I Am Dad

My daughter has gymnastics on Saturdays, however, we had a lot going on over the past few months and she ended up missing a significant number of lessons. Her first day back, my wife gets home and tells me she had a really hard time and that she got sad. Why? Well, the usual teacher wasn’t there and the substitute was not as inept at keeping track of a bunch of roaming children and my daughter had got left behind on several occasions.   The owner apologized to my wife and explained the situation with the substitute, but was it her fault? I wouldn’t say so…This is a prime example of a teachable moment, and one that couldn’t have occurred in a better place. (An enclosed building with limited exits and a controlled environment with plenty of safety precautions in place…its a gymnasium after all, with loads of soft mats and foam pits).   After getting the entire story from my wife, I moved to my daughter. I like to hear things from her so it gives her the opportunity to express he...

Why?! The one, single word question that gets burned into our minds. It’s one of those things that we are all too happy and willing to answer the first few times and then it starts wearing on us. Why? Why? Why?   Many times, I find myself reverting to google in an attempt to encourage my daughter to never settle for the first response she hears but rather look deeper into something in order to find alternate explanations. OR…it’s simply because I have no idea what the answer is for the question she’s asking. We love providing the answers to our children so they can learn and develop but sometimes you get to the point where you can no longer answer and you are simply stuck in a loop of constant Why’s.   It is very tough to break the why loop, or at least it is for me. I actually could not do it. Until my wife suggested returning the question, and asking our daughter Why. Why did she think trees grew tall? Or dogs lick their butt? Not only does this technique offer you some repr...

Disciplinary Actions for kids. The great debate. It seems years ago, children tended to listen significantly better to their parents in comparison to the current times. Or at the very least, they projected the semblance of being well behaved. Which is funny, because they also got the occasional ass whooping. Is that okay? Maybe, maybe not. Who knows. There’s those that will claim its good and those that will claim its not. I wasn’t one of those that got spanked, however, I did have a very close relationship with my grandparents and I can assure you, disappointing them was far worse than a hand on my ass.   I guess I ask this because I’ve had mixed results with different techniques. I have not nor do I plan to use my hand, spoon, or belt to adjust my children’s behavior, but the methods that I have incorporated seem to work some days but not others. What are these methods? They include “The conversation”- discussing and explaining in a calm manner with my daughter (my son isn’t ol...

It’s been nearly a year since my wife got a full time work from home job and I proudly took the title of “stay at home dad”. That’s not to say I havn't continued working, but I shifted my responsibilities for my job significantly to accommodate my new title. I began with this grandiose idea that my darling children, 1 and 3, would sit quietly and pay attention to a set schedule of reasonable lessons every day, learning to read, write, math, and speak French and they would be on their way to a high school graduation not by the ripe age of twelve. Hah ...not really, but I did want to have them well prepared for when they entered pre-k, so they could commit more of their time and effort to improving themselves and their social relationships as opposed to having to start from scratch…. Laughable to say the least. To think I would be able to have my two toddlers sit and listen to instruction was simply ridiculous. And it is. It is ridiculous. Children are not meant to sit and stare as t...