Dadding
Up up up...
I can still remember it all just like it was about six minutes ago.
I held my daughter in my arms and I did the little checklist off in my head to make sure she was ready for it.
Holds her head up on her own? Check.
Seems to like a thrill and a laugh? Check.
Appears reasonably hardy and durable? Check.
Everything seemed alright. I ran through the list again, pulling her close enough to me that I could feel her breath on my rough cheek. It all checked out once more. There was no turning back now. We were cleared for take-off.
I held my arms straight out in front of my chest and she went with them. She smiled at me. I returned it. I was so nervous that I was shaking a little bit, although looking back now I guess maybe that was First Time Daddy Jitters, huh? Well, the time had come…something I had long knew I was going to have to do, but it isn’t all that easy when you’re holding a twelve pound ball of angel in your arms and you need to chuck her back up towards Heaven, you dig?
His face was a soft scowl beneath sunlicks of golden hair. His eyes were heavy with lash and pout. He willed a drop of cold sweat, and felt nothing but a tingle where the shakes should be.
It was not an addiction of life-threatening substance, and I don’t mean to make light of those that face such things, but it was an addiction all the same. His need for video games, and the agony and anger that festered in their withdrawal, were cause for concern and much discussion. Neither of which were received with an ounce of appreciation.
So it was that promises were made and not kept, deals were worked and quickly defaulted, and we, the parents, were fooled again. Shame on us. Continue reading »
So much of preparing for childbirth focuses on the mom — but what about Dad? Depending on the situation — and his character — many soon-to-be fathers fall under one of these 10 dad archetypes, from the one who’s about to pass out, to the one who has donned his scrubs and is ready to catch the baby. Take it from this labor and delivery nurse and learn about the most common types of dads that you’ll meet during delivery.
Click through for the 13 most common delivery room dads after the jump!
Look, it’s gonna happen.
Your little girl is going to grow up and get boobs.
You can make a billion jokes about keeping the teenage boys away with shotguns (Always a pet peeve, considering you should have by then given her the power to do so herself if needed.) or stand there stammering, beet red at the embarrassment of … what? That life happens?
These stories of pubescence and growing and, gasp, first bras, can always go so wrong in a crappy sit-com sort of way.
Or, if you’re Kevin over at Dad Centric, they can go so, so right. Here’s his take on entering the Target lingerie section: Continue reading »
I’m not famous. I don’t have a lot of money to donate to campaigns. No potential Super Bowl contender will sign me to a contract. I won’t be winning a major award anytime soon and I don’t ever plan on running for political office. Needless to say, the chances of my family ever meeting the President are less than slim.
That hasn’t kept me from wondering what it would be like if we did have such an opportunity. My family, like all families, has its quirks, and I am sure those quirks would be on full display when it came time to shake hands with the leader of our country.
Will Smith’s family recently met with President Obama. Jaden Smith was warned by his father that he was not to ask the President a certain question. In fact, Will Smith had warned his son that asking certain questions was “not cool” and was “embarrassing.” As has been the experience with my children, that warning went unheeded.
This is your brain on three year olds.
Most mornings, my little girl is the soul of sweetness.
We have our breakfast and get her a bath. We pick out some clothes she can wear, a little Elmo here/a bit of rainbow or butterfly there. We joke about stuff and have a few laughs and maybe I sneak in a tickle attack or two, but all in all things go pretty smoothly.
Then, usually her mom drives her the 20 minutes to the Y in town where she goes to her preschool to listen to stories and run around in the gym and just have a grand old time with her ‘friends’ her age, three and four years old who each have enough energy to start a small wind farm.
And who, collectively, could probably power a space ship from Pennsylvania to at least Jupiter.
So, the morning passes by and before long it’s time to head back to town to fetch our kid and start Part Two of our day.
This is when the trouble starts.
Thanks in part to the Wall Street Journal we now have something new for parents to argue about. In other news I’m renting soapboxes!
The latest hot topic can be found in a WSJ Market Watch piece on a DDB Worldwide Communications Group Life Style Study which, among over things, reveals that “75% of mothers admit they love their children more than their spouses.” (Spouse is their language, but any significant other will do.)
They claim that the results are “surprising” which is the only thing I find surprising at all. Continue reading »
Cody 
Whit Honea 
Serge Bielanko 
Mike Adamick 
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