As part of my plan to quickly build the library of my newest web series, Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Kingdom, I am now shooting new webisodes during my lunch breaks at work.
One of my coworkers just happens to be one of my most faithful watchers, so I didn’t really have to twist his arm in order to convince him to be my camera man/assistant director on these “during our lunch break at work” video shoots.
Last Thursday, we shot two new webisodes; during one 60 minute period.
First is “Webisode 12: Beanie the Bat”, where Uncle Nick serves as a real estate agent to a bat who likes to live in trees; with a sort of “House Hunters: Animal Edition” style of plot line.
During the shoot, I sliced my hand on the tree I was climbing. I just wrote it into the script.
The other webisode we filmed is “Webisode 13: Petey the Possum.” There is no doubt this is one of the most stand-out webisodes of Uncle Nick.
Very close to where I work, there is a drain tunnel the same height as me. I decided it would make the perfect setting. I am so pleased with how it turned out.
Not only do I feel the plot line is captivating, but the tunnel itself is intriguing because it’s a rare event to get a tour down into something so mysterious.
I’ll say this; I wouldn’t be willing to walk in there alone.
So now I can make videos throughout the week, instead of having to just wait for the weekend.
I feel my Uncle Nick series has so much potential and that kids would really like it if they watched it. But for now, it remains undiscovered in the corner of YouTube.
But that doesn’t stop me from continuing to grow my collection.
Uncle Nick has plenty more up his sleeve!
Here’s an overview of what some previous webisodes are about:
Webisode 7: Paulie the Puppy– When Uncle Nick decides to hike a new trail, it leads him to an empty old building and a mysterious barking sound.
Webisode 8: Pokey the Pot-Bellied Pig– Uncle Nick must figure out a way to cross the river to save the little pot-bellied pig who is stuck on the other side.
Webisode 9: Ralph the Red Panda– While hiking later in the evening, Uncle Nick discovers a rare animal as it begins getting dark outside.
Webisode 10: Slither the Snake– Freddie the Fox gets trapped by a hungry snake at the top of a large rock. It’s Uncle Nick to the rescue!
Webisode 11: Barry the Bear– When a scary-looking bear is soon in the Enchanted Forest, Uncle Nick decides to investigate; leading to a lesson about not judging a bear by his cover.
Barry the Bear was first introduced 4 months ago in my other series, Jack-Man:
I had been preparing you for over a year for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The time finally came this past Saturday.
Easily, I can say in confidence, it was one of my most epic experiences as a parent, to watch Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the first time, together with you.
We arrived about an hour before the movie as supposed to begin. Even though it had been out in theatres for a month already, I wasn’t willing to risk not getting a good seat, or any seat at all.
Good thing I approached the situation the way I did. We were there at the 4:05 matinee when, technically, the least amount of people are supposed to be interested in seeing a movie.
When we walked in, there were only about 15 or 20 seats taken; so we got our choice seats.
But within 30 minutes, the only seats remaining were the 3 separate front rows, where the floor is flat and you have to look straight up at the screen.
So the good news was that we got good seats by being there an hour before show time.
The bad news was that the commercials and previews started at “show time”, meaning that we were sitting there for close to an hour and a half before Star Wars actually began, meaning we both had to “go potty” as the show was finally beginning. That was the downside of making sure we were fully hydrated for the movie.
However, the movie was so enthralling that we made it through the entire movie, which was 2 hours and 16 minutes; we stayed all the way until the credit ended.
The whole time, you sat on my lap. Each time a new character appeared, you would whisper to me, “Daddy, is that a good guy or a bad guy?”
That’s an especially relevant question when watching a Star Wars movie, when that’s one of the underlying themes in most Star Wars movies anyway: Is he a good guy or a bad guy?
During the most intense action scenes, you would sit straight up on my knee. You were so into it!
I am so happy were you born in 2010; making you 5 years-old when the first new J.J. Abrams/Disney Star Wars movie came out.
That is the perfect age for you to start watching these movies with me.
Having seen all the previous Star Wars movie, I must say that this new one was everything I’d hope it would be.
I was so impressed. I can’t wait for us to watch it when it comes to Redbox. Mommy is pretty intrigued by us talking about it so much, that now she looks forward to seeing it with us.
For the past few weeks, Mommy spent hours upon hours on Etsy, finding the perfect baby blanket for you.
Not just any blanket, but the baby blanket.
We had to find the one that best matched the color scheme as well as the “Rock-a-bye Baby” theme of your bedroom. Plus, the blanket had to be of nice quality and look modern.
Not to mention, we had to find one in our budget. Though in the end, your Nonna and Papa (my parents) quickly offered to pay for it once they heard about the blanket.
You can thank them when you get here.
So this is it: This is your official baby blanket that will show up in all those pictures while you are a newborn and small baby.
We put a lot of thought into finding a blanket that represents what we imagine you will be like. As I’ve mentioned before, we don’t see you as this dainty little princess.
Therefore, a pink blanket just didn’t do it for me. I wanted to see more character in your baby blanket, as well as the room’s décor.
I feel we’ve done a good job of making that happen.
Meanwhile this week, we also received another important baby gift for you, in the mail…
I never imagined we’d ever own anything so nice, or practical. Seriously, I am so happy about receiving this stroller.
It’s one of those things on our Target registry that I of course wished for, but didn’t actually expect to receive.
By the way, you’ll be here in about 3 months. It’s really not that far out in the future at all. So it’s not too early at all to be receiving your baby blanket and stroller.
(Fortunately, we lucked out, and only had to pay $13 to park. In downtown Nashville, that’s a good deal.)
I was wearing my new Superman baseball cap that you and Mommy got me for Christmas. As I was outside in the parking lot finalizing our parking space, you asked Mommy, “What if people think Daddy is Superman because he’s wearing that? What if they start crowding around him?”
This was a legitimate concern to you; that the tourists of downtown Nashville would be stopped in their tracks by the presence of the real Superman.
How would they spot me? Because of my Superman logo on my hat; as opposed to my shirt, were the Superman logo is usually displayed.
Never mind that Superman would be more like 6’4” and 220 pounds, whereas I’m 5’9” and 155 pounds.
Still, in your mind, I could pass as Superman.
If I allowed myself to, I could let that go to my head.
I also learned that same day, that you believe Batman, as well as Superman, are not simply fictional super heroes, but actually real people.
As you saw the “Batman building”, as we Nashvillians call it, you proclaimed, “Daddy, I wonder if Batman really sleeps up there on top of the Batman building?”
So in your mind, not only is Batman a real person, but he happens to live in the center of downtown Nashville.
I love the way you think. I love the thought of a version of reality in which not only legendary superheroes walk among us, but also where I, your Daddy, could possibly be mistaken for one.
I had every reason to be an advocate of spanking my child.
After all, I was raised Southern. (“Nuff said.”)
Not to mention, I was also raised Southern Baptist. And that means that a particular Bible verse got more than its fair share of attention; Proverbs 13:24:
“Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.”
Hence, the popular phrase, “Spare the rod, spoil the child.”
However, I now translate that verse as, “It’s better to physically strike your child with a wooden object than it is to refrain from disciplining them at all.”
It appears to me that one extreme is being compared to another; an “either/or” situation.
I am able to comprehend that disciplining my child and spanking him can be two separate entities.
Assuming that verse in Proverbs explicitly endorses spanking, in my opinion, would make hypocrites of us:
I’ve yet to meet a Christian who gouged out their own eye because of temptation to look at something that would cause them to do wrong, when Jesus said this in Matthew 18:9…
“And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter (eternal) life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”
Or their right hand either (Matthew 5:30):
“And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose part of your body than for whole body to go into hell.”
In other words, address the actual issue initially, that way you don’t end up with a worse outcome.
Yes, it’s true: I am an official advocate of disciplining my child without spanking him.
But obviously, between how I was brought up and my son currently being 5 years old, something fundamentally intervened in regards to how I think.
What caused such an abrupt conversion in my life?
My wife.
Like me, and like nearly all of us parents who are Eighties Children, she was spanked as a child too.
We had always planned to spank our son, too. The deal was, that I would be the one to actually spank him. And that was it.
Never was the issue that “I simply just didn’t have it in me” to spank him. Because like most of us, I had reached the point of being “fed up” enough to do it.
Believe me, I had it in me…
But yet, I never have spanked my son; nor has anyone else.
And if you’ve met him, you know how bright, intelligent, creative, funny, and well-behaved he is. Is he simply the exception to the rule? Is it just because he’s the first born and therefore more eager to please?
I’m sure at this point, any skeptics out there are tempted to say, “You lucked out with your first kid. Well you just wait until your little girl is born in a few months. She’ll be a whole different story!”
To that, I could only say, try me. Let’s revisit that question in a few years, because you better believe I will on my end.
My official moment of conversion occurred during our first trip as a family to Louisville, Kentucky; to visit the zoo, when our son was around 2 years old.
It’s just about a 2 and half hour drive from where we live in the Nashville area. So we decided just to leave straight after work on that Friday.
What a miserable road trip there! No matter what we did as parents, he screamed and cried. I had to roll down the windows just to drown him out.
He finally fell asleep in the car, after about 10 PM.
But then the next morning, as my wife was buying food supplies for us at the local Whole Foods, my son and I waited in the car for about 20 minutes. He was screaming and “pitching a fit” the whole time.
While being trapped in our little car with him, I had reached my limit. I had officially decided that I would spank him for the first time.
Every cliché redneck phrase was going through my head:
“I’m about to show that boy who’s boss! He’s past due for some good ole fashioned discipline. It’s about time for me to put him over my knee!”
But like any good husband should do, I asked my wife’s permission first.
And she gave me the red light.
She simply pointed out that he hadn’t gotten good rest the night before, as we as the parents had thrown his sleep schedule off the night before, since we were driving when he would normally be put to bed.
From that day, until last week, I had accidentally been formulating a 5 point checklist to decide why my child is “misbehaving.”
I shared it officially for the first time this week. I came up with this alone; I did not extract it from any other website nor did I hear it first from any other person. This is my original work and let the time stamp of today’s blog post prove that true.
Hungry, tired, bored, lonely, or sick.
They need to know when to eat (hungry), when to sleep (tired), when to play (bored), when to engage in conversation (lonely), or when they are physically incapable of feeling well (sick).
These are the times when your child is simply more prone to have restlessly energy and/or be extremely sensitive to the slightest thing, causing them to have a meltdown.
While I alone did invent that check list, I didn’t invent the following 5 step check list for alternatives to spanking. I learned these while serving as Parents.com’s official daddy blog.
Ignore attention-seeking behavior; pay attention to good behavior; redirect your child; teach consequences that make sense; and use time-outs for serious offenses.
This is a lesson I am still learning/reminding myself of.
My wife and I have officially come to the realization that whenever we visit my parents for the weekend, we have to leave their house before 11:30 AM on Sunday; we can’t wait until after lunch.
Our son’s body starts shutting down by that time, as he is needing a nap. It’s not fair to him to expect him to “behave” when he’s having to wait later to eat and sleep later just so we can have “more quality time as a family.”
The exact opposite happens instead: He has a meltdown, and therefore, that extra time as a family is not quality time.
He is simply more prone to have restlessly energy and/or be extremely sensitive to the slightest thing, causing him to have a meltdown.
Instead, we need to leave earlier so that he doesn’t slip into that mindset, and therefore, we as the parents don’t get upset either.
I am so grateful I married such a level-headed woman.
Otherwise, I would be hitting my kid ultimately because as a parent, I wasn’t proactive to provide for his needs ahead of time; regarding him being hungry, tired, bored, lonely, or sick.
What about for the parent who read this and comments, “Well I have always spanked my kid, and they too, are very well behaved.”
I would respond, “That raises the question: If my child is well behaved without spanking, and yours is well behaved with spanking, doesn’t that prove that spanking is unnecessary? If the two methods are simply equally effective, why physically strike your child when there are equally effective alternatives (when applied proactively and consistently by the parent)?”
It is my belief that a lot of people assume the minority of us who don’t spank their children (about 20% of the American population) actually don’t discipline them at all. When in fact, I have a very proactive and detailed discipline system in place.
Family Friendly Daddy Blog 