Month: December 2019

Simple Traditions that Define the Holidays

On By Chris SoutherIn Dad Blogs, Family, FatherhoodLeave a comment

I have been sending out Christmas cards since my 20s. It’s something we did growing up and it is one of those traditions I am loathe to abandon. Even before I knew that you were supposed to send “Thank You” cards to the sweet little grandmothers who handed me $20 after church just because I was graduating from high school, I knew that sending Christmas cards was polite.

Back home, we taped up the cards we received from friends and family, around the extra-wide door frame leading from our dining room to our living room. And each year, it was filled, inch-to-inch, with cards–most proclaiming some religious sentiment (“Hosana In The Highest! For Unto You A Child Is Born!”) based on the fact that nearly all of our family and most of our close family friends’ families, were church-based. But, the cards were wonders of glitter and poetry and they stuck in my memories almost even more than any gifts I received under the tree.

Continue reading “Simple Traditions that Define the Holidays” →

Millennials Have Made It All “OK”

On By Chris SoutherIn Dad Blogs, Family, FatherhoodLeave a comment

**UPDATE** Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks this commercial is ridiculous:

Peloton
Here’s the Link

My Original Blog Post

When you’ve raised nearly $1B in funding from investors, you can start doing things that challenge the status quo–I guess. Although, some would say that true innovators challenge the status quo BEFORE they ever become successful.

Whatever.

If you watch television at all, you’ve no doubt seen this spot by the stationary bicycle company, #Peloton:

peloton
Click here to watch the video: https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ZLu5/peloton-the-gift-of-peloton-song-by-tal-bachman

If you don’t care to watch the video, basically a woman’s husband/boyfriend/partner gives her a Peloton for Christmas. She ends up using it–a lot–and the next year she makes a video for him (wow, I’m sure he LOVED it) of her using it and thanking him for giving it to her.

I ask my fellow “Men Over 40” if they have EVER given their wife/girlfriend/partner a piece of fitness equipment as a gift?

That’s right, you haven’t. And that’s because you know if you did, you’d get excoriated for it by everyone she knows and these days, everyone she is even remotely connected to on the Internet.

Men “our age” know that a fitness-related gift is the same as suggesting your partner needs to lose weight.

#Amiright?

But now Peloton appears to be trying to right that particular ship by suggesting that not only is it OK, but that’s she’s going to LOVE it.

Feels like a trap.

I reached out to Peloton on Twitter to get their thoughts on this and I’ve apparently gotten lost in the Holiday shuffle. But, as soon as I hear back, I’ll let you all know.