Triple The Dad

As the title of the post indicates, I recently hit the big 40. I thought I was old at 39!  What ever am I going to do? Go on vacation, for one. I turned 40 on vacation, which was awesome. You can learn a lot on vacation. Get perspective. But the first full day back really evaporates 90% of the benefit. The difficulties and struggles are all present, front and center, once again. It really is true what the studies find time and time again: couples with kids are less happy, and the kids are the reason, but you'd still go back and do it all again. Its a complex mystery how something that can be - is - so hard and at times misery inducing can also be something you yearn for almost the minute you leave it. A parents life is harder at almost all times, and yet more full as well. Crazy. As I type this, one of my kids is downstairs screaming for me. Screaming.  And I just saw him literally 2 minutes ago. When I was going away, I got it. He was upset we were leaving. Its under...

Some people get it; some people don't. I'm an Eagles fan and so Emmitt Smith was never my favorite player. I rooted against him and his team countless times. But he gets it. I'll bring up a sort of related point in a minute, but first: When asked if Smith would let his son play football - a big question that former players face these days - he said yes. Here is what he said: “ Why would I steal his passion from him ?” Smith said. “I never made him play football. He had many choices, options. I love watching him play basketball. Football, I get nervous just like any other parent. And I’m concerned for him just like any other parent. But his goals are his goals, and my job is to help him reach it and protect him when he needs protection. And so to take another kid’s passion from them is just not right. I don’t think it’s right. It’s like me taking your passion from you, telling you, ‘You cannot do this.’ When you want to do it. Especially if it’s right. It’s good for...

You have days like this one , and it seems like, really seems like, you aren't going to do anything correct. You just aren't. And then you have a day where they play a game like the one shown in the picture. Some kind of amalgam between the game of checkers I had just shown them how to play and the game of chess they know I love. And to be honest, four has been pretty awesome. I was thinking about just how awesome as I scrolled through Facebook posts from other triplet Dads who have young ones and were, simply put, overwhelmed. For a sex that prides itself on motion and doing and energy and work, there were a lot of Dads who simply seemed at their breaking point in February. And that isn't to judge; handling triplets is hard. Damn hard. And yes, I once said about how three was the perfect age.  I  also once wrote "Preschool Not For Me School."   What do I know? I hadn't had four year olds yet. Kids are like what I imagine it was like when the first h...

Kids are wired all wrong. Even compensating for and taking into consideration the fact that four-year-old children need a strong self preservation mechanism or their little bodies would never make it to adulthood they seem to be wired all wrong. At least mine. Exhibit A. By son, now rapidly approaching five years old, will still sometimes refuse to go down slides. Not the shiny metal, super heated, thigh burning variety, or even some super-deluxe, twisty turny, five-story high monstrosity; just a simple, single turn, plastic one at the local Burger King. Ok, you say, maybe he is afraid of heights or the fall. Which I'd totally buy as an explanation, except he has no problem standing on his dinner chair, then happily jumping onto his sister's chair. Exhibit B. My other son nearly melted down during a recent climb up a playground at the Crayola Experience. He climbed his way up one of those climbing towers every  playground seems to have. About three quarters of the way u...

I'm just going to say it: The five-second rule is real. We (or at least I) practice it in our household. Now, I realize that once food touches the floor, even for a second, it has probably 99% of the germs it would have if it was left there for a full minute. I'm not so naive to think that picking food up off the floor within some five-second time frame magically keeps germs away. Instead, I use it as a guideline of sorts for my kids. Kids are devilish little things. They have lots of questions. How come we can say "yellow dye" but not "you die"? How come we can eat candy after dinner but not for breakfast? How come we can eat some  food off the floor, but not other food. Well, I'm here to tell you the answer is the five-second rule. Again, its not a germ prevention thing. Lots of times I use this as a short hand. If an uncooked noodle falls on the floor and its there less than 5 second, I'm putting it in the pot for boiling. Hey, its getting...

Great tips to help your marriage, even if it doesn't need help:  Marriage tips : A hilarious post about toddler Physics  that is well worth your time. BONUS: if you like it, don't forget to check out one of my  most popular posts, all about Time Travelling Triplets ! How to build self-confidence in your kids. A post all about how being a quiet parent can help raise a confident kid.

The British are coming. In fact, they have already arrived. And this time around, there is no Paul Revere to sound the alarm. Because they are insidiously putting down roots inside our brains. Like some kind of zombie fungus. First they come for words; then the horses. It all started the other day when my daughter asked if we had any tomatoes. Not tomAtos, but tomatos. Soft "a" sound, not a hard one. Then she asked me to "mend" her toy. Who says that? You know who? The British. These are clearly British phrases. What would make otherwise perfectly American children speak with a British tongue? Where is this coming from? Peppa Pig, that is where. The entire Pig family is British. The speak British. They go on "holiday" rather than vacation. They call the stripped animal from Africa a zebra - soft "e" sound, not a hard one - rather than zEbra, like everyone else whose brain isn't half fungus. That might not seem like a big deal. ...