In an effort to learn about the trends of 21st century families, restaurant chains like McDonald’s and KFC have developed “Advisory Boards” for parents to meet with representatives of the company on a regular basis. These groups will shed light to the big bad fast food chains on what parents really want. Sounds great right?
Not so great from where I’m standing. Apparently, to these chains, men do not matter because these groups consist of mothers and mothers only. I
understand that this is a great move to get to know the levers and barriers to selling their food to the next generation of fast food eaters. But to disregard the father’s role in these types of lifestyle decisions is absurd.
Let me just start by saying that I am not some hippy, tree hugging, make-love-not-war guy. I understand why someone would want to own a weapon. The second amendment to the Constitution of the United States ensures us all the right to bear arms. And whether you are of the belief that "guns kill people" or "people kill people" the fact that even one person owns a gun ensures that someone else is going to want to own a bigger gun in order to keep the other in check.
I read the news. I see what guns do
I have never felt compelled to own a weapon of my own.
You have probably heard about the pregnant man but obviously have some serious questions. If you are like me, the questions start like this:”What the #$@%?” and “How the hell….”. What you really need are answers to the questions your wife will ask you.
Here’s what you need to know:
-The pregnant man’s name is Thomas Beatie.
-He is a transgendered man.
-He used to be a beauty queen.
-He has a uterus.
We spend a lot of time around here talking about dad topics in a funny light. But every once in a while we tell people about some serious stuff.
Connor John Corkern is a 15 month old boy from Amite, Louisiana and he was born with two rare conditions, Congenital Panhypopituitarism and Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. This means he is hormone deficient and blind.
The good news is there is a procedure that has been proven to help and even give Connor a chance to see. The bad news is it is performed in China and is not covered by insurance. So Connor’s family are trying to raise $60,000 to send Connor to China to get the procedure and spend a month in China to recover.
Connor is the nephew of a friend of Noodad and his story has touched me greatly. As an artist and designer I know the importance of sight. As a dad I know the feeling of looking at your kid and your kid seeing you back.
Have you seen this recent YouTube phenomenon? It features a cute 3 year old girl explaining the plot of Star Wars. She has great lines like, “Don’t talk back to Darth Vader, he’ll get ya!” and “he tried to block the little poke ball” and calls Obiwan, “Obie Kenobi”.
The point is, it is damn cute and thousands of people have watched it and have made comments on the YouTube page. But then something happened. Read the rest of this entry »
Get off that computer and go outside! You are limited to 30 minutes of video games per day. Those games are too violent. As a kid, I heard all of this and many of you are saying the same things to your kids. You are concerned by the amount of time they are spending with a controller in their hand or sitting at a computer terminal questing for XP, blowing away aliens, building, deploying and destroying armies and socializing with their friends. Read the rest of this entry »
That is what a German couple “tried to do” when their son got too loud.
“Peter Hieber, a spokesman for police in the Bavarian town of Krumbach, said the baby was placed in the care of youth services in the southwestern Allgaeu region, although the child’s 23-year-old mother insisted that the ad was only a joke.”
Of course it was, however the only ones who thought it was funny were the baby’s parents as they are now in custody and the kid is in child services.
<a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/24/ebay.baby.ap/index.html”>Click here to read the article about the baby who was listed on ebay at cnn.com.</a>
Come on people. It’s one thing to think about something, it’s another to follow through. Once the name is released, we are revoking his noodad membership.
There is a new study that shows that kids who are breastfed are shown to be smarter than those not breastfed. According to this article on Boston.com:
“The children in the group where breast-feeding was encouraged scored about 5 percent higher in IQ tests and did better academically, the researchers found. Previous studies had indicated brain development and intelligence benefits for breast-fed children. But researchers have sought to determine whether it was the breast-feeding that did it, or that mothers who prefer to breast-feed their babies may differ from those who do not.”
What the article fails to state though is kids who are breastfed are lucky X 2. Not only could they grow up to be smarter, they get to suck on breasts every day. Ahh, to be a kid again…
By now, you have probably have heard and seen the story of the indian ritual of dropping babies off a roof. Here’s what you need to know: That’s crazy.
Get off that computer and go outside! You are limited to 30 minutes of video games per day. Those games are too violent. As a kid, I heard all of this and many of you are saying the same things to your kids. You are concerned by the amount of time they are spending with a controller in their hand or sitting at a computer terminal questing for XP, blowing away aliens, building, deploying and destroying armies and socializing with their friends.
