I’ve carried a humble little pocket knife for a long time and when my Dad gave me his no-name blade, I then carried that one for many years until I recently lost it. A sad day, actually, but life happens. The good news is that it opened me up to considering what I’d want in a replacement blade and after much research, I identified what I believe are the essential features of what the industry calls…Read More
We live in a time when there’s no excuse for anything that happens, and where even when the community identified “victim” says the situation was part of a running joke, it becomes a cause célebre and fodder for plenty of angst-filled diatribes about how broken our culture is. You know, business as usual. This weekend, KTLA meteorologist Liberté Chan was reporting on the weather for the morning news, covering the 8-9am shift, and part way through her…Read More
The team at Dove Men+Care sent me a note with the findings of research they funded through Edelman Intelligence as part of their NCAA March Madness campaign about men and friendship, among other topics. Since I’m a quant, I wanted to know the research sample and it’s pretty solid, 1,000 US men ages 25-54 years old, of varying age, income, location and other attributes. My question when reading the research findings was whether what they…Read More
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Gillette at Sam’s Club for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine. I’ve been using an electric razor for more years that I can recall. It’s easy, and the fact that I’m compromising a really good, close, smooth shave for convenience is something I try not to think about too much. Maybe it’s laziness, but there’s no question that a real steel blade gets my…Read More
I’ve attended every Dad 2.0 Summit since the very first one, five years ago. Go team! In 48 hours I’ll be in Washington DC for the fifth Summit and I have to admit to being pretty excited about it. Every year it’s a solid few days with some of the best fathers and men in the online world (along with a passel of terrific gals and moms too). In previous years I’ve spoken on panels…Read More
A few days ago I received the following email from a reader, a touching plea for help: “I feel my twin 14 year old son’s deserve more than someone like me. I messed up my life and now I’m supposed to raise them not to make the same mistakes I have made????? What scares me is the fact that they love me and trust me when I don’t. They are everything to me and, I’m scared…Read More
I received this query email from a reader: Good morning. I’m a single Dad. I have three children 23, 21, and 19. My 21 and 19 year old are boys in college. One is a freshman and one a junior. Their Mom is remarried. I probably make about 1/3 to 1/2 of what my ex and her new husband make. The boys think I should contribute 50/50 on all things with my ex. This is…Read More
Ah the harsh voice of the populace. While writing an article about the popular teen voting app Wishbone, I couldn’t help but be curious about the results of a user-submitted question mom or dad? Here are the results: Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised since the user population for Wishbone are primarily teen girls. Maybe I should be impressed that almost 30% of the respondents picked dad at all. But I’m disappointed. We dads are fighting…Read More
For a guy who tends to wear sneakers or boat shoes most of the year, it’s a bit of a puzzle how I became a part of the Rockport Inner Circle, but it has given me a splendid opportunity to upgrade my footwear and thereby my image a bit. It’s the curse of the solopreneur: when you don’t have an office and don’t have a boss, you tend to forget that “the clothes make the man”…Read More
A funny situation has arisen related to us visiting my son while he’s away from home: I asked him what he’d like me to bring from home and his first request was the rather adult card game Cards Against Humanity. I enjoy the game and the one time my teens and I played, it was quite hilarious (even if they didn’t fully understand every single card) (which I was glad of!). But the wrinkle is…Read More
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison caused quite a kerfuffle in the parenting world this week when he said that the “participation trophies” his young sons had been given in their sports league were pointless and gave them back to the organization. ESPN has a good story on it, as does USA Today. “While I am very proud of my boys for everything they do and will encourage them till the day I die, these trophies…Read More
Here’s a funny story: I love Rockport shoes and wear them all the time. In fact, I’ve even written about them [My New Favorite Shoes from Rockport] and participated in Rockport media campaigns. The company has perfectly melded the style of dress shoes with the comfort and performance elements of sports shoes. What’s not to love? Still, when they approached me about helping out with the new DresSports Luxe Collection launch, I had to be…Read More
This is a powerful guest post by fellow dad Dan Feltwell. Take a deep breath… When my son Danny was born in 2008, I made some important promises to him. I promised to love him, I promised to protect him, and I promised to give him the best possible life filled with love and adventures. I dreamt of coaching my son in sports and I dreamt of teaching him everything I know. I was scared and…Read More
The call came out of the blue, about a week prior to Father’s Day. Denver Post reporter Colleen O’Connor had been assigned to write a profile piece for the Father’s Day issue of the Post and wanted to know if she could interview me. We talked for about an hour, then she asked if she and Andy, one of the Post photographers, could come out to the house and expand the piece. To her surprise,…Read More
Both of my daughters have had adopted Chinese girls as best friends, and my youngest’s “bestie” has been at our house many, many times, and vice versa. I certainly know many adopted children and adults and two of my cousins were adopted, but my children are all the product of my genes (for better or worse, they’d quickly add!) so while intellectually I understand the concept of adoption, the practical experience of fathering an adopted child…Read More