Advice

For a year and a half now I have been living in an empty nest… a house that once was riddled with the noise and disruption of three kids, now silenced, save for the rustlings of myself and a few dogs. While I am happy to have the canine company, it is not the same …

Continue reading The Less Empty Nest

  I originally wrote this post entitled “Be The Entrepreneur of Yourself” on my personal blog.  Upon further reflection, I think it also may be appropriate here on Dadomatic.  After all, I think instilling the entrepreneurial spirit in our kids is more important than ever.  What do you think? Be The Entrepreneur of Yourself. The world has changed. …

Continue reading Are You Raising Entrepreneurs?

Today’s the day.  Another year slips into our memories as the clock ticks forward into 2012.  As parents, nothing should be more cherished than time, for it is a resource that can never be replenished.  A moment past is just that… a moment that has moved from now to then.  A moment that can no …

Continue reading Father Time and Fatherhood

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

Despite all of the attention that the subject matter of bullying has gotten recently, the pain and anguish continues. More and more victims are trying to get the word out such as this young man whose video on YouTube has become viral as he shares his torture silently by holding up cards describing his living …

Continue reading Silent Cries for Help

I am pretty sure I am in the minority here (here being Dadomatic).  I am likely one of the few dads with grown children and an empty nest.  In the three years I have been writing for Dadomatic I’ve gone through both High School and College graduations and have seen my three kids go forth …

Continue reading Giving Your Kids The Business

It is June. Notable for the official start of summer, hurricane season (for those of us, like me, based in South Florida) and of course, Father’s Day. Like many dads, I am both a father and a son, roles that are intimately intertwined. We are all someone’s children, and as such we assume that who …

Continue reading The Real Father’s Day Gift

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

My wife Kim and I had a big parenting test the other night. At dinner, my daughter Lucy got to drink out of a “big girl cup” with a straw. And for the first time ever, she discovered how to blow bubbles in her milk. In our household, this is on par with first words, …

Continue reading Blowing Bubbles In Her Milk

So here it is the first year I am officially a single parent, and no one told me about Single Parent Day-I completely missed it.  (For those like me who are uninitiated to this Hallmark moment, its the third Sunday of March). I did spend my  Single Parent Day out being a single parent, juggling …

Continue reading Hallmark and the Single Parent

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?

The Turkey bones are bare, the stuffing has left your guests stuffed and the stuffed guests have left your house.  The television is free to be tuned to programming other than football and you are free to go back to the old grind…  Work. School. Life. Why Does Thanks Need A Day? The family focus of …

Continue reading Don’t Stop…

Lately I have been reflecting on reflections, literally and figuratively.  Perhaps it is the melancholy that I normally associate with the fast approaching Holiday Season, or maybe it is symptomatic of simply aging, and watching my kids grow.  It seems I notice mirrors and reflections at every turn these days, from the literal mirror mirror …

Continue reading The Man (Dad) In The Mirror

I have always been fascinated by language and how just a few letters, rearranged, can dramatically change the meaning of a word…how just a few words, rearranged, can dramatically change the meaning of a sentence…how just a few sentences, rearranged, can dramatically change the meaning of a paragraph…how just a few paragraphs… You get the …

Continue reading Encouragement VS. Discouragement

Mom is magical. As I write this, my wife, Rocky, is in Kenya. But she uses magic to be with us each day. She will be there for nine more days working at Saint Monica’s Childrens Home. I know this number, not because I’m good with math or because I am so lost without her …

Continue reading Dad Should Be Magical Too

The topic of bullying has always been important to me. I’ve seen the pain and anguish caused by bullying my whole life. Fortunately for me, I grew tall early in life so I avoided the torture of being the victim of most bullies but I still witnessed too many friends get picked on for years. …

Continue reading Protecting Our Precious Angels

In this, the “Silent But Deadly” edition of Cast of Dads we dish about everything from decapitation to divorce (and no, there is no discernible connection between the two).  In true Cast of Dads form, even though we touch on some serious parenting issues, from safety helmets to adolescent desires, we still end up flabbergasted by flatulence in the …

Continue reading Fart Is A Four Letter “F” Word… (Cast of Dads #31)

Trust me, it’s hopeless.  Do you dread walking into your kid’s room?  Are you tired of picking up socks, clothes and toys off of the floor?  Do you beg and bribe your kids to clean their rooms?  Well, you might as well stop right now and save yourself years of stress and anxiety.  You can reduce your future botox bills …

Continue reading Stop Picking Up Their Clothes!

It is back to school time, and today my youngest child, my daughter, started at a new school.  This time, however, I didn’t have to pack her lunch, or walk her to the bus stop. I won’t be looking forward to any more parent teacher conferences or notes sent home about missed homework assignments. Nope. …

Continue reading Degrees Of Fatherhood

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?

Last week I wrote about my son’s graduation from college.  The night of his graduation ceremony his girlfriend and her family threw a party for him at their home.  There were the expected balloons and banners clearly declaring the graduation theme, but there were also two really clever additions that gave the party a special graduation flavor.  I …

Continue reading Cheese & Chocolate: Two Tips For An Awesome Graduation Party!

Ever find yourself saying, “Life will be easier when…”? If you’re a parent, you can fill in the blank mighty easily. Life will be easier when… …he can sleep through the night. …she can feed herself. …he can tell us where it hurts. …she goes to school. …he makes it to the NBA and buys …

Continue reading Life will be easier when…

Before becoming a dad I had no idea how many forms of hugs there are. I think perhaps we need to do something like what the Eskimos do in Alaska with all the words for snow.
I thought I might take a little time today to talk about all the types of hugs there are.

NOTE: I write all these descriptions from the dad’s perspective but they also apply to moms.

Children:
Daddy’s Home – This is a personal favorite of dads. It only occurs at the end of a long day or when you return from a trip. The excitement and joy embraced in this hug often “quite literally” knocks one off there feet.

I’m sad daddy – There are times that nothing can cure the “sad” but a hug sure comes close. Sad hugs are generally full hugs with constant pressure but don’t contain the excitement that might be experienced in other hugs. The sad hug is honestly as much for the daddy as it is for the child because it gives the daddy something he can “do” to help in the situation.

Continue reading Where is my Hug?

It’s a rough life. You need to relax. Massage therapy turns out to be the perfect thing. Now how do you explain it to the children before they overhear about it, talk to their friends, and think you’re doing something dirty. Farfetched? No. My own late teens son didn’t understand what massage therapy was. My …

Continue reading Massage and your children

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

We bought our daughter one of those little primary-colored push car toys for her first birthday. It gets great gas mileage and holds up amazingly well in crashes, of which there have been many so far. The other day, she got herself caught in a traffic jam. The legs of our counter-height kitchen table and …

Continue reading Life’s Little Traffic Jams

I just watched this 88-second spot and it really got thru to me loud and clear. Thanks to Zane Aveton (aka @zaneology on Twitter) for sharing this tonight. I hope it impacts all of you the same way it has for me. What a powerful reminder. Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Continue reading Family Ties

Screaming, shrieking, whining, crying, banging, bumping, laughing, sneezing, coughing, belching. farting, yelling, slapping, hitting, pushing, shoving, snapping, breaking, kicking, throwing up, falling down, dancing, running, skipping, jumping, bouncing, trouncing, wrestling, fighting, snoring.  Never boring.  These are just some of the sounds and actions in a house full of kids, sounds you may find annoying or …

Continue reading Noise Is Good!

Nesting behavior has always baffled me. So I was more than a little frightened when I returned home from a business trip to find my wife had recovered her car seats and the den furniture in blue fleece and installed matching carpet in both. “Honey,” I asked cautiously, “do you know something I don’t?” “We’re …

Continue reading A father’s guide to safety devices

We dads know that we’re teaching our children by what we do, not just by what we say. This video brings home that message loud and clear. Even if our children aren’t around, we should try to stay true to our code of conduct and behave in a way that would make them proud. Remember …

Continue reading Leading by Example

Joe Hage writes, “Parents and children, don’t worry if Junior’s grades aren’t up to snuff. His or her success in life won’t depend on them.”

Continue reading Dermott

“It’s ten o’clock… do you know where your children are?”  In the days before mobile phones and text messaging, that was a line in a frequently broadcast Public Service Announcement.  Even in our connected world today, as parents we still DO want to know where our children are… all the time.  Now we have the …

Continue reading Foursquare And Seven Days Ago…

As one year winds down and another begins it is always a time to look back and look forward, to reflect on the year that has passed and to plan for the year ahead. 2009 was both a challenging and rewarding year as we battened down the hatches both at work and at home to …

Continue reading Reflection and Affection

Have you ever paid close attention to the classic Christmas television program Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer? Rudolph and Hermey are misfits and the misfit toys are marooned on an Arctic island. It seems people with differences are sort of dismissed. But what’s interesting is that the North Pole is actually quite similar to our …

Continue reading We could learn a lesson from Rudolph

Thanks to technology, our kids are growing up in an amazing time. Homework assignments that I would have had to use construction paper, crayons and Elmer’s Glue to complete are now being accomplished with laptops and PowerPoint.  Stacks of papers and notebooks have been replaced by files on key chain sized USB drives.  Those are just …

Continue reading How A Social Media Guru Helped My Son With His Homework

I’m in the middle of one of those periods where I look at my daughter, about to turn six, and am amazed. I guess I shouldn’t be. When I was five, I started reading Dr. Seuss books to my grandfather. When Trish was very young, she was reading and speaking two languages. Katie will turn …

Continue reading Daddy, Can I Read to You?

Movies, bowling, pizza, arcades, museums, concerts, shows, Ice Capades, circuses, Chucky Cheese, Dave & Busters, ice skating, rollerskating, sporting events, shopping, pottery, fairs, carnivals, planetariums, aquariums, theme parks, amusement parks, skiing, go-carts…  There are no shortage of ways to spend money to entertain our kids, and spend we do.  As much as they have fun …

Continue reading The Best Things About Fatherhood Are Free

The movie City Slickers (1991) was a successful comedy starring Billy Crystal but what I loved most about the movie is its many tender moments like the clips I’m sharing here. There are some great life lessons here such as the one thing lesson from Jack Palance or the Best/Worst day stories from Billy and …

Continue reading Life Lessons from City Slickers

My job requires a lot of travel. It’s a fact of life; in a way the balance of our marriage teeters on it. I have overheard my wife assert on many occasions that I am required to spend at least one night a week on the road so she can get the house fully clean. …

Continue reading Nesting Danger Signs

Craig Valentine gives an inspirational 7-minute speech here that I just stumbled across. I have to say that I really liked what he had to say when it comes to going for your dream in life. He shares a great story about a monumental decision he had to make in his career between money and …

Continue reading Your Dream is NOT for Sale

It’s that time of year. The holidays, Christmas, Chanukah and more are celebrated. Bright lights, holy symbols, and wintery decorations galore. It’s also become the season where folks no longer greet people with naming the holiday. Parenting is tough. There are tons of things you want to teach your children. Tolerance should be at the …

Continue reading Happy What?

Phil Vassar’s wonderful song “Just Another Day in Paradise” captures the feeling most of us dads have but more than likely never express so eloquently. Its message is so pure and so simple, yet so profound. Even when things appear messy and chaotic and things don’t go the way we planned them (they rarely do), …

Continue reading Just Another Day in Paradise

We are in that awkward time between Thanksgiving, and New Year’s, when the various “Holy Days” (a.k.a. Holidays) kick in.  Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or some other seasonal ritual, one thing is certain, you will be inundated with the commercialism of the season.  Black Friday, Cyber Monday, mauling at the mall, the …

Continue reading Happy Melancholy-days! Five Reasons NOT To Be A Scrooge This Year!

Today is November 1, and I just had a close shave.  No, I didn’t avoid an accident.  I actually had a close shave… with a razor and some shaving cream, and at least for my upper lip, that will be my last close shave this month.  November is “Movember,” with the “Mo” standing for “Moustache.” …

Continue reading The Gang’s All Hair! Grow A ‘Stache For Charity Cash!

Times have certainly changed.  My wife and I struggle with how to give our kids the same kind of Halloween we experienced as kids.  The Halloween of our childhood has sadly passed us by.  Instead,  the mall offers trick or treating, we cart the kids around to relatives houses, and we keep some candy in …

Continue reading Trick or Trunk?

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

Image via Wikipedia (NOTE: The following article first appeared last September on my personal blog, Sassholes! It was this post about my daughter’s 17th birthday that led to Chris Brogan asking me if I’d like to contribute to Dad-O-Matic.  Ever since, I have been honored to share my thoughts and experiences with you here each …

Continue reading From BARBIE to BLACKBERRY!

Nature and nurture are in a never ending battle to claim the disposition of our children. While it’s true that the apple rarely tumbles too far from the tree, it is also true that there are a multitude of things we as parents can do to safeguard the childhoods of our children, limit their exposure …

Continue reading 7 Secrets to Raising a Happy Child

***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 Fail

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!

Yes, 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 Children

Our 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 Technology

My 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 Hurt

It’s summertime!  (Duh!)  For many families that means it is time for lots of “Rays and Zees” spending time outdoors with activities and relaxing in the sun.  For all of us that also means thinking about protection from those burning rays, and for parents it is yet one more thing for us to worry about. …

Continue reading Protective Wear For Fun In The Sun!

There is one thing that every child has, no matter how young or how old they are — A BIRTHDAY! Celebrating your kid’s birthday is always special and often a special challenge for us parents. After all, we want to create a memorable, age appropriate celebration and we want it to be fun and full …

Continue reading It Takes The Cake!

Lots of parents worry about their legacy. The legacy they leave through their children is often the way we worry about it most. Gone are the days many adults worry if they’ll be remembered as famous for something, but all but a few parents don’t want to be known as a good father or mother. …

Continue reading Passing something on

The waiter poured the glass of wine for my son and we raised our glasses to toast…   Despite my instinctive fatherly discomfort and concerns, it was a ritual we could not avoid. After all, we were celebrating his 21st birthday… IT’S MORE THAN I CAN BEER… Yesterday, my son Zach turned 21. It is nerve …

Continue reading Drinking With Your Children

My wife and I work somewhat separate schedules.  I work a typical 9-5 schedule while she works part time at a hospital.  That means I spend some time watching our three boys by myself.  When the kids get all spun up and I start to get frustrated we need to find something to calm us …

Continue reading I am a rock star!

Getting Distracted Earlier tonight, I set out to write a blog here for Dad-O-Matic with a suggestion for how to handle a crying child and found myself writing about distractions in the context of life. Ironic how that happened, being distracted by my own inspiration to write! Anyway, upon finishing that up and posting on …

Continue reading A Technique To Quell Crying

Smile!  You’re on not-so-candid camera!  As parents it is our god given right to document the lives of our children. It is more than a right, it is an obligation.  Actually, for many it is more than a obligation, it is an obsession!  From the moment of our child’s birth we are compelled to capture …

Continue reading Parents or Paparazzi???

Spring has sprung, and dads everywhere are dusting seats, tightening bolts, lubricating chains and pumping air into the tires of the family bicycles. Riding a bike is something I love to do, and something I cannot help but equate to fond memories of both childhood and fatherhood. As a kid, there were few things as …

Continue reading Go Ride A Bike!

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

Got a question? Ask BloggerDad! When the good folks at Dad-O-Matic asked me to write for them, I had to a) make sure they didn’t mean to send the email to somebody else and b) think up something to write about. So I figured, why not write an advice column? First, a bit of an …

Continue reading Ask BloggerDad

I bet many of you moms and dads had collections when you were children. Some of you collected dolls, some trading cards. Did you realize at the time though how much that activity added to your life? As parents today, one of the best activities we can encourage in our children is hobby collecting. Collecting …

Continue reading Children, Collections, and You

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!

Family Traditions come in all shapes and sizes.  Some traditions involve special places.  Some traditions involve special foods.  Many traditions involve special people.  My family traditions involve jokes.  I come from a long line of practical jokers. My grandfather was famous (well, infamous) for placing a rubber rat in the oven, on top of a …

Continue reading An April Foolish Tradition

As parents, we have to make big decisions on our children’s behalf and sometimes we have to make those decisions in moments of crisis, with incomplete information, and contradictory or ambiguous advice from experienced professionals. This post is about making the decision to give a troubled child powerful drugs when no one can assure you …

Continue reading Giving Your Kid Drugs

Welcome to my (semi) 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! It’s a minor miracle of sorts at the Marshall household – the …

Continue reading Worst of the Week: Spring Cleaning

I found myself staring at my six kids as they milled around the breakfast table yesterday. It brought a smile to my face. So I said, “I love you guys.” They each turned their heads and smiled. It was a nice moment. Then my 8-year-old son said, “Where are you going?” Where am I going? …

Continue reading Hit And Run Affection

Curses!  It is clear that our society has become more and more accepting of what was once considered “foul language” (not to be confused with “gobble, gobble” or “tweet, tweet” which is a different kind of “fowl language”).  Words that were strictly verboten when I was a kid are now regularly spoken (and thus heard) …

Continue reading Curses! Soap Tastes Like $#*%!

I just returned from a family vacation that included two days at Disney World.  Our oldest daughter Carly, turned six in February, and this was our present to her.  Like most parents of six-year-olds, we are trying to teach her the value of a dollar, and appreciation for the things people do for her and …

Continue reading The Place "Where Dreams Come True"

No, I am NOT talking about Kentucky Fried Chicken!  Instead of poultry I am here to talk about dentistry!  At South By Southwest last week (SXSW for those who prefer acronyms) I was talking with Dad-O-Matic founder Chris Brogan and he mentioned that he was having trouble getting his young son to embrace the concept …

Continue reading Finger Licking Good!

Thanks to the annual wonders of Daylight Savings Time it is still dark out when I wake up at 5:30 in the morning.  The start of day routines take on a quiet and almost eerie feeling with the misty morning moonlight casting it’s glare as I walk the dogs, rub my eyes and text my …

Continue reading When The Bus Stop Stops…

Transparency is a hot topic among investors, whether talking about the financial well-being of public companies, investment funds, or executive compensation.  But have you thought about how transparency factors into your personal financial life? Most of us have suffered significant financial setbacks, ranging from investment holdings to the equity in our homes.  There’s not much …

Continue reading Personal Finance Transparency

Sunday is traditionally the day of rest, but it’s usually spent catching up on all those projects we promised to get to over the weekend. The kids can’t stay up late, so there’s a tighter Sunday night bedtime for most folks, and you can’t stay up late because you probably have work to get to …

Continue reading Making Time Is Not Wasting Time

If you have been reading the articles I have written for Dad-O-Matic over the past 5 months or so you may have gleaned that I am divorced and that my three kids, who are now 20, 18 and 17, live with me.  I am not sure I have ever directly stated that in my writing, …

Continue reading Divorce Is Funny…

“Dad, I was in an accident…”  As I listened to my son’s voice cracking, holding back tears, a thousand thoughts shot through my mind, none of them very encouraging… many of them more like prayers than thoughts.  It was 6:15 am, and Zach had just left the house to drive to school a few minutes …

Continue reading The Dreaded Phone Call

I drive carpool most mornings lately. I do it because it gets me out of the house and on my way to the gym. It works. And we have a very specific routine in the mornings. That routine includes what streets we take to get to the school. It’s all very predictable. We never deviate …

Continue reading Don't Be Afraid Of Change!

In my first article for Dadomatic I talked about recognizing the signs of autism, and in my second I talked about dealing with the diagnosis.  Well, this is my third in, shall we call it a trilogy (sounds both pretentious and cool, not unlike myself….) about the disorder my son has, autism. We are very …

Continue reading Autism: Advocating For Your Kid

I travel. Lots. I will travel more in 2009 than I have in my life to date. And yet, I have to maintain a relationship with my wife, my daughter, and my son. It requires every bit as much planning as it would for your business meetings. Here’s what I do for re-entry. Make it …

Continue reading Re-Entry After a Long Trip

Quite a bit has been written about the risks of our children being a bit too transparent with their lives online.  Horror stories abound about the perils of kids posting embarrassing or incriminating pictures on their MySpace and Facebook pages.  Primetime news shows are giving significant air time to controversial trends such as tweens and …

Continue reading TransPARENTcy!

In Dad’s Life Lessons On The Wall, I shared an easy and loving way to teach your child important life lessons. Perhaps one of my lessons is one of yours? Rule #2: Negative thoughts eat away at your brain. Don’t let this happen. On seven-year-old Zachary’s wall is a picture of an acidifying apple. A …

Continue reading Dad's Life Lessons: Rule #2

Health isn’t a goal, it’s an ongoing work. You can’t just eat healthy once. Running a few laps won’t put muscles on your legs. It’s just not that easy. Oh if only it were. Lots of dads and moms out there are all about getting healthy these days. They forget those few simple truths above. …

Continue reading Work in progress

As I walked out of the gym this morning, I passed a woman walking 15-20 feet in front of her toddler. He was young, probably 2 1/2 at most. He had a pacifier in his mouth and he was happily distracted by some flowers. The Mother turned and said: “Hurry up! Your going to make …

Continue reading I'm Talking To Myself

Gordon Ramsay, watch out!  Zachary Sass is going to win HELL’S KITCHEN one day.  I mean it!  He is already my favorite chef in Hollywood (ok, Hollywood, Florida…). ITS THEIR DREAM, NOT YOURS Last night I had the pleasure of dining at the Terra Bite Cafe, in Hollywood, Florida where my 20 year old son, …

Continue reading Cooking Up A Dream!

Ahhh, technology!  As a geek dad I am proud to be totally on top of the tech toys my kids are growing up with as their default accessories.  In fact, what us older gadget guys consider “toys” are hardly noticed as anything special by our kids.  They don’t know of anything but a world filled …

Continue reading Txting Words Of Encouragement

I was scanning Twitter last night as I often do when there is nothing much to watch on the idiot box.  As I was scrolling through the main stream of all the people I follow I came across an absolute gem. Robb Vaules – @infobahn, shared a quote from his son – “Quote of the …

Continue reading A Hero To Squirrels

OK, my brothers. When you was solo and needed to get some, you knew the drill. High rep light curls at the gym. New shirt and shave. Slap on some smellgood. Aaawwwww, yeeeaaa. Wassat? Things have changed? The old tricks don’t inspire business time the way they used to, you say? Well pull up a …

Continue reading The Married Man's Aphrodisiac

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

Rodney Atkins’ “I’ve Been Watching You” is one of my favorite songs for many reasons. One of them is because my six year-old loves singing it at the top of his lungs while watching the video with me. The other reason is because it’s a wonderful song for parents because it brings home the message …

Continue reading Monkey See, Monkey Do

I don’t know about you, but the older I get the harder it is for me to keep my mouth shut.  It seems I have an opinion about everything and I almost always feel compelled to share it.  I may be able to chalk it up to being older and wiser, but it still doesn’t …

Continue reading Learning To Bite Your Tongue

I’ve heard recently about a couple I know who are having some difficulties, the main cause is that they never take breaks away from their kids. I am the world’s number one fan of my little ones, they seriously rock. They are also 2 and 3 (11.5 months apart), so they can be a touch …

Continue reading Take A Break

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?

I learned a few days ago that a good friend of mine did something for his son that almost moved me to tears, on the spot. As an infant, he got him his own GMail account. Of what use is such a thing to persons lacking control of basic bodily functions, you ask? Well, my …

Continue reading Why Your Infant Needs GMail

If you are a parent, you have probably experienced some variation of “take your child to work day” – you know, the one where your son or daughter tags along to the office and you plop them down in front of a computer and hope and pray they will be able to occupy themselves with …

Continue reading Bring Your Work To Kids Day!

What do people do when you have an older kid and a younger kid in the house, and the older kid wants to consume media that messes with the younger kid? That’s the issue at hand in the Star Wars Dilemma. I’m wondering if you’ve had this happen at your house. My daughter is 6.5 …

Continue reading The Star Wars Dilemma

My kids like television… a lot.  Sometimes I worry (as do many of you) about the amount of TV that they consume.  I especially become concerned when their little eyes glaze over as the hypnotic TV trance brainwashes them into encouraging me to purchase Aquaglobes or Debbie Meyer Green Bags, or they reenact entire seasons …

Continue reading Imagination Day

I just came back from having a few drinks with a close friend.  We didn’t know each other five years ago – we met when our oldest children were in kindergarten together – and have managed to build a strong friendship since then.  It always amazes me how difficult it is to form close friendships …

Continue reading Is My Marriage Solid?

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

Image via Wikipedia Today I had to have a difficult conversation with my daughters.  It was made harder because we live apart, they in the UK me here in the US. So over the phone I had to break the news that I had received only a few hours earlier, that their Grandmother, my Mother …

Continue reading Difficult Conversations

Great entertainers like Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby recognized the attraction of the pure innocence and good humor of kids being kids.  When he was younger, my middle son Ethan (now 18)  seemed to be constantly auditioning for his own regular slot on “KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS.”  Some of my all time favorites were …

Continue reading George Washingmachine And The New Year’s Revolution!

“Wide Open Spaces” by the Dixie Chicks is a good companion piece to my previous post called “Toys in the Attic” which covered the pain of realizing your child has outgrown playing with their beloved toys. In this song, the parents have to come to grips with the sobering reality that their little girl is …

Continue reading Wide Open Spaces

When thinking about what to get my kids for the holidays I always try to put myself in their shoes and remember the gifts I received and how I felt about them when I was their age.  As kids grow up, the things that constitute a good gift may change dramatically, and as parents we …

Continue reading How To Give Good Gift!

The scene in Toy Story 2 when Jessie tells Woody her story about the girl that owned her is a heartbreaking one for me every time I see it. I think it stings more with time as my three children continue to grow up and abandon their once beloved toys one by one. It’s such …

Continue reading Toys in the Attic

Tis the season to be… inundated with religious debate.  I’d like to lighten things up a bit and focus on how the Holidays can be Holy days for everyone, regardless of your particular beliefs.  As someone who is Jewish that married someone who is not, my kids were raised with exposure to both the Jewish …

Continue reading Holy Days vs. Holidays

As I begin my first blog post with Dad-O-Matic, first I just want to welcome you the reader, and acknowledge my fellow Dad-O-Matic bloggers, as well as Chris Brogan and Paisono. Without them we wouldn’t have this awesome community of parents. Some background about me, I am a happily married husband of 11 years, and …

Continue reading Christmas Tradition

OK, that title is a bit pretentious..  Nonetheless, I know that most parents are not like me.  You see, I am an avid gamer, and even at 43 years old I have 5 consoles in my house.  Wait, actually that is four, one of the xBox 360s is in for repairs.  (My son has the …

Continue reading Video Game Buying Guide

I was checking out various offers and ideas for what dads might want to do for 2009, and I stumbled across BookSwim, a site that lets you rent books and give them back when you’re done. It’s like Netflix for books, which seemed pretty cool to me, and further, they had children’s books. If you’re …

Continue reading Save Money in 2009 by Renting

Buying gifts, whether they are for Birthday’s, Christmas or just general tokens of affection gets harder as your children grow up. My two daughters are especially difficult to buy for. There are two reasons for this, one they are both in their late teens / early adult hood (one turns 18 next week, one turned …

Continue reading Creative Gift Buying for Teens

My daughter is six. She’s having a bit of trouble fitting in at school, and frankly, with us. I know the reason, though. She’s going to be famous. It’s true. I can tell. She’s creative, a true outlier, someone who doesn’t even know there is a trend, let alone that she’s bucking it. And she’s …

Continue reading Tell Them They'll Be Famous

Phone Home! In this age of email, text and instant messages, it is easy to forget the power of your voice. It is easy to forget the simplicity and impact of a phone call. We are spoiled by the instant connections we make online. Spoiled by the ability to tell the world what we are …

Continue reading ET Had It Right: Phone Home!

This is my first contribution to Dad-O-Matic (Howdy Everyone!) I realize everyone is busy with Holiday planning,but please take a moment and wander down this thought with me for a second. As a social media guy, I wanted to help everyone take a moment of thought and finalize it with a moment of action. This …

Continue reading Social Media Charity

As parents, we all want what’s best for our children. Education, health, happiness – all these and more are top of our lists when it comes to our kids being happy and having the best start in life. Yet we also need to understand that at times we may not always be going the right …

Continue reading Helping Our Kids Grow

There is lots of talk about Rockstars here and here, but I am going to talk about the Rockstar under your roof… the Rockstar you are raising.  I have three Rockstars in my house, and only one of them is a musician.  The musician, my middle son Ethan, is an accomplished guitarist and studies music …

Continue reading How To Raise A Rockstar!

Welcome 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! I mentioned last week that Erin (6) was not motivated while participating in …

Continue reading Worst of the Week: Homework Time

When I was a kid our family photos were all kept in albums. The hundreds of photos were meticulously positioned under the plastic static film on each page by my mum. She was great about writing the dates and locations of the photos on the backs. Today we’re lucky enough to have plenty of storage …

Continue reading Back Up Your Photos Now