I was at my parent’s house the other day and I looked at lots of old photographs that they had on the walls and in picture frames around the house. I saw pictures from my childhood, family vacations, and some of my kids of course. And I was struck by something: there weren’t that many …
Continue reading Take More Pictureskids
Growing up I never had “real” pets. Sure, I had turtles and goldfish and even a snake and a chameleon (not all at the same time…), but I never had dogs or cats. The excuse was that I, as a chubby asthmatic kid, was allergic… but I always suspected that the real truth was that …
Continue reading Of Kids And Dogs…My 15 year old son is only 1 inch away from being as tall as me. It’s a strange feeling for me to see him looking straight into my eyes. His feet are as big as mine. His hands are as big as mine. And the little boy has grown into a young man. For …
Continue reading He Looks Like Me
Guilt is a great motivator. Well, maybe not every time, but sometimes it certainly can be. When you have kids, something happens. It may not happen overnight, but it happens. You start to think differently about things. You suddenly start to notice the words and images that are used on TV shows and commercials, when …
Continue reading A Father’s GuiltThis past weekend I was completing one of my to-do items on my list, and figured the new year was as good an excuse as any to get it done! Â I have a stack of home movies of my kids on VCR tapes that I have been meaning for years to get converted to DVDs …
Continue reading From stuffed animals to puppy dogsI 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?I had dinner with two of the three Sasslets the other night. It is hard to still call them “Sasslets” as my daughter, the youngest, just left her teens behind by turning twenty. Yes, she’s been Daddy’s little girl for twenty years, and that’s how long I’ve been wrapped around her finger. While I still …
Continue reading What I Learned Having Dinner With My KidsThe other day I was surfing around inside Facebook and saw a post that was created by my 14-yr old daughter. One of her older high-school friends made a comment on her post and in the comment she said this, “…I want to no all about it…”. Â I made the remark to my daughter how …
Continue reading Facebook GrammarThe list is long. My to-do list of work-related things is pretty darn long, and you know what I’m talking about. When you get something marked off your list it seems like 2 things make it onto your list. I am one of those people who doesn’t have a distinct separation between work and personal, …
Continue reading The Most Important Thing: Being ThereIt 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 GiftFor many years I have done my dad-ly duties by documenting the various family events such as birthdays, vacations, and sports games. Â I have more digital pictures than I care to count, and I will admit that I am quite fond of making music videos of the family events and posting them on Youtube (www.youtube.com/user/stevengholt). …
Continue reading Transforming My Son Into Steven SpielbergIt looked really cool. My 11 year old son had taken a piece of paper on the counter and folded it into a boat, although I didn’t know at that moment that he was the one who did it. At first I thought that he might have found it somewhere, but I asked him where …
Continue reading Is YouTube raising my kids?So we sat down at the computer like we always do (my wife and I that is) to figure out which week we needed to block out for the family summer vacation. We did this about a month ago, at the beginning of March. Â We are still trying to figure it out. I remember back …
Continue reading The Modern-Day Family Summer VacationI had the chance a few weeks ago to participate in a week-long training seminar on leadership. Toward the end of the week I was a little worn out with all the heavy mental calisthenics I had been doing and was really just interested in going home. Then we had a 4-hour session on the …
Continue reading The Watermarks of LifeI think most dads would agree that their dad-ness is influenced in large part by the things that their dad did. I know that’s true in my life. My childhood was a normal one I think, with lots of great memories of family vacations, yard work, playground fights, and generally being a kid. I struggle …
Continue reading These Aren’t My Dad’s ShoesIt 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…The other day one of my kids ran in the house after school and made a bee-line to his room. In a matter of minutes the XBox360 was online and he was fragging (ask your kids, they know what it means) his buddies and trash talking (using his wireless voice-over-ip headset) his way through a …
Continue reading Nazi Zombies, Mudballs, and Why I Am Afraid I Am Screwing My Kids Up“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 MomentsMy youngest’s bio on Facebook. Why I love him. I’m a pretty laid back person. Unfortunately, I’m a person who wears their heart on their sleeves. I’m the son of an awesome father, Todd Jordan, who really cares for me. Also, an awesome loving mother, Sharon Jordan, who cares for me just the same. Without …
Continue reading Love, Anger, KidsDo you remember when the Christmas toys were new and exciting, even after Easter? Those were the good old days when a favorite toy lasted beyond the current TV season. Like many parents, I try to get gifts each Christmas that will have staying power. Invariably, some of the toys don’t live up to the …
Continue reading The Expiration Date on Christmas ToysTiger Woods is just the latest example of a sports star gone astray. Their face is peppered across all media outlets and the publicity is nothing but negative. As adults we know how to deal with this sort of disappointment. It doesn’t bother us much and after a few weeks or months we forget about …
Continue reading When Your Child’s Hero FallsOur 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 & PersonalThis 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 GapYou 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" MysteryAbout Two years ago, when I was out shopping, I ran across an amazing rocking unicorn. If you squeezed its ear, it came to life. The head bobbed, the mouth moved, and it made horse sounds. There was the clip-clop of hooves and a good, spirited neigh. I was captivated by the thought of my …
Continue reading Rocking Unicorns : A Cautionary TaleBy Danny Guspie This is my personal story and journey. The first year that that my wife and I were separated was by far the most difficult Christmas ever. At the time, I was a working dad as well as full-time single dad, and my olive branch gesture was to send the kids to my …
Continue reading Divorce and Kids during Christmas, Holidays can be GREAT!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 FamousReading Joe’s post about making family first got me thinking about some of the life lesson’s that I’ve been trying to imprint on my kids…   And one of the secrets in our family is having kids who have control over their attitude. My guess is that most parents can relate to having a two-year …
Continue reading "You must change your attitude by the count of three"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 PulpitI 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 …
Continue reading iPhone Apps for Kids