This article should serve as either a warning, a hard slap-in-the-face wake up call, or reassurance that you are doing the right thing. Co-sleeping is a plague that is sweeping the world, ready to take out every desperate couple in their path. For those who need to know, co-sleeping is the term given to children who sleep in the same bed as their parents. It is a dangerous situation physically, and socially. The only way to prevent it, is to never start it. The only way to stop it is to grow a pair, deal with your child"s weaning process, and quit it cold turkey. Read the rest of this entry »
When your dad was a kid he and his buddies used to run around the yard shooting each other with slingshots and pellet guns. They would happily plunk each other in the ass or neck or eye with BBs, rocks and marbles. Of course YOU were never allowed to do the same. Your dear old folks would never allow it. My dad used to talk about how his friend blew his thumb off with a cherry bomb. I bet that he and his friends were allowed and encouraged to play with explosives. In contrast to them, we were stuck running around the yard "shooting" each other with toy replica AK47s and stabbing away with our plastic bowie knives. Of course you cannot do that today. Now all of the guns are pink and orange and fire water, while all edges have been converted from Bert to Ernie.
And now noodad, ask yourself: Would I let my kids play with the toys I had as a kid?
After your kid starts to talk, the next major milestone is when they actually think about what they are saying. But just because they know how to say the words, they don"t necessarily know what they mean.
One of the most interesting and frustrating things that happens, is when your kid argues with you about something they have no business arguing with you about.
Last night, for instance, my daughter argued with me about the use of the term, "O.J." We were not referring tot he verb usage meaning: "To kill your wife and her lover, and get away with murder because you played the race card" We are talking about the yellow, pulpy substance that you typically drink in the morning. Read the rest of this entry »
So you broke down and bought a swing set for the kids. Whether you paid someone to put it together for you or you decided to brave it yourself, the hard part is yet to come. Because the hardest part of installing the swing set on your property is the preparation of the area.
That is, of course, if you decide to follow the suggested "safe-area" requirements established for residential play structures. I did. It took me a total of 30 hours of hard labor, 8 cubic yards of wood chips, 128 wheelbarrow trips and 8 tablets of Alleve. But, it is finished and the kids and I could not be more pleased. Read the rest of this entry »
Naming your kids is a very important task in the realm of
fatherhood. The name needs to be unique enough and common enough:
Unique enough that they don't share the same name with fifty of their
classmates and common enough that they will not be subject to
mispronounciations and ridicule.
But it doesn't stop at just
first names. You need to think about how middle names sound when
hearing the full name, what type of crazy 3-letter word the initials
make, and what type of nicknames could rhyme with the name. I knew a
girl in school with the initials ARF and man, was she a dog, too. It's
a complex puzzle to solve. Read the rest of this entry »
"I pick things up I am a collector" Gravel is not the most glamorous driveway medium. As a kid, one of my friends had a huge gravel driveway loop. We would do time trials on our bikes, that was until I wiped my Huffy Desperado out on one of the vicious, rocky turns. Wearing shorts was really what turned it from an unfortunate mishap into an accident. Gravel driveways do have their advantages though. We would carve out roads and neighborhoods in them for our Matchbox Cars. Matchbox Cars are the first thing I can remember collecting. I had a little case with small plastic car shaped parking spaces. I would keep my cars nice and shiny and rarely ever made trades.
I eventually put my Matchbox aside, probably when Masters of the Universe came out. GI Joe and Transformers followed. I never really had any of the cool vehicles or play sets. My younger brother seemed to be better at acquiring them. This baffles scholars to this very day. He had Castle Greyskull, the "Joe Base", Optimus Prime and The SR71 Blackbird. Maybe it was partially because he actually played with his toys. I did, but I think part of the fun was actually going to the store, hunting them down and getting them.
In spite of growing protests from both grandmothers I had no intention of drastically reducing my son’s intake of television. He is a fan the Nickelodeon Network. He has his favorite shows – SpongeBob, Fairly Odd Parents, CatScratch, and even Danny Phantom. And I am there with him. I enjoy watching the shows by his side, often laughing at what he finds funny, as opposed the show itself. Except of course for Fairly Odd Parents and CatScratch where I often find myself laughing alone. My own mother’s protests in particular fell on deaf ears. I recall that when I was a kid I viewed grade school merely as the interruption between the two hours or cartoons I watched in the morning and the four hours of sitcoms I watched in the evening. But recently I wondered it myself; was it possible that my boy is exposed to too much TV? Yes Jack Black, he is. Read the rest of this entry »
This article should serve as either a warning, a hard slap-in-the-face wake up call, or reassurance that you are doing the right thing. Co-sleeping is a plague that is sweeping the world, ready to take out every desperate couple in their path. For those who need to know, co-sleeping is the term given to children who sleep in the same bed as their parents. It is a dangerous situation physically, and socially. The only way to prevent it, is to never start it. The only way to stop it is to grow a pair, deal with your child"s weaning process, and quit it cold turkey. Read the rest of this entry »
When your dad was a kid he and his buddies used to run around the yard shooting each other with slingshots and pellet guns. They would happily plunk each other in the ass or neck or eye with BBs, rocks and marbles. Of course YOU were never allowed to do the same. Your dear old folks would never allow it. My dad used to talk about how his friend blew his thumb off with a cherry bomb. I bet that he and his friends were allowed and encouraged to play with explosives. In contrast to them, we were stuck running around the yard "shooting" each other with toy replica AK47s and stabbing away with our plastic bowie knives. Of course you cannot do that today. Now all of the guns are pink and orange and fire water, while all edges have been converted from Bert to Ernie.
After your kid starts to talk, the next major milestone is when they actually think about what they are saying. But just because they know how to say the words, they don"t necessarily know what they mean.
So you broke down and bought a swing set for the kids. Whether you paid someone to put it together for you or you decided to brave it yourself, the hard part is yet to come. Because the hardest part of installing the swing set on your property is the preparation of the area. 
Naming your kids is a very important task in the realm of
In spite of growing protests from both grandmothers I had no intention of drastically reducing my son’s intake of television. He is a fan the Nickelodeon Network. He has his favorite shows – SpongeBob, Fairly Odd Parents, CatScratch, and even Danny Phantom. And I am there with him. I enjoy watching the shows by his side, often laughing at what he finds funny, as opposed the show itself. Except of course for Fairly Odd Parents and CatScratch where I often find myself laughing alone. My own mother’s protests in particular fell on deaf ears. I recall that when I was a kid I viewed grade school merely as the interruption between the two hours or cartoons I watched in the morning and the four hours of sitcoms I watched in the evening. But recently I wondered it myself; was it possible that my boy is exposed to too much TV? Yes Jack Black, he is. 
