One of the toughest parts about when your kids matriculate from home is that there are situations that arise where you would ordinarily want to intercede and help out. Injuries, a move, household problems and projects, car problems, disputes with neighbors, quite a few things can come up that bring out the “let me come over and fix it” instinct in any engaged parent. The challenge is to know when to do it and when…Read More
The best versatile wardrobe will include clothes for a wide variety of occasions. Don’t fret if you don’t already have all the basics, however, because finding great men’s clothing can be an adventure. Just start with the right pants and a basic t-shirt. Whether you’re heading to the gym, the office, outdoors or a cocktail party, the key is to choose the right pants and suit jacket. Then everything else can be dressed up or…Read More
Gotta say I’m mighty proud of my two older kids at this moment. To start out, my oldest daughter Ashley (22) has been working as an admin assistant to a restaurateur in the local area and is making good money on an incredibly flexible schedule. She does almost all of the work from of her apartment or here at my house (lots of scanning and paperwork). Definitely a good gig that offers her the ability…Read More
It’s easy to put the homeless out of mind when you’re busy living your own life. But we’re facing an affordable housing crisis here in the United States and we’re not even talking about it. Indeed, more than 19 million US families spends 50% or more of their income on housing, which makes it pretty darn hard to afford any other necessities, and even more so for their children. Minimum wage? That won’t cover the…Read More
It might mark me as old school, but I don’t think us guys are particularly good at commiserating when we hear someone who’s having a hard time. And if it’s one of our kids, we’ll go right into protective mode and leap head-first into trying to solve problems, even to the point of cutting them off to share our ideas. The book’s not as popular as it once was, but I actually found John Gray’s…Read More
We get stuff. I mean, really, I get a lot of different things from companies, whether it’s gear to review on my YouTube channel, films to write about here on the Dad at the Movies corner of GoFatherhood, or books to check out. I’m an avid reader, finishing 50-75 books/year or thereabouts (follow me on Goodreads to see what I’m reading at any given moment) so getting books in the mail is a fantastic boon!…Read More
Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CollectiveBias #ManCaveMovieNight #Venom #TheEqualizer2 My son’s in his first year of college. Dorm life, a completely unstructured lifestyle, girls, an occasional class to attend, lots of cafeteria food (fortunately Pitzer College has an excellent dining hall) and all the socializing a young man could desire. Underlying all of it, however, is a subtle current of loneliness; it’s…Read More
My youngest is on the local high school volleyball team and she’s doing great. I’m a proud Dad and show up for all their games, whether at home or to the further reaches of Colorado oforn away games. The volleyball season is pretty darn short, however, just a few months, then it’s over for the entire school year. Which is a bit odd, really, since games are always indoors so they could certainly play throughout…Read More
Let’s face it, this fatherhood thing isn’t easy. And sometimes it can feel impossible, with obstinate kids, a judgmental partner or ex and a boss that couldn’t care less about your home life and won’t cut you any slack. That’s why I support every Dad taking care of your own mental health, not just focusing on your children. Nowadays we have some really cool options for this too, notably online therapy and counseling. From the…Read More
I’m a loyal Tottenham Hotspur fan. If you’ve hung around me long enough, you’ve heard me talking about my Spurs, a soccer team in the English Premier League. Right now they’re #3 in the whole league, which is comprised of the 20 best soccer teams in the British Isles. Why the Spurs? Family history, actually: I was born in their area of London, my Dad supported the team and attended games – even as a…Read More
I went to a public school throughout my childhood, K-12, though my ex was at a rather elite prep private school for her childhood. Two very different experiences. When our oldest began her own journey through schooling, we agreed that we’d like to do something different and enrolled her in a Waldorf School. Actually the Santa Cruz Waldorf School because at the time we were living in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Silicon Valley (and…Read More
One thing that’s hard to wrap your head around as a parent to young ‘uns is that someday you’ll be with your child and not their friend or BFF, but their boyfriend/girlfriend. At seven, a “girlfriend” is innocuous, but as they grow up and hit those teen years, well, the stakes go up and the chance for getting into serious trouble increases. To make things more complicated, we live in a highly sexualized society where…Read More
It’s almost like a pool of water: on the surface we simply exist and things happen to us, good and bad. A bit deeper we recognize that they’re not all our fault or justified, and sometimes – perhaps often – actions are not okay and not justified. That breeds anger, resentment, depression, etc. But deeper than that and a real challenge to reach is the lower level of forgiveness, of seeing what happens, recognizing it’s…Read More
A few days ago I did something I haven’t done for <cough> years: I attended a high school graduation. You’re likely thinking that my oldest, A-, is 20 so surely I attended her high school graduation, right? Turns out that though she spent many years at the same private school, she ended up deciding that an online program would serve her best for the last year of high school. The program was very good and…Read More
My 13yo girl is good at math, though she is quick to get discouraged. There’s something about the “hard” sciences that brings that out in a lot of people, students and parents alike. My theory is that it’s to do with the right or wrong nature of the work. History is open to interpretation, composition is strongly influenced by your imagination and writing style and physical education, well, if you can throw a ball… But math…Read More
I’ve spent the last few days at Type-A West in Denver, Colorado, including being part of a panel discussion about Dad Influencers, along with long-time friend Eric Elkins and new friend Bolaji Oyejide. Ably moderated by Don Jackson, we ended up talking a lot more about fatherhood and the nuanced issue of appropriately sharing our experiences as fathers with our followers. Do you reveal all, or do you keep everyone at arm’s length? Bolaji was…Read More
I don’t know that I can ever really be a “bachelor” in the sense of a man who is unmarried and has zero responsibilities, but with my girls in Hawaii for two weeks with their mom, it’s feeling a lot like I have a big house and not a lot of people within. In Hollywood a “bachelor” is someone who lives a decadent lifestyle, is a slob and subsists on pizza and bottles of whiskey….Read More
When your children are little, it’s pretty typical for parents — mostly Mums, but we’ll get back to that — to give them valentine’s day cards or sweets. As they grow up, however, is there an age when it becomes inappropriate or just a tad weird? Some might think so but I don’t. In fact, I gave Valentine’s Day cards to both of my girls this morning and they’re 13 and 20. Better yet, Ashley,…Read More
All three of my children have been into sports, far more than I ever was as a child. Heck, I joined marching band in high school so that I could take that instead of PE. My sports experience as a youth ended when I was about eight when my parents got sick of the way the other parents treated their children and harassed the coaches on my local Little League team. I actually have no memories at…Read More
My daughter celebrated her 13th birthday over the weekend with a gala party that included almost every single person in her class at our house for cake, dancing and a game of truth or dare, the latter held in a dark room only lit by our laser disco light. Truth or dare? Um… I had some reservations about the game, for sure, particularly since 13 is the age at which girls start to get very…Read More
I married a woman from a different religious background than my own, which meant our ceremony was Unitarian. I was raised Jewish, she was raised Baptist, though neither of us had a particularly strong religious family. When we were married, we took that common route of celebrating all possible holidays, whether Jewish or Christian. I mean, why not celebrate as many events as possible? Since it always fell on very different days, we also opted…Read More