Triple The Dad

Parenting is a grand bargain. As the title alludes, its along the lines of the one between Darth Vader and Lando Callrissan in Star Wars. Parents would like to think they play the Darth Vader role, but in reality, its the role of Lando. I know I know: Vader means father and the entire series is a father-son drama. But think about the similarities between the parent-child and Vader-Lando relationship. In the movie, Lando provides Vader a place to secretly house troops while laying his trap. In return, Lando receives, well, some semblance of freedom and power from the deal, I suppose. The bargain between parents and kids offers little meaningful differences. In exchange for security and food, kids generally promise to follow the rules. The big secret here is that the law requires you to provide at least base amounts of security and food. Just like Lando, you have certain rules you already have to follow to varying degrees. Vader suffers no such restriction. And your children? T...

The other day I got really down on myself about how much I was yelling at my triplets.  It seemed like not a day was passing where I wasn’t expressing frustration or anger.  If the constant fighting wasn’t triggering me, it was the way they managed to make a 30 second process take 30 minutes. Now listen, my kids are really good.  They listen fairly well and are independent, sometimes to a fault.  Graded on a 4-year-old curve, I would say they are pretty great. But even on vacation I found their gross stalling galling.  During a time I hypothetically am at my most relaxed, I couldn’t handle how something as simple as getting swim trunks on required the intervention of the National Guard. Thankfully, I was buoyed by others – or enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude at least– when I posted my personal disappointment on a Facebook group for triplet dads.  Turns out, it wasn’t just me.  Lots of Dads felt the same way. One of them was on a two-d...

Did you know kids hear the word “no” a staggering 400 times per day . No? You didn’t? Then think about that: 400 times per day. 2,800 times per week*. More than 11,000 times per month. Per year that comes to 132,000 times. That is a bunch. A soul crushing amount of rejection, even for a group of individuals deliberately challenging authority and seeking to locate the outer bounds of permissible behavior. No wonder parents often feel like they are constantly at odds with their kids. I’d like – love – to think we are a little different. We try to keep the “no” to a minimum. Now, before you go get your spouse so you can mock this crazy guy on the internet who sets no rules for his kids and is bound to raise delinquents, hear me out. We might well be hippies raising future delinquents; or drones raising management material. As with all things, how you view yourself and how you actually act can be eye opening, but stick with me. You see, rather than say “no,” we t...

Apparently, people are really up in arms about the death of cursive. Were you aware there is a controversy over the potential that they won't teach cursive handwriting in schools? The issue involves BOTH kids and education. So course there is.  Regardless, I wasn’t aware until I saw a post on Facebook about it. According to the poster, unless we fight to revive cursive’s corpse, our children are doomed to a future where kids won’t be able to read historical documents. My first thought: write a post about the cursive controversy. Then I reconsidered – is this a real controversy, or just some silly thing stirred up by a bored writer? Nope, it’s real;  768,000  Google  results  for “is cursive dead” real. Speaking of Google, I wonder if those cursive campaigners have you seen it? As you know, Google catalogs pretty much all of human knowledge. And cat memes. You know what you don't see on it? Cursive. There is room for 1.45 million cat memes, and not cursive...