Protesters shouted from my TV. As I watched, my stomach moved its way up into my throat. I watched more. Tears rolled down the cheeks of people I didn’t know. I watched. Cars were overturned. I watched. People walked together and chanted. I watched. A young man shot. A man choked and dead. And I watched. My 10-year-old son emerged from his bedroom as the news played across the television. He stopped behind my right shoulder, watching as Eric Garner held his arms above his head and a police officer choked him and pushed him to the ground. He watched as Eric Garner gasped 11 … [Read more...]
Camper Journal Offers Glimpse into Family’s Past, Future and Growth
I am going through a long and sentimental (bordering on mawkish) ending of sorts that involves a 20-year-old Coleman pop-up camper. My wife and I bought it new just after we were married, well before we had the twins, well before I ever dreamed that was on the horizon. It’s old and worn now, ravaged by time and memory, many miles and many backyard sleepovers. I am trying to figure what to do with it as it’s barely roadworthy. We were so delightfully young and naive when we were purchasing it. We spent weeks looking at floor plans, considering size and amenities, finally deciding on a … [Read more...]
Keep Kids Occupied While You Work From Home with These Tips
EDITOR'S NOTE: City Dads Group is working with longtime partner Dove Men+Care to create “how to” videos for the grooming products company’s “Dads Care” campaign. We will be featuring the videos and scripts our members appear in. This one features Marlon Gutierrez of our Orlando Dads Group, with a little help from his daughter, Isabella, in photo above, talking about how to keep kids occupied while you are working from home. I’m not an expert, but both my wife and I have been working remote for the last five years: three-and-half of those years where we had this little munchkin around with … [Read more...]
Disability Rights Movement Can Inform Today’s Parenting
July 26, 2020, will mark the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability. Earlier this year, my teen daughters and I watched a powerful new documentary available on Netflix called Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution. The film explains how the disability rights movement evolved across decades. Though Crip Camp was released before the recent Black Lives Matter protests, its themes have much to teach parents at this critical cultural moment. The documentary focuses on Camp Jened, a 1971 summer camp for teens with disabilities. Many … [Read more...]
Movember Conversations Aims to Help You Talk to Others in Need
A leading global men's health advocacy organization has launched an interactive online tool to give people the confidence to have difficult discussions with friends, family members and colleagues who may be struggling with a critical life issue. Movember Conversations offers practical guidance on talking to those hurting because of job loss, social isolation and family pressure. Using multiple choice questions, the program guides the user through typical scenarios, teaching conversational prompts and responses that help to open a conversation and keep it flowing meaningfully. It uses … [Read more...]
Son Asks Dad: Should I Kneel for the National Anthem?
My oldest started high school football practice recently, but we have talked more about his team’s pregame routine than touchdowns or tackles. Instead of X’s and O’s, Yosef and I are commiserating over whether he will kneel or stand during the national anthem. I wonder if other dads of third-string placekickers are spending time doing the same this summer. Former NFL star Colin Kaepernick, who cost himself millions of dollars and a promising football career after kneeling during the anthem, has been back in the news in recent weeks. And with the ongoing protests and marches in reaction to … [Read more...]
Pandemic Pregnancy Led to a Parent’s Awakening, Baby Boy Amid Chaos
Blissful. That’s pretty much how it felt to hold my baby son in my arms after such a stressful 37 weeks of a pandemic pregnancy. He is here, healthy and strong, and my wife, Stef, is doing well after having a beautiful labor experience in the comfort of our own home. His birth was a sigh of relief from so much anguish and worry that kept me from exhaling for so long. We went through so many challenges during this pandemic pregnancy. First, we thought our baby wasn’t going to make it full-term. What started as weird pregnancy symptoms eventually became a medical concern for pre-term … [Read more...]
Teach Masculinity to Sons with Positive, Healthy Examples at Home
We are constantly fed conflicting messages about how to be a man. and these mixed messages can be confusing and harmful to children. If you let the media teach masculinity to your son, he might be drawing on a plethora of bad examples of "manliness": Men not caring what others say, using anger to get their way, or thinking that the world owes them something simply for existing. However, modeling healthy masculinity at home can help your son get a real grip on what being a good person looks like, and show your daughter how a well-behaved man should act. Here are five traits of healthy … [Read more...]
Should Children Participate in a Protest March? This Dad Says “Yes”
As I started getting dressed for a Black Lives Matter march, my son asked if he could go with me. To be honest, I like keeping it as real as possible with my kids but for this one, I was torn. Should I take him or leave his behind at home? He’s a mature 13-year-old. He’s also the son of a dark skin Puerto Rican and black man. However, he is also my baby and all I could think about was his safety. We all have seen the riots, the beatings, all the negative things in the media and that the government have been pushing. But how about all the positive things protesting brings? The … [Read more...]
‘Father’s Day Taken’ to Help Families that Lost Dads to Racism, Violence
"Father's Day Taken," the latest pro-fatherhood fundraising initiative by our longtime partner Dove Men+Care, remembers the thousands of black dads who have lost their lives due to racism and violence, and the families left behind. DM+C established the the Fathers Day Taken Fund to invest $1 million to support these families in need. The movement began with the public airings of a video showing Minneapolis police on May 25 kneeling on the neck of George Floyd until he stopped breathing. Floyd was in the process of being arrested on a charge of passing a counterfeit $20 bill. The Father's … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- …
- 91
- Next Page »