Eight traffic lights separate the short driveway in front of our home and our grade school’s two separate parent drop-off zones. Pushing back from the gate by 7:46 a.m. affords us the time to just miss a few of them. We’ve got to be reversing out of the driveway by 7:46 each morning with lunches, flutes and books in tow, or else. Any later, even just one minute later, and a just missed traffic light flipping from green to yellow to red might result in my oldest child being late for school, and this parent having to walk her in, hand her over, and walk back to the car alone with a pink tardy … [Read more...]
Have Fun, Dammit! Parenting in the Immobile Age of Children
Can a parent force his teenager to have fun if she doesn't want to? I'm asking for a friend. As in, you go upstairs to your daughter's room on a calm, quiet Saturday morning, and you knock on her door in a way that's totally casual -- not at all aggressive or mean or in a way that would provoke the following response from the other side of the door: "WHAT?!?!?!?" Imagine you answer such a vitriolic outburst with a suggestion, presented in a meek, tentative tone like if one of those kind-faced, adorable ring-tailed lemurs could talk. Imagine your voice is that of a sweet lemur, … [Read more...]
5 Parenting Techniques to Help You at Work
Kids operate from an unrelatable place, often with no logical motivation or rationale for their behavior. Kind of like your boss. Or your clients. Or your annoying coworker Karen. While nothing you bring from work will help you at home, as a man with a college-degree and almost two decades of experience in the professional world, I believe there are many things you can learn from interacting with your kids to help you at work. I mean, if you can survive dealing with your toddler, you can deal with anyone. So why aren't there more business tips based on parenting? Here’s how parenting can … [Read more...]
Keep Calm and Parent On
Back in June, before the school day begins, my daughter is writing in her diary. I take a peek because I'm curious and often she keeps it pretty secret. It's got a little lock and everything. Usually it has things in it like a portrait of herself with her name under it and on the top of the page the musing, "I love me." Or one whole page covered corner to corner by the lone exclamation, "My brother is CRAZY!" I take a lot of peeks. She leaves the key around. Something about unlocking that little pink diary to read it feels oh-so-right and so wrong simultaneously. I blame the NSA. On this … [Read more...]