Rule One:
If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a carton of beer, because you're sure not picking anything up.
Rule Two:
You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them.
Rule Three: ... read more >>
What a lot of us guys don't realise is how important we are in the lives of our daughters through the teenage years … the typical Kiwi bloke's response is to pull away, and leave that stuff to mum.
John Trent, in his book, Dad's Everything Book For Daughters says , "No other man will influence your little girl like you, Dad! The relationship you build with her will shape the very course of her life."
In Healing The Masculine Soul, Gordon Dalbey says that the first man every girl loves is Daddy, and the character of that relationship shapes her expectations of what it's like to get close to a man later in life. ... read more >>
While driving to a wedding with Andrea 30 weeks pregnant in the passenger seat, we crossed an traffic light controlled intersection as you do when you have the Green Light, a car drives right into the Andreas door, pushing the car right across the street, fortunately the road was wet from there being rain earlier, the car was a light car and new with all the side impact features in new cars.
I drove the crippled car back over to the correct side of the road, out of row of on coming traffic (lucky there wasn't that either).
Checked first if Andrea was ok, she was talking and looked and felt ok.
I went to see the driver of the other car, who had by then managed to steer his crippled car near where I parked mine, he was ok, and he admitted responsibility immediately
I called emergency services and asked for Police and explained the situation:
* Car Accident
* Location
* Wife 30 weeks pregnant ... read more >>
Fighting among siblings is as natural as the changing of the seasons. And contrary to what many parents believe, sibling rivalry is a sign of mental health in a family. While there may be times when it's difficult to deal with, there are some simple things you can do to limit fighting and make it tolerable:
1. Ignore Their Fighting
Fighting is often a way for kids to get you to notice them. If you ignore their fighting (unless weapons are involved), there will be less incentive for them to do it.
2. Treat Your Kids the Same When it Comes to Fighting
If you get into who started things, you may be training your kids to be victims and bullies. Put them in the same boat and don't take sides.
3. Give Your Kids Positive Reinforcement when they're Cooperating ... read more >>
Do you also get pamphlets and brochues advertising some hideous bronze casts of baby feet, hands or most recently baby bottoms (?!?) The baby casting companies are out there to get us ... there are generally two types I found. The ones trying to sell you a DIY casting kit (which is not cheap for what it is) and the ones that do the full service for you (which costs an absolute fortune). So I thought - bugger that and came up with an equally aesthetic option that cost me 5 Cents.
Check it out!
... read more >>
A Podcast hosted on International Dad featuring show hosts Scott Lancaster and co-hosts Eric Mooij and Stefan Korn from DIYFather.com.
Today the DIY Father's review February articles, news and podcast.
Expectant fathers have a lot of decisions to make when getting ready for the arrival of their first or new child. Many people create checklists to try and help them prepare, but it is impossible to make ready for every situation or need. There are many decisions during the pregnancy that dads really care about expressing an opinion but some are avoided at all costs.
Here are Five Decisions Expectant Fathers Tend to Avoid:
1. Choice of doctor or hospital - we're not the ones who need to feel comfortable being poked, probed and examined, so why should our opinion matter?
2. Room decor or bedding set - dads want kids to have cool rooms, but the only things we really care about when it comes to decor are how much it costs and the amount of work it will be for us to paint and set-up all of the furniture.
3. Formula or breastfed baby - as long as we can be involved in feeding the baby in some way, we don't really care where the milk comes from.
4. Natural or 'pain relieved' delivery - some dads may quietly think they have a strong position on this leading up to the big day; however, that quickly changes when they get in the delivery room with a screaming mom. In most cases, dads understand that they aren't the ones pushing the baby out, so they really don't have a say about epidurals or pain medications anyway. ... read more >>
