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Posts Tagged ‘daughter’
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Parenting News: Concussions, Breast Feeding, High School Dropouts, Never Ending Milestones
By Dad News Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Breast-Feeding May Lower Women’s Risk for Type 2 Diabetes: Women’s breasts are like fountains of youth, make sure your kids get a sip for everybody’s sake. (Businessweek)
Clear Kids With Concussions Before Sports: “…young athletes take longer to recover than college and professional athletes…” (Reuters)
Weight Loss Cuts Risk Of Pregnancy Complication: Healthy mom, healthy baby. (Reuters)
The (Somewhat) Good and (Mostly) Bad News About High-School Dropout Rates: “…overall high-school drop-out rates have risen for the second year in a row, after nearly a decade of improvement and increased national attention.” (Newsweek)
Degrees Of Fatherhood: “Parenting is a series of never-ending milestones, and for many years we gauge our children’s growth and progress by their progression through school.” (Dadomatic)
Magic Underwear
By Daddy Brad Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
Each year the good folks at Hanes assemble a group of bloggers called the Comfort Crew and treat them and their families to a week at Disney World in return for their thoughts about undergarments and how to build meaningful relationships with moms and dads. My family was lucky enough to be included in this year crew and we just returned from an incredible trip. I plan on posting more about our Disney experience over the next few weeks but I have a few initial thoughts to share while the pixie dust is still fresh in my mind.
Of Piercings and Parenting: Dads and Daughters
By Daddy Clay Monday, August 31st, 2009
My wife and I have been together for nearly two decades, so it’s fairly rare for her to do something that takes me completely by surprise. Her announcement that for our daughter’s eighth birthday she was taking Ri-ri to get her ears pierced floored me. You could have knocked me over with a pair of those purple feather earrings from the 80s.
To me it seemed kind of sudden, and a big step toward being a big girl. I was unsure if Ri-ri was really ready. Wasn’t this a kind of coming-of-age thing? Maybe freshmen year in college would be more appropriate. I needed some time to do some research, find out what best practices are, poll Twitter, check the AAP recommendations.
My twenty years of experience in a relationship helped me to quickly arrive at a strategy for communicating my concerns: I kept my damn mouth shut.
After all, this is a girl thing (though there has been a lot of talk in the house about the earring I wore until my oldest repeatedly pulled it out as an infant). As I was given deference on the matter of circumcision, so I deferred on the matter of ear piercing. Maybe that’s a bad parallel. Anyway, I decided to follow my wife’s lead.
These things are done at the mall now (piercings not circumcisions) in a chair that backs up to the glass front wall of the store. It seemed much less antiseptic, and much more public than such rituals might ought to be, but again I kept my mouth shut. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to attend. Wasn’t this a female thing? Plus. I might pass out.
So I grabbed the boys and went to the Apple store.
Zen And The Art Of Parenting
By Daddy Brad Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
This morning’s mad rush to get out of the door on time was side tracked by my daughter. She lost her shoes. Actually, she lost her back up pair of shoes. She lost her everyday pair of shoes last week. I tore the house apart, searched the garage, and scoured the front yard, back yard and side yard. No shoes!
Our choice of footwear for the day was between an old pair of church shoes, that were 3 sizes too small and a one size fits all pair of pink fuzzy snow boots. She chose the snow boots. By the way, it is going to be 80 and sunny in Austin today.
During the frantic search, as my frustration level began to boil from the prospect of once again running behind and having to take the walk of shame in front of the entire school as I drop my son off at chapel, late again, it hit me. Lighten up dude. Enjoy this. This is a funny and precious moment. Little Miss Ella is adorable in those boots and she is very proud to wear them. So she lost two pairs of shoes in a week, it’s really not a big deal. These are the moments that make childhood special and I better enjoy them now, because all to soon, they will be gone.
In no time, the kids will be grown, the house empty and Ma and I will be sitting alone, eating oat bran, covering our legs with lap blankets to cut the chill, discussing Cousin Rob’s latest bout of diverticulitis and longing for the hectic precious days of child rearing.
So I vowed this morning to slow down, to not get frustrated when things don’t go as planned and to enjoy the precious moments of my kids childhood. To savor, if you will, the lost shoes, the crayon pictures on the wall, the bathroom sink full of mud and roly polys, the cell phone memory full of pictures of the ground, and the millions of other gifts my kids give me every day.
I will save my frustration for old age when I can’t eat pizza any longer because it gives me the heartburn something fierce.
