Mom’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 Baby

Elle 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 Daughter

It is the morning after Halloween and the house is quiet, save the occasional whine or bark of one of the dogs. In the kitchen there are no plastic pumpkin pails or bright orange bags filled with candy.  There are no empty wrappers for me to pick up off the floor, left strewn about by …

Continue reading Bitter Sweets

Photowalking is fun. Especially with kids! All you need are at least one kid and at least one camera. If you’re not familiar with the idea, photowalking is just a fancy way to say, “Go play outside!” There’s really nothing more to it than simply walking around an interesting area, and taking lots of pictures. …

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Warning: Some of the content in the following commercials will be disturbing to some of you. They are graphic in nature on purpose as they are trying to share their message about the dangers of driving too fast, driving drunk or driving without wearing your seatbelts. Mostly, these spots are focussed on young teen drivers …

Continue reading Teens and Driving

My 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 Blitz

A 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?

In our house full of boys (One dad, two sons, two boy cats, a boy dog and a rotating menagerie of bugs of indeterminate gender), we hold one truth to be self-evident: mom is special. Mom doesn’t get much “girl time” at our place, but she does have seemingly unlimited opportunity to be hassled, annoyed …

Continue reading Taking care of mom

Every dad knows this song, Harry Chapin’s classic “Cat’s in the Cradle”. It was a number one hit in 1974 and originally written as a poem by Harry’s wife Sandie who received credit as co-writer of the song. Incidentally, she didn’t write it about Harry’s relationship with their son as commonly believed but actually about …

Continue reading The Cat’s in the Cradle

I only post here once a week, but I read the blog daily. For me the best post this week, if not the best ever post on here was written by Paisano – Sins of the Father. He uses the song by Everclear Father of Mine to relate the sense of abandoment, confusion and frustration felt …

Continue reading Investment Tip

The picture of my “Vampire Weekend” above was taken on Halloween probably 16 years ago. The two little bloodsuckers with me in the photo are now 20 and 18 years old. Time flies when you are having fun, and we were definitely having fun! Halloween may be a scary time, but I think that as …

Continue reading Fangs For The Memories!

When my 12-year-old daughter wanted to read my latest book, I discouraged her, because it addresses adult subjects, including organized rebellion against government (just the thought of which these days can label you a traitor), and it depicts sex and violence. My 12-year-old. This is a girl who watches Bones and The X-Files, then switches …

Continue reading Our Kids Can Handle a Lot More than We Give Them Credit For

“Father of Mine” by EverClear is an extra special song for me because it truly hits home for me on a deep personal level. I relate to the words so much because my father left our mom with four sons in a strange new land when I was a toddler and I never really got …

Continue reading The Sins of Our Fathers

Having started a Father’s Group (Pop Culture) over three years ago I can honestly say it’s one of the best things I’ve done as a father.  At the time I was freelancing and was essentially a SAHD (Stay at Home Dad) and desperately needed some dad-bonding where I could get advice from other guys trying …

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My dad got into computers in the 1970s. Sometimes, he’d take me to work and I’d play this Star Trek game on a computer that had to print out the “screen” on paper. Sometimes, I’d destroy reams of paper chasing a Klingon around. I had no idea how much I was underfoot, but my Dad …

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It seems that once a child reaches School, or Daycare, that Kid’s Parties become both a bane and a blessing. Parents, in my experience, put on a good show for their kid’s celebrations. Grinning through the crazy, you can see the glimmer in their eyes. Looking forward with bated breath for all the other parties …

Continue reading Practical: Party On

In my most recent (and for that matter only so far…) post I talked about recognizing the signs that your son or daughter may have autism.  In this post I want to talk about dealing with the diagnosis. As I mentioned previously, we had suspicions about our son perhaps being autistic.  Well we finally got …

Continue reading Autism, dealing with the diagnosis

Hey everyone, Kathie and I are not yet parents. Fetus Wilder isn’t scheduled to make his debut until November 27th. Happy Thanksgiving! So at week 34, Kathie is getting pretty round and she’s loving every minute of it! Yeah, it hurts to sit too long. It hurts to stand too long. It hurts to be …

Continue reading Lullaby

I’m sure (I hope) most of you will agree that teaching our children manners is crucial.  Here’s a simple way to reinforce your children saying, “thank you.”   This Dad-o-Matic Quick Tip works best with younger children.  When you hand your child something that they have asked for, don’t let go. Keep your grip on the object–be …

Continue reading Dad-o-Matic Quick Tip: Getting Kids to Say Thank You

I have three kids.  The two oldest are boys.  The third, and youngest, is my daughter, Olivia.  From the moment of birth, boys and girls are different.  At least that has been my experience.  As infants and toddlers, the boys were into everything, climbing on furniture even before they could walk.  Bumps, bruises, burns and …

Continue reading When Did Daddy’s Little Girl Become a Woman?

This past Sunday our church pastor was doing a sermon on friendship.  The title? “When your backs against the wall…..You have to have friends”.   Without going into a sermon of my own, the gist of the lecture was that you’ve got to have “good, solid friends.”  These friends are the ones that listen and comfort …

Continue reading Our Children's Friends: Encouraging Positive Friendships

How much time do you spend with your kids?  No, this isn’t a lecture, it’s not meant to be condemning – it’s more of a “note-to-self”.   Because I struggle with the same balance you do – spending time with my children vs. doing work that needs to be done.  I’m busy, you’re busy – we’re …

Continue reading Kids and Time

October 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 Poor

My wife and I have always made it a priority to read to our children–I’m sure most of you do the same, and yes, I do the voices. I would like to think that this habit has helped lead to our second grader’s ability to read at a 5th grade level.  Every night, before bed …

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I 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, …

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Reading Dave Delaney’s post about Tip for Expecting Daddies got me thinking about what got me through the first couple of months.  It is a great tip.  My tip is for fathers whose child is already born.  Some might not agree with it but it worked for me. When my daughter, Danni, was born my …

Continue reading A Quick tip for Fathers of New Borns

The job of Storyteller has a long and worthy history in this country and is, I’m happy to say, an old tradition that in recent years has been resurrected – and rightly so. However, I don’t think it’s just the role of an official storyteller, or that of teachers, to introduce children to the wonders …

Continue reading Being A Story Teller

A big part of being a good Dad is arming your kids with the tools they’ll need to understand and navigate the world successfully as adults. When I first became a Dad, I took some time to reflect on the adults I knew… on what the ones who were doing better seemed to understand, and …

Continue reading Choices and Consequences

One thing I’ve learned through experience is that raising a child makes you a father, not simply the act of procreation. Far too many men can do the latter but a precious few ever even try to be the former. I respect and admire anyone that accepts the sacrifice and challenge of raising a child …

Continue reading He Didn’t Have to Be

Social Networking can be a great tool for any Dad or Mom for that matter to get where their kids are and know what they’re doing. Some of the most successful people in the industry use this same method to network and grow the number of people they come in contact with. A tip I …

Continue reading Are You Following Your Kids?

There are some things dads have to teach their kids, and I think one is how to take compliments well. One of our fine readers (if I could find your twitter DM, I’d call you out by name) asked me to address this, because she has a wonderful and amazing teenager who happens to be …

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If you have kids over the age of 10 it is highly likely they already have their own mobile phones.  If you have kids with their own mobile phones, it is highly likely that they use their phones for a great deal of “texting” (sending text messages).  How about you? According to a new consumer …

Continue reading where r u dad? dnr is rdy!

With all the crap going on with respect to the economy, I felt it would be the perfect time to expand on something I have always thought  . . . It can cost absolutely nothing to have a good time with your kids, yet and can be more rewarding than an all day spa trip …

Continue reading These Times are Great

I’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 Thanks

I’m not a dad yet. Kathie is due to deliver our first baby around November 27th. So I’m in the position of anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby boy. As we draw closer to Thanksgiving; I’ve instinctively begun the process of re-evaluating my time. Am I using it well? Am I being effective? Is …

Continue reading Detoxification

I love being a Dad. It’s given me so many opportunities that I would never of had if I stayed a bachelor. I’ll be touching on many of those hats here at Dad-o-Matic in the upcoming weeks and months but for now let’s start of with something that every single dad can do and that …

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I’ve always loved this piece called “Loving Two” by an unknown author. I was moved when I first read it many years ago long before I became a dad and it touches me even more today. I understand it so much more now. It’s such a profound and emotional experience to be blessed with one …

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As a proud father, I continue to be amazed at the development of my children. I was worried for awhile, I must admit. Two years ago one of my daughters struggled to say “TOUCHDOWN!” on Sunday afternoons. Perhaps this was because I was expecting too much of her. Or perhaps it’s because I’m a Kansas …

Continue reading The Joy of Football

I 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.

Today 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 …

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The PLUNGE Hey, I’m the New Dad on the Block.  Sort of.  After 37 years of living “Me-ness,” I took the plunge.  No, I mean I TOOK THE PLUNGE – not only did I get married, but I inherited the insta-family, four daughters from my wife’s previous marriage.  Being the glutton for punishment, we added …

Continue reading Heroes Overcome Humiliation

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 Presence

Great news today for parents and their children that enjoy playing online. Parents.com and KidZui.com have formed a partnership to enhance the KidZui experience and bring more families to the kid-friendly site. For those of you that aren’t familiar with KidZui yet, it’s geared for kids ages 3-12 and provides a free browser and online …

Continue reading Parents.com and Kidzui Form Healthy Alliance for Parents and Kids

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 Wrong

Calm down fellas, this is not going to be an expose about your favorite Showtime series.  This is going to be a quick look at a four letter word that parents and kids should make themselves comfortable with and use much more frequently. NOT ALL FOUR LETTER WORDS ARE BAD The late, great George Carlin …

Continue reading The Real “L” Word

Reading 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 Back

OK…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 Party

It’s that time of year again, when parents have to avoid drug stores and Wal-Mart as often as possible, if only to get away from multiple requests for a second costume, or another set of make-up, or a third pumpkin carving kit. It’s also the time of year when we look at costumes that are …

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My son was born a little over three years ago now. He surprises me daily with a new word, phrase or expression that makes me laugh. Friday at dinner, I was annoyed we were out of ketchup. He cocked his head to one side and said, “It’s okay, Daddy … you’ll live.” Fatherhood has grown …

Continue reading Fears Of A New Father

Before I get to the point(s) of this post I figure I ought to introduce myself. My name is Dave Brodbeck, I live in Sault Ste. Marie, ON Canada where I work as a professor of psychology at Algoma University (go Thunderbirds!) Much more importantly, I have an awesome family, I am married and I …

Continue reading Autism, Recognizing The Signs

The song “Father & Son” by Cat Stevens has become increasingly poignant and powerfully meaningful to me as I raise my three children. They continue to grow up faster than I want them to but what can you do about it? All I can do is try to be the best example I can be …

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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 DadLabs

Gay 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 …

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Scrapbooking is one of those hobbies that have been around for decades, but like most niches it has become increasingly popular thanks to desktop publishing, digital cameras and the internet as a whole. My wife Patty and I know of several people who are involved in this hobby, but we are not one of them. …

Continue reading Scrapbooking For Dads

  I spend a lot of time online.  Working at an interactive agency, part of my job is staying up on the latest online trends which includes having accounts at several social media, community and networking websites. Recently, I inadvertently came across the profile of someone I knew, my niece, and I was surprised to …

Continue reading Hey – She's Not 22!

There is nothing more shocking in a man’s life then to be slammed into baby reality with a screaming mini you. Since the birth of my little girl (Sylvia June) two weeks ago, I had an idea what I would be getting into when she would be home. I knew it was going to be …

Continue reading Sleep, Sleep & NO SLEEP…

In this age of financial crisis and mega billion banking bailouts, it hardly seems worthwhile to be concerned with $ 5,  $10 or $20 a week.  However, if you are a kid, and that 5, 10 or 20 bucks is your allowance, you are allowed to be concerned.  More importantly, if you are the proud …

Continue reading The BUXX Stops Here!

Playspace Finder is a resource that mashes on top of Google Maps and gives parents a place to mark down a playground, notate what’s there, provide pictures, ratings, reviews and more. It’s a really great idea (and by great, I mean “simple”). I did a quick scan of some areas around my house, and there …

Continue reading Find a Place to Play

The “C-word” – it’s one of the worst words in the English language.  Whenever I hear one of my two children utter this word, they know that there will be consequences.  Under no circumstances are my children allowed to say, “can’t.” Here’s how I’ve helped eliminate “can’t” (and a few other words) from the conversation. …

Continue reading The "Bad" Words

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Bullies have been a part of childhood for centuries, but their reigns of terror are swiftly becoming short-lived these days thanks to all of the bully awareness and Anti-Bully prevention programs that exist today. Obviously, it’s impossible to totally prevent bullying but we can always improve how and when we intervene whenever it does take …

Continue reading The Bully Pulpit

As a single dad of three teenagers, I have had to come to terms with a fact many of us men don’t really like to concede; I’m mortal. As Clint Eastwood’s character Harry Callahan said so eloquently in Magnum Force, “a man’s got to know his limitations. ” Having kids taught me what Dirty Harry …

Continue reading Don't Sweat It

When I was six, my grandfather would take me on his sales route. He sold candy. (How popular is a candy salesman?) He started buying me comics at various stops like Flo’s Variety on the hill, and Depot News downtown. I owe a lot of my ability to read to comics. And to this day, …

Continue reading Comics and Kids

I have three kids. My wife, mother and I all have iPhones. This is not a coincidence. It didn’t take long after the introduction of the iPhone to realize that the iPhone was a great tool for entertaining youngsters and buying parents some peace… provided said youngsters are not fighting over the device itself. If …

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When I was in grammar school, I didn’t know anyone with a life-threatening nut allergy.  Today, it seems to have become a far more common occurrence, and different schools have different approaches to handling the kids with the allergies and the foods they’re allergic to. My son, who just started pre-K at a private parochial …

Continue reading Nuts!

Every week, I go to the grocery store and my eyes glaze over as I roam through the food aisles looking for that perfect balance of what my daughter WILL eat and what she SHOULD eat. She’s actually quite good with fruits and vegetables, but buying these at the beginning of the week just guarantees …

Continue reading What are You Packing for Snacks