I am still trying to figure out what my kids are thinking (and they are all in their 20’s!) Â Even so, I clearly remember the wonder of discovery on each of their faces as they grew from infancy to toddlerhood and explored the small, but fascinating world around them. Â Witnessing the rapid pace they grow, …
Continue reading What Do Babies Think?Uncategorized
The Cast of Dads were cooking with gas in this week’s show as we stir the pot around the discussion of dads as the family cook.  There has been some heated discussion about this topic on the Interwebs, prompted by an ill-fated attempt by a well known spaghetti sauce brand to reach out to “daddy bloggers.”  While …
Continue reading What’s Cooking? Cast of Dads #45No the Cast of Dads haven’t fallen off a cliff, though some of us have had to face the wrath of hurricanes and wildfires. Â Even “the Mother of all Daddy podcasts” is subject to the whims of Mother Nature. Â To make matters worse, we actually recorded a show before this one and it was eaten …
Continue reading Mother Nature and the Mother of All Daddy Podcasts: Cast of Dads #44I don’t know how many of you work from home but the challenges that come with it are monumental, especially when you have a 3-year old running around. Shortly after my son was born, I decided to return to college to pursue a long uncompleted bachelor’s degree and my wife and I made a decision …
Continue reading Tips For Working From Home With Kids
I love CostCo. I love getting a deal and I love that their deals cover everything from electronics to apparel, from books to food to a pack of batteries so large I never think we’ll go through them all (we always do). I love their return policy as well…in short, it’s satisfaction guaranteed. Always (ok, …
Continue reading My CostCo Love Affair…and My New Traeger SmokerAn open letter to Roger Goodell, Commissioner of the NFL: Dear Roger: We’ve never met…but you’re welcome to stop by to say hello at any of the Chicago Bears home games. Â You’ll find me in the stats booth (always warm, dry and comfortable) on level A at Soldier Field, one door north of the main …
Continue reading Time to Change a Thanksgiving TraditionHello Dad-O-Matic readers. If you are new here or haven’t read my previous articles then welcome and let me give you a bit of background about who I am and What I am doing. Almost a year ago I started a project, I called The DADvocate Project. The objective of the project is to better understand …
Continue reading Take the DADvocate Project SurveyThanks to sites like Dad-O-Matic and loyal readers like you, the blogosphere is emerging as a terrific outlet for Dads to get out front and take a more vocal stance on parenting and fatherhood issues and experiences. Â There are hundreds of caring and sharing “daddy bloggers” spreading their unique perspectives on “the world according to …
Continue reading Social Media Club Takes Dads On Tour – Atlanta This Week!I’ve been giving a lot of thought to being a dad. I have two kids, one boy and one girl and for a long time I looked at my kids as something that got in the way of me achieving my dreams. Something that kept me from being a great scientist. I had a dream …
Continue reading Father’s Day ReflectionWe all fall behind sometimes. Admit it. Are you one of those lame people who doesn’t get gifts until the night before? Have you sent out Father’s Day gifts in July? It’s okay. I feel your pain. So when my friends at the Hachette Book Group asked me if I wanted to run a last …
Continue reading Last Minute Father’s Day GiftsAs I sit at home reflecting on Memorial Day I can’t help but wonder what happened to the guys I went to basic training with. Did anyone see combat? Did any of my buddies die? I’ll never know. But what I do know, as I listen to the Army helicopters fly over my house towards …
Continue reading Reflections on Memorial DayIt’s funny how everything “old” is new again. I recently dusted off my copy of Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People. Inside I found a passage I marked that resonates with me as a father. With hopes the Carnegie folks won’t mind, I’ll share the passage here. Father Forgets by W. Livingston …
Continue reading A lesson on fatherhood from Dale CarnegieLast month I told you about a project I had started back in November called the DADvocate project. The project has been rolling along and today I am launching the new DADvocate web site. I’m very excited to announce the new site as I’ve been working on it for over a month and I guess …
Continue reading The New DADvocate Project Web SiteFor those of you who have not yet enjoyed the work of Neil Gaiman, shame on you. You’ve possibly seen the movie Coraline, based on his book of the same title, and the movie Stardust as well. What you might not know is that he’s one of the finest, most entertaining narrators out there, and …
Continue reading Neil Gaiman Reads “Instructions” Live…It is Easter Sunday and I am sitting in a Starbucks reading and writing (fortunately, there is no arithmetic.)  The only signs of Easter here are the bunny ears my caffeine wielding Barista wears, fully qualifying her as an official “Bar-Easter.”  Instead of popping handfuls of Cadbury Mini Chocolate Eggs and biting the heads off of hollow …
Continue reading An Eggcellent Day To Be Silly (Or Remember When…)My daughter and I wanted to go out and do something special together. I suggested a nature walk. To make it really fun, I gave her a Sony Bloggie camera (disclosure: SONY gave me the camera to try out, but I’m not obligated to use it for any particular projects) so she could capture some …
Continue reading Amping Up Special TimeThis weekend was awesome. I got to spend a lot of time with the kids and on Saturday I was mainly with my oldest. We went to Horseback early in the morning. The ride to horseback is almost an hour and we talk and sing songs and sometime record a video we call “Saturday’s with …
Continue reading Hold Hands or Push?It’s hard for me to believe but I just went back through my posts on DAD-o-Matic and saw that I hadn’t talked much about my number one topic and how and why I got into blogging consistently. My oldest daughter. My oldest daughter Haley has CP, Cerebral Palsy. When I finally decided to start my …
Continue reading I Am Not Weird“…You can’t be too careful.” These were the words of a somewhat strident middle-aged lady at Dungeekin Minor’s ‘football’ training session on Saturday, as she vocally and agressively demanded to see the (female) coaches ‘paperwork’. The trouble is – I rather think you can be too careful. When you’re not the parent, and you turn …
Continue reading “In Today’s Climate . . . “On Thursday my middle child Abby decided she was ready to wear panties. She had a hard time on Thursday but when I put her to bed Thursday night she said “Daddy can I wear panties to school again tomorrow?” So on Friday she did better and then yesterday when we were all home she …
Continue reading Panties and BusinessI wrote here a while back about how my two boys, Zach and Zane, came to live with us permanently at the end of November. To say that our holiday season was crazy, filled with ups and downs, and tiring would barely scratch the surface. Throughout this time, Trish, the love of my life, and …
Continue reading This Weekend the Boys Get a RoomOver the holidays I was watching ESPN while helping my wife clean the house and two stories came on back to back the first was about Tiger Woods and the second was about Tim Tebow. Listening to these stories and the contrast of hero vs. fallen hero got me to thinking. I wasn’t raised to …
Continue reading Heroes?Another year is over and a new one is beginning. This is often a time for setting goals and many people sit down to do it for themselves. I’m wondering how may of you sit down and set family goals and goals for each of your children? Initially my wife and I did not start …
Continue reading Goal SettingMy son wants to be a movie director…among other things. He asked for a green screen setup this year for Christmas, and we got it for him (not cheap). One of the things we’ve been trying to do, since our family grew by two boys, is to get them all to do things together, to …
Continue reading The Princess & The Dragon – Christmas MagicI put this video together yesterday to share with my friend and family. As the Dad-O-matic dads are quickly becoming part of my online family I wanted to share it here too. Merry Christmas.
Continue reading Merry ChristmasMy son Zane got a tripod for his birthday. His birthday is actually on Christmas day, but wae celebrate early to keep them separate. Anyway…he filmed me reading “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” …and we thought we’d share. Enjoy: ÂÂ
Continue reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas … From MeThis holiday season, my daughter asked for a plush kitty. My boy asked for anything Thomas. That’s it. Know why? The picture is pretty much the reason. My kids don’t get a steady input of toy ads so as such, they don’t really seem to have as many interests in such. Now, I used to …
Continue reading The Best Thing I Ever DidWOW! I’m so excited to join the Dad-O-Matic community. I just wanted to introduce myself in my first blog over here. I guess I share two things in common with everyone on this blog. I’m a Dad and I’m a bit of geek. I guess I’ll start with the Dad stuff and then cover the …
Continue reading IntroductionDistance makes the holidays difficult but technology can help shrink that distance and bring families together.
Continue reading Shrink the Distance with Family During the Holidays.Disney sent me the above email. I opened it up and decided to try it out. I already had registered with their site before (for what I have no idea) then it was just a matter of uploading a recent pic of my daughter and typing in her name. After you make your own video, …
Continue reading Put Your Child On Santa’s Nice ListAs Christmas draws near, I thought I’d share some cool, geeky things you might like to share with your children this holiday season. My 4 year old especially likes these. For him as a child that is growing up with on-demand video and the internet, it seems only natural to incorporate some of what Santa does online.
Continue reading Fun Online Christmas Activities with SantaThe Cast of Dads got together for our second Podcast and covered a wide range of geeky, fatherly topics. Daddy Brad was out sick which got us off and running comparing notes on the Flu (regular and the H1N1 variety). In this episode we talk about: Sick Kids H1N1 vaccines Spring Break Holiday travel with …
Continue reading “Cast of Dads” Podcast Episode 2: Vaccines to Vacations…want to be a full time dad through the thick and thin, through the love and hate, the good times and bad. Don’t mistake me: there will probably be times where I truly will hate my children and question what demon-spawn I have birthed. Sure as I am writing this I have felt that same way for my parents at times. I know that regardless of what issue lies in front of us I will love and adore my children always and hold them above anyone else. That is what my parents do and have done.
Continue reading Thoughts From A Future DadYou probably have already wondered how a title like this makes any sense. In today’s world it probably doesn’t. Of those five words, there is one that seems to get the most attention this time of year, though not for the reasons that it used to. For some odd reason our culture has decided that, …
Continue reading Have a Politically Correct ChristmasI am convinced that all the child development books written by so-called “experts†are designed for the sole purpose of driving you insane. Even though most of the books tell you there will be variances between children at different stages, and that every kid is different, they still group the chapters in such a way …
Continue reading The REAL Expertise of the Child Development ExpertsFor many years, I’ve seen my two sons only on alternate weekends. I’ve hated the separation, but somehow that’s the hand life deals; you do what you can. About a week ago, the world changed. The boys’ mother passed on suddenly, and my household grew by two very smart, very polite teenage boys. There are …
Continue reading Families, Apparently, Can Grow SuddenlyPreface: As a believer in Christ and one who celebrates a traditional American Christmas, this commentary is for readers who also celebrate the traditional American Christmas. My comments may not resonate with you other wise, and you may even find yourself disagreeing with me on certain points. This is what I believe, and would like …
Continue reading Setting Christmas ExpectationsNo baloney, it was a lot of fun participating in the Sony DigiDad Project and I hope you enjoyed the posts here at Dad-O-Matic that were inspired by the Sony gear I was able to borrow and play with. My kids and I particularly enjoyed our re-creating The Picture of Dorian Gray and creating a …
Continue reading Announcing The “Cast of Dads” Podcast…“I am the product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstairs indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes, and the noise of the wind under the tiles. Also, of endless books” C.S. Lewis
Continue reading None of the right booksToday’s post is really a beginning. I’m a neurohacker at heart and by profession. I design behavioral software. That means I create media designed to “install” beliefs and behaviors into people just like you would install a new app onto your computer. I enjoy it. I’m good at it. And I believe that one day …
Continue reading The Journey BeginsThe day after Thanksgiving, my wife Anne and I took my kids to Disney’s High School Musical on Ice. What could be more patriotic than ice dancers simulating basketball to a syrupy Disney soundtrack? The kids were mesmerized, and I dropped cash at the souvenir stand as if I was competing for their attention with Thanksgiving itself…
Continue reading Thanks and Misgivings: A Remarried Dad Looks Back and AheadAs a dad of four beautiful girls (and a lovely wife – seen below 4-5 months pregnant with our son) affection, and the subsequent display, has never been a question inour household. There’s lots of “loves” (as we call them) to go around for everybody. Snuggles, hugs, and kisses abound.  But now I suddenly find myself …
Continue reading A Question of AffectionAs an astronaut of consciousness I had to raise my son Miles as a lucid dreamer. I started with no particular agenda or expectations when he was about three and a half. That was three years ago. Today Miles is a natural. He thinks about and experiences dreaming in a way I’ve never experienced before. …
Continue reading Teaching My Son to Lucid Dream[podcast]http://www.kimandjason.dreamhosters.com/clubkj_stuff/audio_articles/13_Things_To_Be_Thankful_For.mp3[/podcast] In a few weeks, my daughter Lucy will celebrate her first birthday. Last Thanksgiving, we had to skip the traditional two-hour drive home because my wife looked like she was hiding the Great Pumpkin under her shirt. At the risk of sounding like every other dad who’s ever lived, I can’t believe how fast …
Continue reading A First-Year Father’s 13 Things to Be Thankful For (Podcast)Dad, King of Comedy… Growing up in a highly opinionated, and comedic laden, Latin household you would think that new jokes would present themselves often and we would all, in a sense, “TEST” our new material out on each other in the house but then sometimes you get caught up with your “big hit.” My …
Continue reading Stale Daddy JokesSince tomorrow is Halloween, and it’s a Saturday, a lot of you will be carving your pumpkins. Please, don’t carve a boring one. We’re Dad-o-matic dads. We don’t carve boring pumpkins. You may think it is difficult to carve a cool pumpkin, but it’s not. Like most things, all you need are the right set …
Continue reading Stop Carving Boring PumpkinsThis is my daughter’s third Halloween. Every year, she is a tiger. She is a tiger because we live in Memphis, TN and the mascot for the University of Memphis is a tiger. You might ask yourself what that has to do with my daughter’s Halloween. We recycle, reuse, and re-purpose the costume for multiple …
Continue reading Recycle, Reuse, and Re-purpose Halloween CostumesOne of the best perks of being a parent is raiding your kids’ Halloween candy when they are asleep. Of course, my daughter is only eleven months old, so I am still in the unenviable position of actually having to buy candy. What a drag. The only thing worse than having to buy your own …
Continue reading The Top 5 Worst Halloween Treats EverLife’s Third Rule by Dad-o-Matic author Joe Hage.
Continue reading Dad’s Life Lessons: Rule #3Kids’ costumes in modern times have gone from sickly sweet to just plain sick. A walk down the dripping, splattered, fake-blood-soaked Halloween aisle of your favorite drugstore proves a point last heard in 2000: Gore wins the popular vote.
When I went online to find my kids costumes, I found life-like swords and machetes, clear masks that filled up with blood, and a variety of disembodied heads and severed limbs. I saw a “zombie doctor” costume with “PVC rotting chest, pants with rotted knee, zombie mask, surgical mask, surgical cap and latex gloves” that came in size 4-6!
Continue reading Why Are So Many Kids Halloween Costumes So Inappropriate?I’ve been traveling a lot. It’s not easy on my family, but they all know that the goal is good enough to support. Today, I had 20 minutes with my boy before jumping in the car to go to yet another event. Here’s what I did with the time: If you can’t see the video …
Continue reading Finding Daddy Timephoto credit: mahalie via flickr Hi, my name is Buck and I don’t have parent guilt. I probably should start from the beginning. I travel for my work rarely. I have started going to conferences for blogging and social media. I want to be a better blogger. I have attended a couple locally. I have …
Continue reading Traveling Dad Doesn’t Have GuiltHalloween is one of the greatest holidays. Like most holidays, it has its share of commercialism, but it doesn’t come with the obligations, guilt, and travel headaches of Christmas. Dressing up. Getting candy. Having fun. What more could a kid ask for? Unfortunately, a small segment of Adultitis-ridden do-gooders continue their assault on Halloween. It’s …
Continue reading The Scariest Part of Halloween: The Grown-Ups!Joe Hage uses Twitter to capture gems like “I don’t like getting punished and I hate it!”
Continue reading Tweet your kids #4One of the differentiators between the American Girl dolls and others has always been their stories.  The dolls, from Kaya the Native American to Rebecca Rubin, the Jewish immigrant, gives a depth of character to these dolls that separate these toys from the others in any toy aisle. Now, Mattel is tackling the issue of …
Continue reading Meet Gwen Thompson: The $95 Homeless American Girl DollWe went to the doctor the other day for my daughter Lucy’s nine-month checkup. It included a smorgasbord of shots. And I got to hold her down. I was pretty nervous on the ride there, and I wasn’t even the one getting the shots. As we were driving, I told Kim that I would rather …
Continue reading Shots and SuperheroesWhen most people think of Dolly Parton they think of her flash Country persona, her anatomy (sorry, but it’s true), her starring in Nine to Five (if you’re as old as me) or her Islands In The Stream song with Kenny Rogers (ah ah!). In Nashville, TN. we often associate Dolly with her Disney-esque theme …
Continue reading Dolly Parton the BOOK LADY!From everything I have seen and heard, being a grandparent is a special thrill.  I am not there yet myself, but as my own kids grow into adulthood I know that eventually “Grandparent” will be another line item on my life resume.  While I cannot address what it is to be a Grandparent, I can …
Continue reading Matriarchs, Patriarchs, And The Grandest Of All Parents…I have never written about my experiences on September 11th. At the time I was working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the Urban Search and Rescue Division.  That morning we were watching the events unfold in New York City when we heard the Pentagon was attacked. We could see the thick acrid smoke …
Continue reading Explaining 9/11 to my sonThe circumstances of your life … how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home … That’s no excuse for not trying.
Continue reading President Obama’s speech to our children … so what’s the controversy all about?I’ve always held onto my boyhood dreams of rocket jet packs and flying cars. I read the old pulp magazines when I could, devoured paperbacks and hardcovers that spoke of journeys to the stars and little green men from mars. I loved the feeling I got when I read the tales that brought dreams and …
Continue reading My Little Girl Builds Rockets…Being a parent is no easy trick. There’s no guidebook or instruction manual (okay, there are plenty on sale, but you can bet none are specific to your own experiences!) and every day is a new adventure. It’s a long-term gig as well, often with no reward and a lot of pain and heartache along …
Continue reading What Blogging Can Teach Us About ParenthoodThe winners of the “I’m a Bus” give-away that was announced in the Buck Daddy book review on 8/10/2009 are as follows: Susan Mayer Debbie Howell Christina Smith Heather Gude Susan Mayer is the grand prize winner of a Back to School kit and the picture book The other three winners will receive a copy …
Continue reading Winners of the “I’m a Bus” Give-awayIt’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..[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)In 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 SummerThis 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 daughter goes in today for her first official test. She’s entering Kindergarten this fall, and very excited about it. We’ve been going over colors and vocabulary, math and very basic spelling, and everyone was in great spirits right up until yesterday afternoon. We are a pretty informal family. Katie is just…Katie. Now things have …
Continue reading Kindergarten Assessment – The First TestI’m here at the cabin, looking out the window at the last embers of a fire and listening to my daughter and her camp friend, Miranda, finish up swimming for the night. My little guy is playing with his tiny DVD player in the bedroom because he wasn’t really up for swimming in the dark. …
Continue reading The New Vacation – Media Making in 2009It has been awhile since I have done a That’s What She Said. The reason for that is I have been super busy at work. The last 6 months has been one big push towards June 28th. My team accomplished what we set out to do and then I took a break but I am …
Continue reading That's What She Said: ColorsThe other day I heard my middle son say to my wife, “Mommy, I love you as fast as an airplane and as high as the moon.” We should all love that hard. Photo credit: Originally uploaded to Flickr by Wilson17(newly remarried!) Benjamin Strong is the Director of Marketing for the United States Coast Guard …
Continue reading Random Thoughts On LoveThe Straight Truth About American Potty Training Before parents were able to easily acquire disposable diapers in any warehouse store across the country, the vast majority of children in the United States were potty trained prior to blowing to their first birthday. But that all started to shift in the late 1950s and 1960s when …
Continue reading The Straight Truth About American Potty TrainingEver think ‘I should write that down’ when your child says something funny? Joe Hage uses Twitter for that. Click here for his third installment.
I use Twitter for that. Here’re some Tweet-worthy comments from my boys.
Continue reading Tweet Your Kids #3Sometimes our urges to help our children succeed can get a little out of hand…
Continue reading It's Only a Matter of TimeThis week marks the one year anniversary of my grandfather’s death. At 99 years old he lived the most remarkable life of anyone I’ve ever known.
Continue reading A Poem for my PapÃÂAs advertisers climb over one another to suggest Father’s Day gifts, it is wise to consider Emily Dickenson’s poem, A Book. There is no frigate like a book To take us lands away, Nor any coursers like a page Of prancing poetry. This traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of toll; How frugal is …
Continue reading The gift of a BookOver at my primary online home, I have the tagline that “Life’s better when you have the right words.” I truly believe this. I think the right syllables strung together can stick with us for our own personal eternity. In celebration of Father’s Day tomorrow, I thought it would be nice to list a small …
Continue reading A Handful of Father's Day QuotesSunday is Father’s Day. It may seem a bit rude for me, a mommy, to ask you guys to self-reflect (god forbid), but I know you can handle it. Dad-o-Matic Dads aren’t afraid of a little reality check now-and-then, right? Don’t worry, the self-reflection homework doesn’t come until the end. Painless, I promise! 😉 First …
Continue reading Father's Day HomeworkThis week David Letterman brought shame on Fatherhood. This has nothing to do with with politics, whether you are a supporter or detractor of Sarah Palin, whether you believe that as a public figure her family is also fair game for being the brunt of a humorists attention, David Letterman, as a Father should know …
Continue reading Being A Role Model Is More Important Than Being A CelebrityI travel a lot lately, and one thing I’m asked quite often is how I recharge or how I maintain my life balance. Let me start by saying that I haven’t really figured out a great balance for my life, but I can say that I am doing lots to keep it all juggled. I …
Continue reading Recharging and Life BalanceThis post is for all those parents still swimming through the tar of toilet training. Here are 5 quick tips to help your hurdle the pitfalls of potty training. 1) Make toilet training as comfortable for your toddler as possible. Getting them their own potty chair can be a messy, scary experience for them. Try …
Continue reading 5 Quick Tips for Potty Training“If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek, five things observe with care: To whom you speak; of whom you speak; and how, and when and where.”
Continue reading Wisdom from 1881I just watched the last hour of Invincible, the story of Vince Papali, who is played by Mark (y) Wahlberg. That was a good simple story. The entire movie built up to the first win of the season for the Eagles that year. And it ended without the usual montage of “fast-forwarding through all the …
Continue reading Where Is Our Inspiration?Those souls wishing to question the power of praise, should try it out on any random group of children. The following scene is set at the preschool my wife and I ran together until the final week of last December. One dozen children are sitting around a long oval table, waiting for delivery of their …
Continue reading Why We Should Praise Our ChildrenI have been reading aloud to my daughter from Still More Stories from Grandma’s Attic, stories of growing up in Michigan in the early 20th century, recounted by an aging Grandma. In one chapter, she expresses her recollections of her father, who had said he would confiscate her things that she left lying around the …
Continue reading A child's insight into a father's motivesWe signed up a little over a year ago to receive DVDs and Blu-Ray disks through the Mail from Netflix.com. We don’t get out much as a family to the movies, and this has allowed us to catch up on a lot of movies and TV that we’ve missed out on, but what I really …
Continue reading The Roku Box – and Netflix – Kid GoodnessEver since I handed my 7 year old daughter a guest post on my primary blog a couple months back, she’s been itching to have another pirouette in the spotlight. When I told her I was planning to write a list of things to do with your children over summer, she asked if she could …
Continue reading 10 Things for the Best Summer Ever! (according to a 7 year old)In both parenting and gardening, concerted cultivation is required to enjoy beauty. Both require patience, consistency and wisdom – and both can be tremendously rewarding.
Continue reading Concerted cultivation in parenting and gardeningIt’s the age-old problem. Your wife’s libido doesn’t match yours. You’ve heard “I’m tired†so many times you can’t tell if your wife is speaking for herself or her Honda. I’m going to be kicked out of the girls’ club for this, but I’m going to break it down for you gentlemen. Man up now, …
Continue reading 5 Ways to Get More Sex from Your WifeFor the past week and a half my wife has been away in Montreal taking a course.  This has left me as a temporary single father.  Now, I realize this is nothing at all like what real single dads go through, but it may have given me some insight.  It also has allowed me to …
Continue reading (Temporary) Single Father: Part 1 Chili Dogs and Pork ChopsWe are always looking for ways to do new things with the kids that will also serve as learning experiences. When I was young, we gardened. I had a huge strawberry patch, some tomatoes and beans, and a lot of fun working with my mom to plant, care for, and harvest them. The other day …
Continue reading In Search of the Great PumpkinYou don’t have to deserve your mother’s love. You have to deserve your father’s. He is more particular…. The father is always a Republican towards his son, and his mother’s always a Democrat. ~Robert Frost The Mystery My husband, “Jayâ€Â, had this crazy idea that my children obey my every command, that my toddler doesn’t …
Continue reading "The Mommy" MysteryLast week, my son and twin daughters each received either first place or runner-up awards for their fourth and first grade read-a-thons. Sure, they’ve won ribbons and certificates before, but those “awards” were simply for showing up and following directions. These read-a-thon awards were my kids’ first wins for concerted effort in competition. When I heard the news, I was excited, and pressed the kids for details…
Continue reading Why Am I More Competitive Than My Kids?This month marked a milestone for us. My oldest daughter, Brin, received her driving learner permit. It was also memorable for another reason: We tried seven times to get it. You might think that the poor dear had difficulty passing the test, but that wasn’t where the problem lied. She passed the test with one …
Continue reading Seventh Time's the Charm?Open the trunk of my car and in about three seconds you’ll know. Inside are a gigantic mesh bag of soccer balls, boxes of spare uniforms, and scads of orange cones, air pumps, roster sheets, and all the other impedimenta of youth soccer.  Yes, I am a soccer coach. Twice over, actually, as I …
Continue reading Lessons learned on the pitchHi, I’m Hugh from Dude to Dad, and I need your help on the greatest Mother’s Day project I’ve ever been a part of. Now I’ve been a part of some epic Mother’s Day projects, but what I’m about to share with you leaves all of them in the dust. Check it out to see what I mean (and see how you can help a fanstastic cause).
Continue reading Mrs Dude's Boob Fund – The Ultimate Mother's Day ProjectSometimes it is about the candy.
Continue reading Easter HaulMy job doesn’t require a lot of travel. Now and again, though, I have to hop into a rented car and head off into the world, leaving home and family behind. Recently this happened for the first couple of times since my daughter was old enough to really notice and be bothered by it. She’s …
Continue reading When I'm On the Road and Wishing I Was HomeLast night I came across my daughter’s swaddle blanket as I was cleaning up. It brought back some great memories, especially because my friend Brad and his wife are expecting their first born any minute. I remembered that my son’s blanket was identical, and it got me thinking. I was inspired enough to put a …
Continue reading Swaddle Blanket Conspiracy?By Bryan Person Looking for an easy way to capture and chronicle moments in your children’s lives, even when, like me, you don’t have the discipline to either round up those stories regularly on a blog or jot down thoughts in a baby book? Consider creating a parent-controlled Twitter feed for each of your kids, …
Continue reading Creating and archiving tweets about your kidsMy eldest daughter has Shirley Temple golden curls and a winsome smile. She’s the kind that often garners comments from strangers like, “You have such a beautiful daughter.” And of course, as a father, I glow with delight. But that glowing has gotten me thinking. What do I want most for my daughter? And what …
Continue reading What matters most?As I was dropping my son off at school (about two hours late – he has a variety of special needs which I’ll discuss later), I said, “I’ll probably be home when you get home.” His immediate response, as he moved on down the hall with his tardy slip, was, “Why?” “Why,” indeed. I’m not …
Continue reading Hard Times Are Coming to Your DadJoe Hage uses Twitter to record the funny things his kids say. Give it a try.
Continue reading Tweet Your Kids #2I spent 11 years as a public relations person for college athletics teams. It was a great gig. I traveled around the country keeping statistics and writing about sports. The coaches and players were my friends and I got to be a part of a team far past the time I could actually play. So …
Continue reading Overzealous Parents, Sports And The Awful TruthWelcome to my regular Friday feature, Worst of the Week. As a white, suburbanite husband and dad of two kids, there’s a lot that can go wrong and this entry is all about how to fix it. I hope you enjoy it! Regular readers will know that I’ve been blogging about the school consolidation the …
Continue reading Worst of the Week: Bloomfield Hills Schools – The Final ExamEver parent has special moments, sayings, or routines that they do with their child. I have several in place with my daughter, Danni. These instances are fun and make you smile internally and externally. Then one day you turn around and the little baby is a toddler and your turn around again and she is …
Continue reading TWSS: Proper GrammarWelcome to my regular Friday feature, Worst of the Week. As a white, suburbanite husband and dad of two kids, there’s a lot that can go wrong and this entry is all about how to fix it. I hope you enjoy it! A few weeks back I wrote about our school system and the closings …
Continue reading Worst of the Week: The Bloomfield School District In A Nutshell(with a nod to Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss) Currently, one of the greatest pleasures in my life is reading stories to my five year old daughter, Katie. One of the things that make this fun is the work of some very clever authors. My two personal favorites are Dr. Seuss, and Shel Silverstein. I’m …
Continue reading Fox in Sox and Runny Babbit – Kid's BooksIt seems every father of a daughter, when she is born, has some joke about never letting her date until she’s 30 years old. Whether it involves standing on the front porch with a shotgun to keep boys away or sending our little girl to a convent when she turns 13, the urge to protect our …
Continue reading The Dating GameA couple of weeks ago, we had to buy some shoes for Danni. Danni is now old enough that she wants to pick her own shoes. She is HUGE fan of the Disney Princesses and Tinkerbell. Target had some Disney Princess and Dora shoes in her size on clearance. She went with the Disney Princess …
Continue reading TWSS: Disney would be proudI should explain. Firstly, please permit me to introduce Beetle, 9 weeks old and the latest arrival at Dungeekin Towers. Now, I have a game I play with Dungeekin Minor when he stays with us at weekends – with much growling, I tell him I’m going to ‘eat his ears’. Cue screaming, laughter and chasing …
Continue reading Quote of the MonthA couple of months ago, Danni started retaining information. This does not seem like a big deal but it is. This went beyond her name and age. Danni can hold conversations. Although sometimes she has a little attitude attached with it. A common question Danni gets is her name and age. Most of the time, …
Continue reading TWSS: Day After InaugurationI saw this photo on the Chicago Tribune‘s Web site today, taken this morning by AP photographer Susan Walsh and couldn’t help but think that of all the heaps of congratulations our new president will get today, as a father, nothing will probably mean more to him than this.
Continue reading The Ultimate Dad Photo From Today's InaugurationA few months ago, I took some artistic license with a popular online video to create “Dude to Dad (Changing More Than Just Diapers) feat. Barack Obama.” For me, it was a rally cry for a new generation of dads. My hope was was that it might lead to “change” and I thought that was …
Continue reading Dude to Dad in ChiefOur daughter Katie has been through some serious pet angst. She loves animals, but at the same time she loathes being licked or chased. She gets along with the cat because the cat requires nothing of her, and she only has to deal with him for a few moments at a time. We are animal …
Continue reading Kids and Pets … a Study in Patience Pays OffToday is the day you just sit back and say “How in the heck did that happen?!†It’s hard to escape the story of the US Airways plane that went down in the Hudson River yesterday and the remarkable activity that surrounds it. The more I read and hear about it the less inclined I …
Continue reading When The News Provides a Teachable MomentIn our house hold, Danni has started telling us what she wants to do. She has been doing it for awhile but it has become more urgent. “Who wants to go to school?” “I do, I do, I do” is how Danni responds to everything. “Who loves Mommy?” “I do, I do, I do” You …
Continue reading TWSS: I do, I do, I doThe Government are frequently heard to proclaim that ‘families’ are the most important thing in life. We all know that a stable family environment is good for the development of happy children. We also know the statistics – that children in Local Authority Care tend to perform less well in school, garner fewer qualifications and …
Continue reading Too Fat to Love?As any parent can tell you, once your kid starts walking and talking, you get little to no privacy. This is especially true when it comes to bathroom breaks. My wife tells me that she has not taken a bathroom break with the door closed in 2 years. The other day Chelsea went to the …
Continue reading TWSS: Let Me Ask You A QuestionEvery night we put our daughter Katie up on the big bed where Trish and I sleep. She gets her hair braided to keep it from tangling in the night. Billy (15) lays across the end of the bed, and Stephanie (18) comes in to sit at the foot of the bed. While Trish fixes …
Continue reading Beware of the Stories of Your Childhood. Seriously.Some of you might know the name of blogger Dave Armano – he has a vast social network, is a regular contributor to AdAge and a frequent speaker at interactive and social media conferences. Tonight, I watched Dave do something pretty amazing. With a short blog post and a tweet to alert the thousands folks …
Continue reading Digital Storytelling Gets a Boost from Dave ArmanoMy daughter is over 3 feet tall. She is also only 2 years old. She stand head and shoulders above other kids. she gets her height from me. I am about 6’4″ to 6’5″ depending on what gas station I am coming out of. The reason I bring this up is because Danni also has …
Continue reading That's What She Said Wednesday- The DrawerOne of the problems with being a type-A obsessive compulsive about my work is that it gets in the way of being a type-A obsessive compulsive with my kids. In the long run, while money is nice, time spent with the kids is the real currency of life. In that vein, here’s my list of …
Continue reading The Top Ten Things I Wish I Did In 2008MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, OR JUST GOOD DAY TO YOU AND YOURS!! I had this whole other story written out but it will get posted next week. TWSS (That’s What She Said): Christmas Lights is more timely seeing how it is Christmas Eve. As I stated in a couple of week’s ago TWSS post about …
Continue reading That's What She Said: Christmas LightsGuess what. If you can set aside your pride, emasculation ain’t so bad. I posted yesterday about the embarrassment suffered when my wife went public as the family snow blower, and am happy to announce my full recovery today. As predicted, the storm started yesterday afternoon and we woke to 12 inches of snow. Worried …
Continue reading Emasculation RewardedAs dads, we all understand the roles we are expected to play in our families. My wife and I have a twenty first century marriage, meaning we take a more balanced approach to parenting. We both cook, bathe the kids, discipline… Ward Cleaver would be appalled; June Cleaver would feel disenfranchised. I should have known …
Continue reading EmasculationThis morning I woke up to a jarring story in the newspaper. The killer of Adam Walsh was finally identified. On July 27, 1981, Adam went into a deparment store with his mother. She lost track of him for just a second…and he was abducted by the person we now known as his killer, Ottis …
Continue reading A tragic day of innocence lostCarl and Raylene Worthington believe that prayer–not medicine–should be used to treat illness. When their 15-month-old daughter developed bacterial bronchial pneumonia, they turned to their faith rather than a doctor. The child died, and the parents are now facing manslaughter charges. Reading about the recent court battle over parental rights in Oregon has raised some …
Continue reading Your Right to Raise Your ChildSorry i missed last week but i was traveling for work. When work sends me to “work in the field” they mean it very literally. I am not near computers until late at night and then all I want to do is crawl into bed. Now on to what you all came here for, That’s …
Continue reading That's What She Said: SantaEver think “I should write that down” when your child says something funny? I use Twitter for that. Here’re some Tweet-worthy comments from my boys. Six-year-old Zachary “Guess what, Daddy?” What, Zach? “I was the first one to see Santa after he ate his lunch!” “I pooped extra for you.” Dad: “Why?” Zach: “So you …
Continue reading Tweet your kidsHow will you be celebrating this Christmas? I’m not talking about the food. That wonderful banquet of smells and tastes. The turkey (that for us Aussies feels a little .. odd), the peas, honey carrots. Mum’s pudding that’s been hanging in the pantry for quite a while, with the kids asking why pudding doesn’t stay …
Continue reading Du Jour Means ChristmasThis post is a sponsored post on behalf of Kmart via Izea. The opinions are mine. I have to admit that I haven’t stepped foot in a Kmart for a while, like probably since before they merged up with Sears. But this assignment was totally worth it. Basically, the plan was this: take a $500 …
Continue reading Sponsored Post-Kmart Holiday Shopping Dad StyleGrowing up, my parents and teachers told me that I was smart and talented frequently enough for me to believe them. While adults thought they were doing the right thing by lavishing praise on children (whether or not they deserve it) a growing amount of research shows that telling children that they are special or …
Continue reading New Ways to Praise: "You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake"This video is part of an apparently successful marketing campaign launched by JC Penny.  My only criticism is that it’s a bit long, but definitely worth a peek.  While I’ve been in the doghouse many times I hadn’t thought of JC Penny as the way out … UNTIL NOW! h/t to Dr. Val
Continue reading Men in the DoghouseFull disclosure: Whenever I post online, be it my blog or Twitter, I’m just a little bit nervous. Maybe nervous isn’t the right word – But I do experience a moment of hesitation before I hit the publish button. Sounds strange but it’s true. I work for a medical school and children’s hospital remarkably concerned …
Continue reading The Transparent Pediatrician – How Thin is Too Thin?Just over a year ago, the founder of this project, Chris Brogan, wrote a blog post entitled 100 Topics I Hope YOU Write. I bookmarked it for future reference – it was, and still is, a great resource for when the blogging ideas well runs dry. Today sees the first fruit of that blog post’s …
Continue reading My Children Will Do It DifferentlyAs we approach this holiday season, it seems we have little to be thankful about. Still topping the news are stories of death and dire. Abraham Biggs, a Florida teenager blogs that he will commit suicide and then webcasts a video of the event, live, while viewers on the Internet wonder if it’s a hoax. …
Continue reading Don't Underestimate the Objects of Our ThanksMy daughter, Danni, is two year old going on twenty-two. She has to have the last word in every conversation. My wife would say that Danni gets it from me. The other night, we were watching a DVD that I was reviewing for a giveaway on Buck’s Blog. Danni crawled out of my lap after …
Continue reading That's What She Said- Last Word I am sorry to admit that my wife really doesn’t enjoy cooking.  She does her best, but sometimes her general indifference to the culinary arts rears it’s ugly head.  Who could blame her, since as a stay at home mom, it’s up to her to ensure that there are 3 square meals on the …
Continue reading Cooking Up a MemoryMy little girl Lia was born in 2003, a healthy and beautiful little mite that immediately changed everything for me. Up until the point I held her in my arms, I guess I didn’t really feel like I was a daddy. The moment I felt her warmth in my arms and saw her innocent little …
Continue reading Stay Away Daddies Aren't Always to BlameI have worked for 14 years in consulting, managed projects of over 50,000 man-days of effort, run teams of 90+ people including some off-shore, and have been through some tense projects. So the first time my wife left me home alone with my three boys, I figured (to quote City Slickers) “Scoop of chocolate, scoop …
Continue reading Home Alone With the BoysMy daughter, Danni, has never been sick. Sure she has had the sniffles and she has gotten a mild fever but she has never vomited until last Wednesday. Danni had puked during snack time at school. Chelsea, my wife, went and got her. On the way home, Danni asked if she could have some juice. …
Continue reading That's What She Said Wednesday: So SickIf you were part of the ad/marketing technology scene in the Greater Washington metro area in the late nineties thru and past the millennium you most definitely know the name Mitch Arnowitz. Mitch was the caretaker and the leader of a burgeoning marketing and PR community that could be found on the Netpreneur Exchange, which …
Continue reading Elan is a hip guy and he'll pull throughI’ve always thought that the blogosphere is beginning to wallow in its own waste. And here’s my proof: Paul Boutin’s piece in this month’s Wired. He’s predicting that the end is effectively near for folks like us and I half believe him. Tweeter is what the blog was in 2004. Most of us have witnessed …
Continue reading The End of BlogsI should start by saying that I blog almost daily at Buck’s Blog and have an on going segment over there called Daddy Dairies. I thought I start a weekly feature here at Dad-O-Matic called That’s What She Said. Now take your mind our of the gutter. My kid, as do all kids, says the …
Continue reading That's What She Said Wednesdays: Mommy SadWhen lying is good … advice from Dad-o-Matic author Joe Hage about when lying to your child might teach an unforgettable lesson.
Continue reading When lying is goodI’ve had all I can stand, I can’t stand no more….this is one of my personal bugbears and, as a Dad, I have to rant about it. I am sick, sick SICK of hearing that for my surfaces to be ‘clean’ I need to have killed all the bacteria as well, for the sake of …
Continue reading Stop With the Sanitising!Inspired by fellow Dad-o-Matic author Brendon Connelly and his Photowalking with kids, here’s five easy steps to family fun. 1. Get camera. 2. Go to Party City or equivalent. 3. Try on ridiculous hats / glasses. 4. Photograph. 5. Repeat. Have fun! From Joe, Beth, Zachary, and Lucas Hage! P.S. We bought Lucas’ birthday candles …
Continue reading Photo fun for freeMom’s and dads are different. Moms are emotional, dads are physical. You know, Venus and Mars. More evidence: The flying baby video that’s gone viral recently. That’s no mamma swingin’ the baby. As an obviously phony work of video creativity, perhaps I’m spared as a baby doctor from telling the broadcast audience what’s painfully obvious: …
Continue reading The Amazing Flying BabyElle loves music.  The second a song comes on the radio, she starts to sway and bop to the beat.  She has done this since she was 6 months old.  She is 13 months now.  We enrolled her in The Music Class several months ago, and she loves it.  Being the youngest, allows her to get …
Continue reading Singing With My DaughterMy family has been away for a few weeks. In fact, they’ve been away for enough weeks that I legitimately miss them deeply. Even the kids. I’m picking them up on Friday, which is a couple of days from now. Doing some back-of-the-Chinese-food-delivery-bag-left-on-the-table-for-days math, I realized: holy cow! That’s two days from now. Now, when …
Continue reading Domestic BlitzA delicious irony exists in our household. It’s the irony where a) we own every current game console, portable or otherwise, and b) No Game Playing Shall Occur During on School Nights, except on very rare, special occasions, say, being stuck home sick from school on Wednesday because someone has contracted a Medieval Bubonic Plague. …
Continue reading What are your video game rules?This week we experienced a moment of heart wrenching sorrow. Our third little one is heading to school next year. Already, as the Mums and Dads wait for the older kids to get out of school, she has a posse of friends. They play and carry on. She has a special friend, whose name I’ve …
Continue reading How Do You Deal With Rejection?I’m going to admit it: I hate Halloween. There, I’m out of the closet, and for the record: I don’t like chocolate, or what having a sack of the stuff laying around for a few days does to my sugar junkie kids. Heck, by election day I’ll need to send them to glucose rehab. How …
Continue reading The Halloween Costume – It'll Give You NightmaresThis past Sunday our church pastor was doing a sermon on friendship. The title? “When your backs against the wall…..You have to have friendsâ€Â.  Without going into a sermon of my own, the gist of the lecture was that you’ve got to have “good, solid friends.â€Â These friends are the ones that listen and comfort …
Continue reading Our Children's Friends: Encouraging Positive FriendshipsOctober 15th is Blog Action Day 2008 and the emphasis this year is on poverty. Bloggers from around the world are participating and, hopefully, increasing awareness about those who live in poverty in our own communities and around the globe. I have found this event to be a particularly good opportunity to talk to my …
Continue reading Talk to Your Kids About the PoorI feel SO behind the times! Not only do my 2 and 3 year old LOVE this song…I caught my 3 year old moving the mouse by herself to replay this about 5 times in a row.  Do your kids know this one?  The Gummy Bear Song and it’s been on YouTube for a year, …
Continue reading The Gummy Bear SongMy name is Eric Peterson and I’ve been given the opportunity, by Chris, to be able and participate in this wonderful writing project. First, let me say “thank you Chris,” and second, let me say it’s an honor to be able to share with all of you. With that, I thought I would actually pull …
Continue reading A Toddler Taught Adversity LessonI’d like to say thankyou to Chris Brogan. Since this place went live, a few weeks back, I’ve been reading and commenting with great gusto. It is really encouraging to hear other “internet” (for want of a better word, nerd, geek, computer guy, ..) Dad’s writing about what matters to them. Love. Sacrifice. Presence. And …
Continue reading ThanksI had one of those conversations today that not only gives me something to blog about Dad but to also raise a question for the readers. I went with Sharon to the Family care clinic to get Harry ( now 1month old ) weighed and checked up and generally assessed for health. I was not …
Continue reading A Duty and Responsibility.I guess you never notice diapers (except for making the occasional Depends joke) in drug stores and super markets but when you have a child, diapers become mission #1 and all of a sudden you’re faced with buying ’em, changing ’em and what ever else you do with ’em. So, I made a trip out …
Continue reading Dad, the Cleaner…(part 1) – Diaper ConfusionToday our daughter turned 1 year old. She loves music and there are two people/ groups that seem to really have figured out how to create musical experiences that kids – well our daughter – love. The first is Eric Herman…the creator of the famous Elephant Song. The Elephant Song This is a fun song …
Continue reading The Elephant SongThe proof copy of my dad’s memoir arrived today: Can You See God in This Picture?: A Letter to My Sons Making Sense of 25 Years as a Pastor. Because I’m an author and publisher, my father asked me to read through and edit the manuscript, written as a letter to me and my two …
Continue reading How Well Do Your Children Know You?The 10-year-old me would disagree with the 30-something me, but we have a tendency to overindulge our children with things, when in fact what they really need is our presence. While catching up with a friend recently, who has three kids of his own, we discussed the everyday challenges of being a father. We both …
Continue reading Requesting your PresenceI 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 WrongReading 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 BackOK…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 PartyMy 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 FatherGreat 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 DadsI 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…Now 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 FreeWhen 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!