Dads Parent Too

“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...

I am not sure about you other parents out there, but morning/night routines have been a STRUGGLE! Mallory found this  “Kid’s Routine Chart”  by InspiredProse on Etsy, and it worked like magic last night and this morning.  My 6-year-old, Lake, was super excited to do the routines herself and check off the boxes.  So far, it has worked one night and one day, and it might not work tomorrow, or ever again, but for at least one morning and one night, it has been MAGICAL! #notanad #justafan

When my spouse ordered an Echo Dot for Lake, I thought it was a bad idea.  I was worried it was going to turn into another technology that would suck my child’s brains out like a tablet.  But I was pleasantly surprised with how much she likes audio books and how it encourages correct pronunciation (a non-trivial matter when your child needs speech therapy). #amazon #amazonechodot2 #dadsreadtoo #dadsparenttoo #dadswhoparent

JER: What does it mean to be a "man"?  What does it mean to be a "woman"?  What attributes do you associate with being "masculine", "feminine", or in between?  This topic is important to me personally, because I spent the majority of my life confused why I didn't relate to most other men (I discussed that here:  "Not Transgender, but not Don Juan or Hulk Hogan either" ). How do I create a space for my children to figure out what it means to be "girls", "women", "feminine", "masculine", in between, or something else?  After a lot of thought, this is the explanation I expect to give to my daughters when they ask about it (perhaps when they are around 8, who knows). "Biological sex' is experienced by the majority of the population as what genitalia a person has at birth, where most males have a penis, most females have a vagina (like you), and there are some (a proportionally sma...

Sometimes my 19-month-old just wants to be held.  Sometimes I have to get a pork shoulder in the oven.  When both of these things coincide, then I have to find a distraction that will buy me enough time to get something done. Two large bowls, one cup, one small bowl, and some water makes my daughter really happy.  The resulting mess was worth the 30 minutes of distraction.  But do yourself a favor, and put a towel underneath the bowls to keep them from sliding and aid in the clean-up.