Dads Parent Too

How do we protect our children from danger and abuse?  On some level, no amount of precaution or protection will guarantee our children will never be hurt.  Having children is a risk, as Elizabeth Stone put it: “Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body”. As parents, we have to makes decisions  along the continuum between safety/security and danger/experience.  An extreme emphasis on safety stunts growth and development, i.e. helicopter parenting leads to emotionally stunted children.  While an extreme emphasis on experience with a high risk threshold can lead to injury or death.  Every parent has to decide what is best for their children, but one skill that will serve children throughout their lives while they navigate their own limits with risk and openness to experiences is “CONSENT”. Luckily, it is something that be easily learned though play.  As pare...

“Be silly.  Be honest.  Be kind.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson This quote has become my mantra.  Life is too short to be worried about status, to keep up appearances, or put on airs.  BE SILLY.  Embrace the mistakes, be willing to improve, and laugh at yourself when appropriate.  BE HONEST.  Any mistake will be made exponentially worse with lies, deception, and/or secrecy.  BE KIND.  Because we will all need the benefit of the doubt in the future, we will all need to rely on the kindness of strangers at some point, and it’s a beautiful way to live. Lake is obsessed with bird feathers.  When we were taking these family photos, she found this seagull feather, and she wouldn’t put it down.  We have learned from past experience that all of our rational discussions about the possibility of communicable diseases, the likelihood of bacterial growth from dead animals, and the danger of rubbing the soft feather around your eyes (yes, t...