Category: Fatherhood

Being a father and dad in America.

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Simple Traditions that Define the Holidays

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”
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Dad Blogs Family Fatherhood

BMI Measurements are B.S. Science Anyway

This came to me this morning as I was surveying myself in the mirror. It made me chuckle.

Doctor.png

 

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Dad Blogs Family Fatherhood

Millennials Have Made It All “OK”

**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.

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A Boy's Life DIY Family Fatherhood

The Best Laid Plans

Sometime back in the summer, when everyone in my family (but me) and everyone in my wife’s family (but me) were all at a house on the North Carolina coast (all 40-something of them), my two boys (MLI and MLE) conspirated with their two similarly-aged girl cousins from Texas, to get together before Thanksgiving.

Wanting to foster this “cuz-luv,” my wife tried to schedule a “meet in the middle” trip to Memphis, but her brother (father of the girl cousins) wasn’t going for it.

So, my wife, bowing to peer pressure from the boys, scheduled a trip to Dallas, leaving today and returning next Tuesday evening. I would stay home with the recovering dog, and generally enjoy some quiet time.

Seeing as how we also have a daughter who is a good bit younger than the rest of them, we kept trying to convince her NOT to go since “5” is always an odd-person-out, but she had major FOMO and was insistent on going.

So, you remember that part, back when I wrote, “Best Laid Plans”?

This morning, my daughter woke up with a bit of a scratchy throat and, fearing she’d get sicker on the trip, away from the comforts of home, decided to stay home and NOT go on the trip that was scheduled to leave in less than an hour.

OK then. Needless to say, I was mentally ready (OH SO READY) for several quiet days at home, doing catch-up projects, NOT having to cook for anyone, or generally tell anyone I was leaving the house and having to worry whether or not they were safe. There was probably going to be an adult beverage or two. But not now. When you’re home alone with a kid, you can’t ever really let yourself go. You have to always be in physical and mental shape to tackle any emergency–real or imagined.

I also had a massage scheduled (the gift card I’ve been sitting on since Father’s day) and a very large, DIY project. None of that is happening now and in fact, I’m reconsidering the days I took off from work next week to accomplish these things.

I was FINALLY going to tackle this disaster area. How I HATE metal wire shelving!

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I love my daughter y’all like nothing before, but I still haven’t mentally adjusted to weeks of planning to the contrary.