Tag Archive for: dad says

Self-Respect – A Key Parenting Ingredient

Teaching our children respect for others starts with teaching them respect for us, and this can be done without sacrificing our children's individuality or personal development.  First, we have to believe in the importance of our role as parents,…

Three Important Parenting Questions

As JoAnn and I began navigating the parenting waters, we found that, in the process of defining our values, we were also determining some basic rules for running the family ship "our way."   These were our first three basic questions: Is…
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The Evolving Dad

We’re evolving – all of us – and so is our world, or should I say “our worlds” as each of us is surrounded by our own experience. As society has shifted away from the “good ‘ol days” (a “Madmen” episode filled with smoke…

How Sports Teach Us

This is a great time of year for sports. We’ve just seen a great French Open, Stanley Cup Final, and NBA Final. Whether you’re an athlete or not, sports offer real opportunities to teach values, focus, and tenacity.  As parents, even…

Are You a Free Range Parent ?

I never thought I’d use a new-age term for happy chickens to address a parenting-related issue, but I suppose over-cautious parents are as oppressive to children as cages are to chickens. The organization known as Free Range Kids is “fighting…

Kanye’s Silver Lining

Yep, we almost saw it again, Kanye West deciding that his musical opinion trumps all others – and that he is the true arbiter of all musical “art.”  Part of the good news is that we didn't see it – at least we didn’t see the rude…

Ballet Dads

We’ve got three sons and a daughter. They arrived in that order. By the time our daughter Emily was born, I had coached and/or refereed multiple seasons of Little League, Muni Basketball, and AYSO.   When our daughter arrived she showed…

Trickle Down Parenting

When my wife JoAnn was pregnant with Emily, our fourth child, my mother decided that JoAnn needed a “day off.” She invited our family (three boys, ages fifteen, twelve and, six plus our newborn) and my sister’s family to meet her for dinner…

Keeping Thanks in Your Thanksgiving – 10 Simple Ideas

Louis C.K. jokes that airline passengers often complain about slow Internet while sitting in a tube hurtling through the sky at 400 miles per hour. I am often frustrated by bad cell coverage, when 20 years ago I couldn't call anyone from the…

Ebola, Panic, and Kids

We have a daughter at Emory University, home of our country’s most advanced Ebola treatment epicenter. People ask us if we’re worried and frankly, we’re not. We’re not good with panic. Teaching our children to remain calm, find the…