Tag: fatherhood

“Pop Female Empowerment?” Not My Daughter!

It’s a glossy world, filled with self discovery and female badassery where men are captive, drooling oafs pining to be entertained. Entertained by that one special woman who aspires to be great, discovers her voice and comes to have her eager audience eating from the palm of her hand all while finding the love of her life. Yeah. Right! I’m talking about Burlesque, the new movie starring Cher and Christi Read More...

Set Up Rituals With Your Kids

Kids are creatures of habit, they expect things to be the same as they have been in the past. For me, this was specifically important as we moved in the past year. Both of our girls were at an age where they knew the rituals that we had been doing at our old house. Thus J-Mom and I knew that we would have to find a routine very soon in the new home to make our lives much happier all around. Rituals can surround an Read More...

The Value of Friendships & Identifying True Friends

My oldest started school this year and on her first day she came home excited and stated “I made a new friend.” As all of us remember, friends were those people who truly carried us through good and bad times. Unfortunately, there also were those pseudo friends that you thought were your friends, but really had other motives. Since we have moved to our new home we have had to deal with these pseudo friends, Read More...

The Presidential Interview

Chris Ballew, front man of the popular alternative rock group The Presidents of the United States of America is not only a talented musician and lyricist, he is also a father.  And, given the signature quirky style which he employed to make The Presidents such a huge hit, it doesn’t surprise many people I talk to to find out that he is now also making music targeted specifically towards kids. Over on my Read More...

Being more then just a DAD

As of late I’ve been so consumed with my own life I havent been a good friend to many and really a little bit of a bad son.  My Father and I have had a great relationship – yes, my dad was one of those pushy – get yourself a job type Dads. I know that it was all just the concept of unsugar coating life – work equals money, nothing is given freely in this life.  The points in my life where Read More...

A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned

What is the value of teaching your child the value of money and the value of entrepreneurship at an early age? The picture you see here was a few years ago when my daughter (then at age 3 and ¾) took her first venture into being a saleswoman. At a two-day rummage sale she wanted to sell cookies and kool-aid so we put up the money for the supplies and let her have her shot at making some money. During the first d Read More...

Smiling Eyes: They’re Watching You

It often happens subtly.  In most cases, they don’t even know that I am witnessing their reaction.  But these small, genuine moments take place nearly every day. These moments, as short as they are, serve as a reinforcement to Mrs. LIAYF and I that this period of time is unfortunately all too fleeting in the grand scheme of our lives.  And, that we shouldn’t for one moment take it for granted. Whe Read More...

Why This is the Year of the Dad Blogger…

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. When I started blogging three years ago, there were dads out there, but most dads were focused primarily on the topic Read More...

Memories I’ll Remember

My son is only three years old, and something strange occurred to me recently.  I can’t really remember how I spent most of my free time before I was a dad. It’s odd because I must have had tons of it. Free time that is. I mean if I think of it, back then I didn’t have to do all the extra maintenance that comes from having a 3 year old boy. Like the extra laundry and dishes and food prep.  Read More...

Time to Revolutionize… Supersizing Fatherhood

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 we can to share our experiences, thoughts and ideas on how you can be a Revolutionary Dad. I was on my way to work today and I Read More...

Friendship Fears: Out From Under My Wings

Two weeks ago, my son started his first year at preschool. I was so proud of him. Walking off from the apartment, stepping into a new adventure in life with a gigantic smile and open arms. His winning personality and welcoming aura precedes him as he walks off into unknown territory. I was sad I could not be there on his very first day but the duty of being the provider called, and work had to be done. Since then Read More...

Lucky Boy

“He’s a lucky boy.” Mrs. LIAYF said to me, as we both were glancing over at our son who was animatedly ‘putting out a fire’ in his play area. It was one of those grounding moments.  You know, the kind that makes you take pause and recalibrate your mindset once again. I, as I suspect most people do, need that every so often.  That’s because as much as I get caught up in the da Read More...

Thoughts and Questions on Time Passing

This week marked a huge milestone in our family. My son started his first year at preschool. Gladly he took off out the door, backpack on, and a big ole smile. That cute, charming, carefree, loving little soul just marched right on down to school without second thought of the fact he would not be with Mommy and Daddy for the rest of the morning. Seperation anxiety? None. At least not for him. Mommy and Daddy (and l Read More...

Becomming a Disciplinarian

It is not easy to discipline your own child. You can read as many books as you want but depending on the temperament of your child, not every discipline/punishment trick will work. Depending on the temperament of the child you have to be creative and try new things – one size definitely does not fit all. In our family Diva-J is a good example of this. We have read many books on parenting a strong willed ch Read More...

Response to Fatherfolk and the challenge to be more

On Sunday night Aaron over at Father Folk wrote an open letter to the dads over at Dad Revolution, a letter challenging us to be more. Please take five minutes and go over and read the letter before we continue…. You read it right? Good stuff huh. That letter went up late Sunday night, was taken down and then went back up Monday night. You see Aaron took a little heat for posting that, it seems some still don Read More...

Modeling What it Means to Be a Friend

What does it mean to be a friend. As a guy and as a father I think this is not always an easy thing to explain or talk about. As guys we talk about hanging out and many times talk about truly surface things when it comes to friendships. Yet, in thinking about this, what is this showing our children? I have been lucky to have some friendships in the past and even some now that have been much more than this. The type Read More...

Balancing Work and Family at #BlogHer10

During BlogHer 2010, I attended some wonderful sessions.  One that stood out for me as a parent, though, was titled “Screw Work/Life Balance, We Need Work/Life POLICY!”  The session moderators Morra Aarons-Mele and Stephanie Wilchfort guided us through a discussion of how businesses in the United States currently treat workers with family issues and how we can improve the situation. I’ll admit t Read More...

Fears/Issues of Fatherhood

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: 1) Bringing home the bacon – I am the sole income maker for my family. What would happen if for some reason I would lose my job, or become unable to wo Read More...