By Daddy Danny December 14th, 2011

So…I just experienced what I’m going to call “FIRST FATHER FREAKOUT”.  Do you remember the movie SPEED with Keanu Reeves?  The part where Dennis Hopper, the bad guy, tells Keanu that his partner is dead…and then Keanu proceeds to go f***ing nuts on the bus? That’s me, except in my reality, it’s the part where the bad guy, MY NEW LIFE, calls me and tells me my partner, MY OLD LIFE, is dead…and then I proceed to flip in my home, while my pregnant wife, who is NOT Sandra Bullock at this point in her pregnancy, is driving our couch and not a bus.

I digress.

The point is, I’m going to be a father and I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything as a film director or creative individual.  I have made only one film that’s having a hard time getting noticed or distributed.  I have made commercials that when submitted for awards have not won.  My music videos only go so far.  I’ve acted in a feature film that critics said where the worst acting they’ve ever seen.  The last time I won a “real” award for filmmaking was 2003 and that was in West Virginia.  Blah blah blah….does this happen to all first time fathers?  Do we all freak the @#*%#@ out?  How the hell do you raise a child, and still try to maintain the life you once had.  Why does everyone tell you your old life is over?!  I’m getting that damn call again from the bad guy from Speed! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

BTW…Miranda, my pregnant wife, was watching Speed when this happened, so that’s why the Speed reference.

NOTE: However, during my freak out, while I was screaming and yelling, I did manage to clean the toilet and straighten up the kitchen.  So am I quite productive when I’m angry.

Tags: babies, dads, father news, Fatherhood, infants, kids, News, parenting news, wife
Posted in DadLabs, Fatherhood, Marriage, Money, Pregnancy

By Daddy Brad December 13th, 2011

I got together with my good buddies from the Cast of Dads the other night to have our weekly (or semi-weekly) pod cast call.  One of the topics that came up was my two year olds deteriorating behavior.  He is turning into a wild man.  Our conversation also deteriorated.  It always amazes me how quickly grown men’s conversation can devolve into potty humor.  It’s like we never left 3rd grade!

Take a listen.  Deuce in the Dryer

Topics discussed on this episode:

• Tofurky OR Real Turkey
• Mac N’ Cheese stuffed turkey breast
• Hangover burgers and Krispy Kreme burgers
• The garbage plate
• Wonder if The Egg Council will sponsor us
• Jeff’s dog eats a neighbor’s chicken
• Rules in Texas?
• Movember raises a LOT of money
• Stache-tacular
• Michael Shaves Off His Mo
• Norelco Christmas Ad
• Where is Gillette?
• BCS Bowl Season
• NFL coming down to the wire
• Babble’s Top Dad Group Blogs
• Brad’s son goes mad
• Kids turning 13
• The fun of embarrassing our kids
• “Music is a lot like your under wear drawer.”
• Getting ready for the holidays
• A deuce in the dryer?

Don’t forget to tell your friends about the show and have them subscribe to either our direct feed or via iTunes. Also, please leave us a review in iTunes!

Cast of Dads is a group of podcasting and blogging dads who gather to gab about fatherhood. The cast of dads includes C.C. Chapman, Jeffrey Sass, Max Kalehoff, Michael Sheehan, and Brad Powell, who collectively represent 13 kids from the youngest of babies to full grown adults. Each of them brings a unique perspective to being a father.

Tags: cast of dads, Two year old
Posted in cast of dads

By Daddy Clay December 6th, 2011

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and research lately about kids, parents and technology. One of the clearest trends: kids are using technology at a younger and younger age. Many of the biggest tech companies have picked up on the trend and are now offering products aimed at the much coveted 0-9 year old demographic. Here are a few products  designed to optimize that protracted software install we call “childhood.”
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Tags: babies, Facebook, FourSquare, Gowalla, hot, humor, infants, lists, pandora, product, spoof, Tech, technology, toddlers, youtube
Posted in Fatherhood, Tech

By Daddy Clay December 2nd, 2011

The Pillars of the DadLabs Community

It’s always been about conversation.

In the beginning it was conversation among Brad, Troy and me. Every Monday night for years we’d meet in the maintenance shed of the school where we worked (Brad had the key) to have a beer or two and talk about maybe going into business together, but the conversation was always ended up being about marriage and fatherhood. We were all new dads, and parenting had so fundamentally changed in the space of one generation that we just had to talk about it.

So conversations about business and fatherhood eventually merged, and DadLabs was born.

We thought that video would be a good way to spark conversation, and we knew something about film production, so that was the starting point for us. But from the beginning, our ambition was to send the videos out as missionaries to try to bring the dads in — to help us build a conversation, and maybe even a community.
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Tags: community, dad, DadLabs, dads, destination, discussion, Fatherhood, fathers, forum, founding, groups, guys, history, information, men, parenting, website
Posted in Fatherhood