Ice Bucket Challenge

Ice Bucket Challenge

I am probably* late to the party but get off me! I was only challenged yesterday!

The party I’m referring to is the Ice Bucket Challenge that’s been consuming social media lately, in which someone pours a bucket of ice on their head in an effort to bring awareness to the ALS association. The idea is that the videos raise awareness, and also that the people who refuse to risk pneumonia have to donate $100 to the cause. Of course, those things aren’t mutually exclusive, and you can do both if you want to.

Even if only a fraction of the people taking part in the trend end up actually donating, the publicity has to be a positive, right?

So today, after a friend passed the challenge on to me, I hopped on the bandwagon too. And let me tell you, on a rainy night in Brooklyn, it was COLD.

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Guest Post: Suburban Snapshots and the Benefits of One

Guest Post: Suburban Snapshots and the Benefits of One

The internet is weird.

Almost 15 years ago (pre-blog, pre-kid, pre-mature) at my first job after college, I briefly worked with a woman named Brenna Jennings. (I almost called it my first “real” job but I think Brenna will agree that “real” barely applies.) We weren’t exactly friends but she was a lot taller than me so that was my fault.

Cut to a decade and a half later when I recognized her name on the byline of a funny piece on The Huffington Post and immediately went to her hilarious, like-minded blog, Suburban Snapshots. I reached out, explained who I was several times until she pretended to remember me, and we rekindled what I can only refer to as an adversarial, she-had-no-time-for-me-and-I-was-scared-of-her relationship. And then I asked Brenna, a self-described “working mom who blogs it out because vodka has too many calories,” to write a guest post on Dad and Buried.

After almost a year, she finally obliged.

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Permissive Parenting

Permissive Parenting

Last week, when I asked my Facebook followers for topic ideas, someone suggested I tackle the mixed feelings parents have when their kids misbehave. Which almost sounds crazy. Why would anyone have anything but bad feelings when their kids misbehave?

Then, earlier this week, I got yelled at by a bunch of people who got angry that I let my son run rampant on airplanes. Never mind that I don’t do that, and that my son has (thus far) been very well-behaved on airplanes; these people said HURTFUL things that MADE ME CRY.

And it got me reconsidering that reader’s request, especially since I suddenly and strongly want my kid to misbehave on our next flight, just out of spite.

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Help a Father Out

Help a Father Out

One of the lessons I am trying to impart to my young son is that it’s okay to ask for help.

It might seem obvious, but there’s a long-standing perception within some corners of male culture that asking for help betrays weakness. Why do you think we never ask for directions?

I’ve personally never been one for being macho. The concept is outdated, and even the word is silly. I’m teaching my son that there’s no shame in knowing your limitations and asking for help. Especially when you really need it.

Someone who really needs it right now is the founder of the Dad Bloggers group I’m a part of on Facebook, Oren Miller. If you haven’t heard his heartbreaking story, get your tissues ready. And then open your wallets. Because his family is in for a tough road, and is friends and fellow Dad Bloggers – a great, diverse, generous group I’m proud to be a part of – are not going to bother waiting for them to ask for help.

We’re going ahead and doing it anyway. I hope you will too.

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