Advice

We learned about gambling at this year’s vacation. The resort gave us three $10 vouchers to double any $10 bet we placed at the roulette or card tables. With the kids waiting in the lobby, I placed a two-for-one bet and won on red. I came back to announce I had won $20. What should …

Continue reading Gambling With My Kids’ Money

My seven-year-old takes karate. Makes him feel invincible. Him: “Don’t worry. If a bad guy comes, I know karate.” Me: “I still want you where I can see you.” Him: “Don’t worry. I know karate.” Me: “What if three bad guys come?” Him: “That’s ok. I can do my ‘tornado kick.’” I think when kids …

Continue reading Scared the S*** Out of Me

I was intimately struck by a piece of news last week that, although covered by everyone from the New York Times and Washington Post (who first reported the news) is getting far less buzz than the revolution in Egypt, the political hubub in Madison, Wisconsin and who’s going to be the big winner at this …

Continue reading Be An Organ Donor Today

Having kids does weird things to you. The gravity of being the one responsible for the care and development of another human being can be overwhelming. The role of responsible “grown-up” can make you terribly paranoid, overly strict, and endlessly stressed-out. In other words, completely Adultitis-ridden. A woman named Johanna recently described this transformation on …

Continue reading Mud is Too Dirty: Have You Become Your Parents?

As Father’s Day 2010 approaches and my daughter nears her 7th birthday, I’ve been thinking about the story of Abby Sunderland, the 16-year-old California teenager who recently tried to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. She didn’t make it (a storm broke her mast and she had to be rescued in …

Continue reading How Old is Old Enough?

Here’s an excerpt from Katrina Kenison’s wonderful book “The Gift of an Ordinary Day” that totally captures the beauty and power of being a parent, for both moms and dads. I loved what she shared here because it’s something that I realized a long time ago. It isn’t really all the big important events in …

Continue reading The Gift of an Ordinary Day

I shot a 5 and a half minute video of my family vacation at Disneyland in California, or rather, just a bit of the vacation. Here’s the clip: My thought when I did this was, “video should be fun, simple, and not exactly a complete capture of every moment of the vacation.” We had two …

Continue reading Making Media on Vacation

Got a question? Ask BloggerDad! Welcome to the second edition of Ask Blogger Dad, your one stop spot for bad advice! Thanks for the warm response to my debut column last week. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the reaction, it’s that I should REALLY be charging you people for access to my wisdom. …

Continue reading Ask Blogger Dad – May 16, 2009 Ignored wives, bad movies and why men don't clean

Traveling for work I often find my kids a bit unruly when I return.  They are always excited to see me and can turn an already hectic time (dinner) into something even more chaotic.  If my wife is working when I come home I am often left to fend for myself while three hungry boys …

Continue reading Breakfast + Supper = Bupper!

My wife and I have five children. None are adopted, none are from other marriages, none are the products of multiple births. Just five kids, each born separately to us over the space of about 13 years. In the time and place where I grew up (suburban Cleveland in the 1970s and 80s), this would …

Continue reading Having a Large Family

This has been bugging me for quite a while now. I figure the best place for me to air it out would be this forum. Now, my wife and I are repeatedly told that our children (Maddie is 10 and Joey is 7) are well behaved, polite, and fun to have around when ever they …

Continue reading Why do parents judge?

This is my last post of any sort for 2008 but my first post for Dadomatic. I wanted my last post of the year to be something that I am the most passionate about and that’s just being a dad. No matter what the economy is like, no matter the weather is and really no …

Continue reading Just Being Dad