As a father of two girls there is a perceived notion that you must raise your daughters in a certain way (or at least I sometimes get this impression form the people that I interact with). At the same time, when I talk to fathers of boys, I hear differing things about their impressions and the ways in which they feel that they can and should raise their boys as well.

For girls, there is the impression that society expects that they will be introduced to dolls, dress up and the like and that fathers will support this feminine societal view. While boys are given toy guns, legos, cars or trucks to solidify their manhood. Who says though that it has to be this way? Who says that a girl can’t love playing with cars or trucks? Who says that a boy cannot like playing with a Cabbage Patch Kid doll?

For me, I have always encouraged my girls to do what they want to do. Whether this is playing baseball or dolls, dress up or cars, I am encouraging them to be the person that they want to be while at the same time encouraging them to explore areas outside of the normal societal mores.

I watched a movie tonight that I have seen a few times before. The movie was “The Blind Side”. You know, the one with Sandra Bullock and that big ol’ football player that made it to the NFL. Yeah, that one, the one that makes you just want to adopt some poor kid off the [...]

As a father there are times when I just want to freeze time and not let my girls get any older. I want to capture their innocence and bottle it up so that they will always know what it was like to be free of inhibition, doubt, and the other cares of the world.

Emulating health relationships is important for our children, as most kids today get something of a warped sense of how relationships work as they watch movies, reality TV and the like. Even through billboards, magazine ad and articles and other such material, our children today are being immersed by a plethora of images that somewhat skews their sense of what does and what does not constitute healthy relationships.

The New Year has started much like the old. My son still wakes up early – way too early. He still wants – nay, needs – his milk. It must be the perfect temperature in that green sippy cup or he sends it back. I am the lucky one who prepares this gourmet morning aperitif. [...]

Readers, I sense an uneasiness in the air. A feeling that many of you may be concerned for the state of Dad Blogging. After all 2010, proclaimed far and wide as The Year of the Dad Blogger, is quickly drawing to a close. In fact, at the time this post is published, there will only be one short day remaining before all Dad Bloggers from Seattle to Shanghai unceremoniously turn back into pumpkins only to be dropped from 3rd story windows onto sidewalks below.

There has been a lot of talk this year about the fact that this is the year of the dad blogger. .I have had a a lot of time to think about this, being a dad myself, for me when starting my Dad of Divas blog, I started this for myself. I did it to share my thoughts and concerns about being a father.

Dear Diary, Today was more of the same old things. I fear that boredom has started to spread its tentacles across my subconscious making it difficult to focus on anything worthy of causing synapses to fire. The mornings are the worst. Dull to the point of seeking ways to physically stimulate my brain using blunt [...]

Ok Dads, in thinking about the idea beyond Dad Revolution, we are trying to help you think about fatherhood in a different way. As many of you who have followed us in the past have found, all of us from Dad Revolution are passionate about our families and our children and we are doing what [...]

The start of the school year means new friends, new teachers, new things to learn and, all too often, new germs to bring home.  Unfortunately, JSL seems to have found a shiny new germ to bring home.  Specifically, he has a cold.  No fever (thank goodness, given his history of febrile seizures), but his nose [...]

I visited the town I grew up on this past weekend. It’s a small town in NEPA that North East PA. It’s funny how small and old things seem compared to when I was a child. I drove by my old house and I drove by my dad’s old office. It turns out my dad [...]

Have you ever really thought about what you are afraid of in being a father, or what issues really trouble you in fatherhood? For me, when thinking trying to think of eight main fears/issues that are difficult for me to cope with, I came up with the following:

On Friday night we were hanging out with some good friends that just got back from visiting family in Canada. They were there for two weeks. The plane ride home is about two hours and it turned out that one of the tv’s in the back of the seat was broken. The mom being the [...]

I like lighthouses! The pictures that you will see through this article are a few that I have taken through the years. Recently I have been thinking of lighthouses in relation to fatherhood. Lighthouses have played and still play an important part in nautical safety as many are still in working order doing the job [...]

I admit it, I like comic books. When I was a kid I was obsessed with comic books. Give me a great old Spiderman or X-Men comic and I would be ecstatic. I have even kept the comic books that I collected when I was a child. Do I know what I will do with them in the future, no, not really, but I am pleased that they were not thrown out or given away as I have heard that some parents did once their child left the house for college (thanks mom and dad!).

Basketball was always a point of connection with my dad, but it is that supportive attitude that he had for my brother and I that I want to carry on with my boys, whether they love the game or not.

Of all of the ways to connect with your children, one of the most rewarding has got to be introducing your children to things that you were interested in as a child.  Not only do you wind up reliving some of your favorite moments from your childhood, but you build on them. You wind up [...]

We all get busy in our lives once we get married and when we add kids to the mix, our lives and our creativity sometimes takes a back burner. As parents we put all (or at least most) of our energy into our kids’ lives and sometimes our partner in the family dynamic gets left behind.

The first official day of summer is June 21st which is exactly a month from today. The beautiful, warm weather means you and your little ones can start spending more time outdoors. Young kids love being outside, whether it be in the back yard, downtown doing errands, the park or pretty much any place where [...]

Okay, I was just reading through an email I received from HAPO  – Help A Reporter Out.  The email lists numerous stories that reporters are writing and need some input on. It appears to be a great resource. Well today I ran across a story that someone was writing on moms who are leaving the [...]