My dad ran up and down the sidelines cheering me on and yelling at the top of his lungs. Â He didn’t know much of anything about soccer, but that didn’t stop him from being my fan. Â That taught me a valuable lesson, which I am using today. I have never been a basketball fan. Â High …
Continue reading My NBA Education, or, What I Learned From My 12-Year Oldchildren
The title of this post says it all. A a dad of daughter who is now 19, while she will always be a cutie in my eyes, I can fondly remember when she was the age of these incredibly cute (and talented) contestants on America’s Got Talent. Â I love seeing the parents in the wings …
Continue reading I Looked Up Cute In The Dictionary and This Is What I Found…We just got back from the family vacation to the Great Smokey Mountains, and it has given me time to reflect on the whole family vacation experience. Â I wrote a number of weeks ago about the whole saga of trying to figure out a way to get the whole family together for a summer vacation, …
Continue reading Spend Your Money On MemoriesIt is Saturday afternoon and I am all alone. Olivia, my daughter and the youngest at 19 is at work at Panera Bread. Â My middle Son, Ethan, is in Boston, battling the blizzards and enjoying the extra time he’s getting with his guitar thanks to “snow days” off from college. Zach, the first born and …
Continue reading 10 Things I Miss Now That My Kids Are Older…Lately I have been reflecting on reflections, literally and figuratively. Â 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. Â It seems I notice mirrors and reflections at every turn these days, from the literal mirror mirror …
Continue reading The Man (Dad) In The MirrorTrust 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!“Instead of enjoying her company over the holiday weekend, I’ll be waving good-bye to her as my mother takes her to California for a dance competition.” A Dad carves a moment out of his morning to spend some time with his busy girl.
Continue reading Loving the Little MomentsAre you enjoying some quiet time with your spouse while the kids are away at camp? Â If so, you are also probably getting ready for the infamous “visiting day,” when parents invade the camp grounds to see what their offspring are really doing while off at Camp Cost-A-Lot. Â Having been both a camper and a …
Continue reading 5 Tips For A Successful Summer Camp Visiting DayIt is Independence Day but I find myself considering “independence” in more ways than the birth of our nation. Having recently gone through both a High School and a College graduation with my kids, lately their independence has been on my mind. Â So, to celebrate parenthood on the 4th of July, here is a quick …
Continue reading 10 Milestones In Your Child’s Path To IndependenceI am NOT suggesting that being a parent and raising our kids is anything at all like training a dog. Really, I am NOT.  However… I once hired a dog trainer who focused almost exclusively on training a puppy by giving it, in his words, “plenty of praise.”  Giving our kids plenty of praise is also a …
Continue reading Training Your Kids (And 3 Things That Are Worthy Of Praise)Last week I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at Jeff Pulver‘s 140 Characters Conference: Exploring The State of Now! There were nearly 170 speakers and panelists at this two day event, including celebrities, musicians, technologists, media personalities, educators, and more. Without question, one of the most popular and inspiring presentations was that of …
Continue reading An Education on Education: Chris Lehmann Talks “School 2.0” At #140ConfBefore 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?Regardless of what we may think, in the end, it is our kids who hold all the power. Â They are the ones who (sooner than we think) will start taking over and running things in this fast paced, high tech digital world we live in. Â I was reminded of this in the presentation below by …
Continue reading Respect Kids: They Will Own You One Day!This is my first post as a new dad contributor to Dad-O-Matic and it is about giving back. Where do kids learn to be so compassionate for others? Usually from their parents in most cases but not in this particular situation. I have three kids and my oldest child Sabreena is very into one particular …
Continue reading Children Giving Back“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 parents we are many things. At times we are the masters, at times we are the mentors. We have to be both teacher and preacher. We have to lead and feed and seed our children so that they grow into happy and productive adults. We live in stressful and complicated times and now, more …
Continue reading Opening Doors To Your Children’s Dreamswant 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 DadFor 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 SuddenlyYes, 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 ChildrenIt’s that time of year again. It’s time to sort the CDs. Oh, I’m sure you’re thinking “Why don’t you just keep them in order as you use them?†and normally I would agree with you. After all, that’s how I use them. But I live with children. Four of them to be exact. And …
Continue reading Daddy’s Music HelpersThe ten most important things divorced fathers should realize as they transition parentally from “Husband and Father” to “One-and-Only Dad”…
Continue reading Top Ten Things Divorced Dads Need to KnowIt’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!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 onFriday was my middle son’s birthday. He turned 19, so “having a party” was not the concern it once was when he and his siblings were younger. At 19, dinner at a restaurant of his choice with family and a couple of friends was more than sufficient for a Happy Birthday. No balloons, clowns or …
Continue reading A Birthday Party For A Dollar (store)!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 ChildrenRapid evolution is sweeping the planet, pushing us faster and farther than ever before. Communication is now nearly as instant as thought. It is those who weild the sharpest skills to clearly communicate who will be the ones to mine the most from the future’s rewards. This isn’t handed down. Skilled communication isn’t innate, it …
Continue reading Give Your Child a Future Without LimitsI’m all for positive nuclear family images in kid films, even the “hit-you-over-the head-with-a-mallet” kind (see: Spy Kids). What makes me uncomfortable is when divorce is superfluously depicted to kids as the end of the world. The obvious inference to real-life children of divorce (of which there are roughly one million a year): Your family is broken. Happy ending for us; stinks to be you.
Continue reading Why Must Kid Films Demonize Divorce?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!Ahhh, the ubiquitous mobile phone… the blessing and curse of our modern society.  As a parent, it is a blessing since we can always have the comfort of knowing we are just a phone call away from an instant connection with our children.  As a parent, it is a curse because now that we have …
Continue reading It’s Your Kid Calling… Now What???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 AtticAs 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   In this day and age, many a social networking site has sprung up. A few of the most popular are Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. There’s a new player in town though that brings us elements of all three with a touch of blog thrown in, wee-web.com.    Wee-web is all about your …
Continue reading Wee-Web, A Family Social Network?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 …
Continue reading Kids on the Web