While I'm hardly a parenting expert, as a co-organizer for Dallas Dads Group, I sometimes get asked for tips for new dads. So without further ado, here are my five tips I'd give to any new dad: Don't strive for perfection when good is good enough. As parents, we want the absolute best for our children. We want to feel good about our parenting and we want to portray to others that we have this down. Seeing other seemingly perfect parents on social media doesn’t help either. The truth is this: we all have bad days and we all make mistakes. They key is to learn from them. Don't fall into the … [Read more...]
Plum Organics and Giving Tuesday 2017
Dallas Dads Group Teams up with Plum Organics for Giving Tuesday Giving Tuesday is a global day of outreach on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The premise is to start the holiday season in a meaningful way by inspiring people to collaborate with non-profit organizations and give back in their local communities. For the second year in a row, Plum Organics partnered with Dallas Dads Group to target child hunger in North Texas. Plum Organics generously donated an entire pallet of baby food to Hope Supply Co. Members of Dallas Dads Group volunteered to sort and package the food so it could be … [Read more...]
A Morning of Fun With WaterWipes
Disclosure: Dallas Dads Group partnered with WaterWipes for this campaign. Dallas Dads Group strives to provide chances for dads and their kids to come together and do something fun. Fortunately, when the summer heat is on in the DFW Metroplex, we have Play Street Museum, a great chain of indoor kid oriented playspaces. Thanks to WaterWipes -- the world’s purest baby wipes -- we were able to book one for a private meetup for our members. We packed Plano’s Play Street museum with 19 dads and 25 children to enjoy its “great outdoors” theme, complete with several kid-sized cabins, a … [Read more...]
Super Times at Sci-Tech!
Housed in an industrial building that looks ordinary from the outside is the not at all ordinary Sci-Tech Discovery Center in Frisco. The museum has both full-time features and seasonal exhibits that rotate every few months. Parking is free, and the cost is very reasonable at $8 for those 3-64, with discounts for seniors, teachers, and military personnel. Family memberships are also available. On Saturday February 4th, seven dads from Dallas Dads Group took our kids to spend about two hours at Sci-Tech learning and playing. It's a Nano World! The special feature exhibit on display was … [Read more...]
Movember
Last year, my older son shed a tear when I told him I was going to shave my Movember mustache. I asked him why and he said, “Because it’s awesome.” There is no doubt in the moments you know you’ve succeeded as a parent.
I told him his mother disagreed with his mustache stance and he would have to talk to her about it. “Call her,” he said. I was shocked at his decisiveness and that in his 5 years of life he had picked this particular topic to take a stand on. Who was I to judge? So I dialed and he pleaded to my wife’s voice-mail to retain his father’s … [Read more...]
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Recently my family traveled to eastern Virginia and Washington D.C. for vacation. After several hours and multiple methods of travel, I wanted to weigh the pros and cons of each. Our first leg was an early morning flight from DFW to Reagan International. We normally prefer to take an Uber or hire a car rather than park at the airport. We prefer to bring our own carseat however most limo companies will offer their own seat. Don't forget that the DART Orange line ends at DFW's terminal A but with a toddler, it can become pretty cumbersome. Airport security has been receiving media coverage … [Read more...]
The Ultimate Father’s Day Guide to Gift Guides
Father's Day is coming up soon, and of course it's a big thing for us. We have a huge pre-Father's Day meetup that combines a family fun day and a charitable lemonade stand at Dave and Busters this weekend, and are celebrating Father's Eve with a Dads Night Out on Saturday the 18th. Father's Day also means gifts, and for dad bloggers, gift guides. If you need a gift for a special dad in your life, you've found the right place. We don't publish our own gift guide, so instead I'll give you a rundown of some of the ones I liked, and you can go from there. Please note the items I mention … [Read more...]
On True Bonds and Caring: Exploring Male Friendship.
This is a big week. With the NCAA tournament in the backdrop, Dove Men+Care (our sponsor for Friday's watch party, our bracket contest, the Dad 2.0 Summit, and many other fatherhood initiatives) led the way in releasing a new study about male friendship. On the surface, the initial finding is not surprising: "84% of men say they would drop everything to be there to care for a friend." While we know guys can be good friends, what doesn't always follow is the acknowledgement of the depth of the caring involved in our friendships. In the same study, "74% of men still told [researchers] that … [Read more...]