Triple The Dad

When it comes down to it, parenting is pretty much a crap shoot. It is like rolling a 100-sided die and having to pick the exact number it will land on. And getting it wrong means you'll have poop or permanent marker smeared on your face. Sure, you know all 100 numbers backwards and forwards, but that won't help you when you have poop lodged inside your nostril or a poorly drawn mustache on your face for that important work meeting. Because outside of a steady routine, just about anything else you do can be either entirely wrong for your kid, or the best parenting choice you could make. The worst part is you don't know which is what until its done. You can set strict rules and raise a good, god-fearing and law-abiding citizen who excels at everything he does; but you are just as likely to end up with some psychopath. You can provide no rules and raise a a free-spirited rebel, Gerry Garcia type; but you are just as likely to raise the next Charlie Sheen. It has as at least...

Plenty of deep thoughts - and water - flowing here. We recently took a two-week family vacation. In part, that explains why I haven’t posted in a while.  I was also busy trying to parent through some rough seas and minor medical things that go along with parenting and will probably be the focus of future posts. And I was being lazy; don't forget lazy. Vacations can be great.  They are nice for down time.  The mindlessness it can sometimes entail can paradoxically allow for really deep consideration of things.  But as my wife said, vacationing with kids is mostly doing exactly what you do at home, but instead you do it closer to the beach. Too true. Still, a couple things struck me. The first was that the 10-toy plan to parenting on a dime is absolutely feasible. Vacation is a great time to see how your kids react outside of their natural environment.  Its also a time where you leave most of your stuff at home. And by “your,” I mean the ki...

I wish I could blame my month-long posting hiatus on my recent vacation, but alas, I can’t.  I can, however, tell you that I learned some lesson while visiting Virginia for a cousin's wedding.  When you go on vacation without your kids, you do a couple things differently. 1)       You begin using your spouse’s name again, and what a nice feeling that is.  Instead of “Mom” she becomes a wife again.  The shift was almost immediate for me, and I don’t even thing I recognized it until about the third time I called her by her name.  It was both awesome and freeing, as if I had been transported back to a time before kids. 2)       You don’t realize how stressed you are until you leave it behind.  I’m such a better Dad the last two or three days and I credit the vacation.  I feel less stressed.  And yeah, I realize that is the reason for vacations, but still, worth noting. 3)   ...