My entire family was blown away by Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales. I got a copy from the folks at Hachette, and my kids stole it. They wouldn’t let me listen to it by myself. But little did I know, I was going to get to hear it for the next several weeks, every day, …
Continue reading Folktales for the Whole FamilyAugust 2009
You are browsing the site archives for August 2009.
It’s not that many times in life you get to share magic on the magnitude of visits from the Tooth Fairy. This week, yesterday and today, as a matter of fact, we were doubly blessed. Katie had two loose teeth, and her obsession began. First she wanted to know what to do. When we told …
Continue reading How To Help the Tooth Fairy & Other MagicThe other day, my wife took the kids to the New England Aquarium. Supposedly, they had fun. They told me about penguins pooping on the rocks, and about the sharks. Officially, the sharks never eat the other fish in the tank. (Here, the woman saying this wiggled her eyebrows.) But what my kids will remember …
Continue reading The Simplest Of PleasuresThe Green Mountain Flyer, a creeper train that putts from St. Johnsbury Vermont into Newport, and back, once a week, was off in the distance about a mile or so. I couldn’t see it yet, but it fired its whistle a few times and, although not really close, it was certainly headed our way. A …
Continue reading Good Girl ShakaBefore I publicly announced on my website that I had attempted suicide at the age of ten, very few people had any idea. Of the people who I told, some met my admission with disbelief, a couple with anger and skepticism and there were one or two who refused to hear me. Granted, they didn’t …
Continue reading Listen To Your KidsI expected all sorts of problems when the day arrived to let go of Katie’s hand and send her off to kindergarten. Today was the fateful day, and — of course — it was easier and harder than expected, as most important parenting moments are. Last night we attended the school orientation. Katie met her …
Continue reading First Day of Kindergarten. Hard on Dad & Mom TooWe want the shirt off your back, well actually we want the story about the shirt on your back. In particular we want the story of your favorite t-shirt, sweatshirt, hoodie… Were you wearing it when your first child was born? Is it an old college favorite that your partner has adopted as sleepwear ? …
Continue reading The Shirt Off Your Back..I spoke to Chris Cuomo from ABC’s Good Morning America recently on behalf of Dad-O-matic. We talked about the Liam McCarty case. He’s the boy that was illegally taken by his mother to Italy, where he is supposedly living in an orphanage as a ward of the state, after his mother, Manuela Antonelli, was ruled …
Continue reading A Father’s Desperate Search for His SonIn this, Joe Hage’s most important Dad-o-Matic entry to date, Joe introduces you to three young victims of sudden cardiac arrest. Only two lived.
Continue reading A new school supply, the AED***Featured on Good Morning America*** Here’s the segment with Chris Cuomo & Alexis Neely Becoming a dad is the ultimate step into adulthood. It simply doesn’t get more real than that, does it? That little face looking up at you makes you realize that life isn’t just about you anymore. Suddenly, you are responsible for …
Continue reading 5 Legal Documents Every Dad Must Know About & How to Make Sure They Don’t FailI’ve always thought of scrapbooking as an old ladies activity.  You know, they spend their hours squirreling away old photos along side strips of cloth, kids drawings, and hand written notes.  The books often end up on coffee tables or sitting on a shelf gathering dust.  This weekend made me realize that’s not the whole …
Continue reading Scrapbooking, not just for little old ladies[podcast]http://www.kimandjason.dreamhosters.com/clubkj_stuff/audio_articles/Adultitis_Are_Kids_the_Cause_or_the_Cure.mp3[/podcast] Adultitis is a chronic condition that plunders laughter, burns people out, and turns them into zombie-like doo-doo heads. It causes stress — lots of it. Sometimes it seems like stress and parenthood go hand in hand. When my wife and I were expecting our first child, I was amazed at how many people came …
Continue reading Adultitis: Are Kids the Cause or the Cure? (PodCast)For as long as I can remember, Sony has been a premiere consumer electronics brand. I can clearly remember getting my hands on the original, ground-breaking “Sony Walkman” personal cassette player. I can remember my first “color TV’ being a 13” Sony Trinitron, because my grandfather insisted it would last forever… and it practically did. …
Continue reading Sony’s DigiDad Project… Cool Gadgets, No Baloney!I was sick and I didn’t want to get up. In fact, all I wanted was a little love and a lot of sleep. But the love wasn’t coming. Mary had been self-raised in the school of, “I don’t believe in being sick, so I don’t get sick”. To her, my fever was a choice …
Continue reading Making Miracles: A Quick Guide to Shaping Your Kid's RealityYes, I am writing yet another “5 Tips” post. This is unintentionally becoming a series (coming soon: “5 Posts About 5 Tips….”) but let’s face it, “5 Tips” are at least half the work of a “Top 10” list, and almost as satisfying. So, without any further fatherly preamble, here are my… 5 Tips For …
Continue reading 5 Tips For Back To School Basics!Remember Patty Hearst? She was a socialite heiress, captured by the Symbionese Liberation Army, and rapidly brainwashed into becoming a bank robber. What was rarely, if ever, mentioned, is that the techniques used to affect that radical transformation began with her captors establishing themselves in parental roles. The most important question any of us can …
Continue reading What Do You Want – The Most Important Question When Brainwashing Your ChildrenIn the wake of Eunice Shriver’s death I thought I would share a recent debate that has been evolving within the Down syndrome support group my wife and I belong to.  The question is about inclusive sports for children with special needs.  Some people believe organizations like Special Olympics and Challenger Division Little …
Continue reading Your Special Child and SportsOur youngest daughter turned 20 months old a couple days ago. That’s right, parents of babies celebrate birthdays every month. Not balloons, ponies and clowns celebrating, more a self-congratulatory rejoicing that we dodged another month without a domestic accident or ingesting one of daddy’s golf balls. For most parents, this is a day marked by …
Continue reading 600 Days Without Solid SleepWhile teaching a daughter about social graces, a dad realizes that none of us learned them intuitively. We all had to start with the basics, and some of us picked them up faster than others.
Continue reading Up Close & PersonalLife in our little world is about to take major shifts. In only two weeks, Stephanie will be off to college, and Katie will be starting kindergarten. The family dynamic shifts, and every couple of years more kids will hop out of nests and disrupt it further. There was only one answer. We planned a …
Continue reading Those Lazy Hazy Days of SummerTo say my daughter is a reader is an understatement. Recently at her 3rd birthday party, the opening of the presents came to a screeching halt because she opened a book and had to “read” it right then. It made my heart swell with pride right then. Danni, my daughter, can’t read words but loves …
Continue reading I'm Your Bus Review and Back To School GiveawayIt is possible your Dad didn’t explicitly tell you these things when you became a parent, but he probably demonstrated at least some of them to you in actions if not words when you were growing up. Please allow me to take the liberty to point them out to you more directly now. In fact, …
Continue reading 5 Tips On Fatherhood Your Dad Never Told YouLet me begin by saying I am not Ansel Adams. Most of what I know about photography came from an introductory class I took in college. However, that class was part of a bachelor’s degree in the fine arts, which gave me me an extensive knowledge of graphic design. Of course, an in-depth familiarity of …
Continue reading Five Tips for Phenomenal Photos of Your KidsIt’s that time of year again. It’s time to sort the CDs. Oh, I’m sure you’re thinking “Why don’t you just keep them in order as you use them?†and normally I would agree with you. After all, that’s how I use them. But I live with children. Four of them to be exact. And …
Continue reading Daddy’s Music HelpersOur children are growing up in an amazing, incredible, awe inspiring age.  It is easy to take for granted the phenomenal, science fiction-esque, fantasy world they (and we) now live in.  A world where they can instantly communicate with any of their family or friends anywhere on the planet, any time they want, for pennies, …
Continue reading A “Spoof†Is Not Always Funny: Teaching Kids The POWER of TechnologyMy family enjoys many children’s performers such as the Wiggles, Dan Zanes, and Raffi. Recently we were introduced to Buck Howdy. My wife was working so I decided to load the boys up and take them to our local zoo for the day. The zoo’s barnyard area is contained and I can let all three …
Continue reading A Kiddie Roundup with Buck HowdyThis weekend I spent a good number of hours watching the original Scooby-Doo cartoons with my daughter. Of all the shows that I loved as a kid, this is the one that has had the most universal appeal throughout my lifetime. Our children range from five-year-old Katie to eighteen-year-old Stephanie, and all of them have …
Continue reading Scooby-Doo – Spanning the Generation GapMy wife and I are preparing our oldest son for kindergarten. This is a huge step for him. Our oldest has Down syndrome and we decided to hold him back a year in preschool. Now, however, he is ready for kindergarten. While I am excited about the new things my son will be exposed to …
Continue reading Words Can HurtTraditions in a family are really important in creating a history that bonds and binds.  Having family traditions leads to having family stories that are told and re-told over the years, recalling memories and emotions that can often only be fully appreciated by the members of the family who have participated in the “tradition” first …
Continue reading “Funky Wig Man Loves Olivia!â€The ten most important things divorced fathers should realize as they transition parentally from “Husband and Father” to “One-and-Only Dad”…
Continue reading Top Ten Things Divorced Dads Need to Know