Parenting Is An Experiment

Parenting Is An Experiment

Over the weekend, I read a couple of parenting articles in The New York Times.

It was some intense reading full of hardcore facts and figures and suggestions and techniques, and I came away from it thinking that I have no idea what I’m doing as a parent. Which is totally cool, because I already knew that. It helped to discover that, judging by the articles, no one else knows what they’re doing either.

But thank God I don’t believe in parenting experts because even if I did, I have no idea how I’d be expected to even remember all the so-called “best” techniques, let alone have the wherewithal and discipline to implement them. Nor would I necessarily want to.

Parenting is an experiment, but our kids shouldn’t be test subjects.

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The Winter Soldier

The Winter Soldier

My family is the victim of poor planning.

Like everyone else, we participate in the standard holiday season that begins in November and ends in January.Unlike everyone else, we also have a few more holidays thrown into that fall/winter zone. And I.m not talking about All Saints’ Day or Pitchers and Catchers day.

My wife’s birthday is in early November. My son’s birthday is in mid-September and happens to land on the day before our wedding anniversary, and my own birthday hits just a week before that, although, let’s be honest, my birthday is meaningless. Throw in my wife’s beloved Halloween and the Hallmark hell of Valentine’s Day, and from September until mid-February my life is a calendar-choked spending spree of forced romance and legitimately meaningful milestones that leaves me both physically and financially spent.

Like I said, poor planning. And this long winter is just making it worse.

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[VIDEO] “Try Not Having Kids”

[VIDEO] “Try Not Having Kids”

What I like about the “Try Not Having Kids” video I’ve posted below is that while it’s aggressive in its promotion of the child-free lifestyle, it’s not afraid to make some snarky comments towards the child-free contingent.

I am a strong supporter of people not having kids, and not only in a “you’d make terrible parents” way. I like having friends who don’t have kids. It’s good for parents and non-parents to have exposure to what they’re missing, and there’s no need to pretend both lifestyles don’t have their perks.

But most importantly, the video is pretty funny. And true. Having kids ruins your (old) life.

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A Slightly-More-Realistic Christmas Poem

A Slightly-More-Realistic Christmas Poem

For some reason I occasionally catch the parody bug, like a younger, better-looking Weird Al.

Today, I happened upon the classic “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” poem, and decided to give it the old Dad and Buried spin.

It’s a bit of a lark, but after a weekend of traveling, shopping, family and general holiday stress, I’m in the mood for a lark. I hope you are too. But I don’t blame you if you’re not.

Merry Christmas!

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Lay-Z Boy

Lay-Z Boy

I don’t think I became lazy until I was a teenager. My toddler, however, has mastered it at three.

It’s a very selective laziness. He’s off the wall with energy most of the time, i.e., when you’re trying to get through the security line at the airport and he decides he wants to pretend to be The Flash; but when it’s time for him to actually do something? He’s less active than most of the people who work security at the airport.

Of course, if I had someone willing to carry me around everywhere, I’m pretty sure I’d let my legs atrophy until they melted off, so who am I to talk?

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