool for entertaining youngsters and buying parents some peace… provided said youngsters are not fighting over the device itself. If …
Continue reading iPhone Apps for Kids“When should I start teaching my son (or daughter) about computers?” This is a common question I get from new parents. There’s no hard and fast answer or correct age. I always tell them to just provide access to an older computer as early as possible, even if they just pound the keys like a …
Continue reading How Soon Can Your Child Start Using Computers?When I was in grammar school, I didn’t know anyone with a life-threatening nut allergy. Today, it seems to have become a far more common occurrence, and different schools have different approaches to handling the kids with the allergies and the foods they’re allergic to. My son, who just started pre-K at a private parochial …
Continue reading Nuts!Every week, I go to the grocery store and my eyes glaze over as I roam through the food aisles looking for that perfect balance of what my daughter WILL eat and what she SHOULD eat. She’s actually quite good with fruits and vegetables, but buying these at the beginning of the week just guarantees …
Continue reading What are You Packing for SnacksThat girl there, Violette, is mildly allergic to milk. She doesn’t go into shock and her throat doesn’t close. In fact, the only real thing we notice is that she behaves quite differently after having milk products than when she doesn’t. She misbehaves a lot more. She gets a bit more hyper and harder to …
Continue reading When Your Kid Is Mildly Allergic to Milk