Author: Family Friendly Daddy Blog

Leave a comment Posted on funny, Nostalgia, parenting

Daddy, Do They Still Make Old Mans?

May 19, 2014 at 8:51 pm , by

3 years, 6 months.

Dear Jack,

Saturday morning, I introduced you to The New Woody Woodpecker Show on Netflix.

As soon as you saw Dr. Von Kook, you proclaimed, “Hey Daddy, that’s an old man!” It was if he was a purple magical unicorn or something.

Then there was that perfect 5 second delay before you gave me a classic follow-up comment:

“Daddy, do they still make old mans?”

You were completely sincere in your curiosity.

I suppose I said yes somewhere in the midst of my immediate uproar of laughter, but I don’t necessarily remember it.

It’s hilarious to imagine human factories that manufacture people; that they purposely make “old mans.”

Which is the other thing I love about your question: the alternative way to make “man” plural… just add an “s”.

Yes, Son, they still make old mans.

Nick Shell shared The Dadabase‘s status.
May 17

“Daddy, do they still make old mans?” -Jack #thisjusthappened
In fact, I’m simply 29 and a half years ahead of you on the journey to becoming an old man myself.

I am especially reminded of that since my past couple of haircuts; noticing that my hair is now a tad thinner than it was just a few years ago.

Like most men, I will gradually go the way of the ever manly Bruce Willis. With each Die Hard sequel, he appeared wiser, tougher, more experienced, and even cooler.

And I’m totally fine with my follicle fate.

Back in 1991, I remember standing at the bathroom counter in the house I grew up in, which was furnished with the finest dark brown wall paneling and dark brown shag carpet.

As I brushed my teeth one night, I remember looking at both of my parents, who were the age I am now, around 33.

I thought, “One day I will be 33 like them. I’ve got so many years until I get there. But one day, that’ll be me.”

I was 10 at the time. I decided in that moment, to consciously remember that forever, like a permanent bookmark.

But now, that “one day” has come. I am now that age.

Granted, 33 is not old or even close to it.

They still make old mans, but I’m definitely not one of them yet.

 

Love,

Daddy

 

Top photo: courtesy of The New Woody Woodpecker Show.

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Storytelling

One Of The Most Masculine Things A Father Can Do

May 18, 2014 at 2:11 pm , by

3 years, 6 months.

Dear Jack,

Last Thursday when you and I got home from school and work, I found a package on our doormat. This was odd, because aside from holidays, I never receive mail directed to me alone.

I’m okay with that, but it did surprise me. Turns out, it was a copy of the book Lessons For Joey:100 Things I Can’t Wait To Teach My Son.

A couple of months ago, the author, RJ Licata, had asked me to write a little blurb about it to be featured on the back cover.

After creating the successful daddy blog “100 Things To Teach My Son” a while back, he recently published a book based on it.

Here’s what I said about his book:

“I think one of the most masculine things a father can do for his son is to communicate with him clearly and regularly; from the day to day to the big picture stuff. Therefore, it has been easy for me to be a fan of RJ Licata’s blog–and now his book. A good father is a good mentor. That’s why this book is special. It’s a glimpse of what hands on fatherhood looks like, fleshed out in the form of 100 lessons.”

I easily celebrate any fellow dad who publically and positively portrays fatherhood. Something I’ve learned in the 4 years of writing about you/to you is that I care less now about how the media so obviously makes dads out to be idiots.

These days, my focus is on spotlighting any entity that shares my passion of reinforcing the positive examples of fatherhood.

That’s why I mentioned him a year ago in my letter, Dads Like To Teach Life Lessons To Their Kids.

For example, I was pleasantly surprised to see the healthy relationship between the father and son the movie,About Time, that I recently wrote to you about.

It’s subtle, but it’s a big deal to me.

I read a fantastic article recently, called “Why Fatherhood Matters,” by Stephen Marche, which proclaims that fatherhood has never mattered more, as the definition of masculinity has evolved through generations:

“Only fatherhood is indisputably masculine, which is why when you ask men when they became men, they usually answer when they became a father or lost a father.”

He goes on to declare fatherhood as a marker of class.

The way I feel, this is one of the most important times to be a dad. And let’s face it… it’s also one of the coolesttimes to be a dad.

Fatherhood is masculine.

I just don’t see how a man can be more manly that being a good father- and by “good father,” a huge part of that is how well he communicates with his child.

To me, that is perhaps the most important aspect of being a father.

So while I could easily go on all day about all the times I’ve missed the mark in life, I can at least feel positive that I’m doing one thing right:

Communicating with you.

 

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on infographic, parenting

I Guess I’m Supposed To Hate Common Core…

May 17, 2014 at 11:33 am , by

Leave a comment Posted on Nostalgia, parenting

If We Couldn’t Laugh We Would All Go Insane

May 16, 2014 at 10:36 pm , by

3 and a half years!

Dear Jack,

Have you noticed how many of our stories that I write to you about take place in the car? It’s because the car is our exclusive “meeting place.”

It’s our… mobile tree house.

It’s our place to be quiet together, as well as our place to laugh together about silly stuff we make up on the spot.

Finding ways to make life fun is important. After all, a wise man from Alabama once said, “If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.”

More on that in just a second…

By me driving you to and from school each day, I get to know a version of you that perhaps Mommy doesn’t- all because I’m the one driving you.

In an attempt to make it quality time for us, I wanted to find a style of music on SiriusXM that we both could appreciate and that would make the drive fun and relaxing.

I assumed our favorite station would be jazz… but it wasn’t.

Instead, it’s channel 24: Radio Margaritaville.

Basically, every third song is Jimmy Buffett. The rest fall into the categories of mellow rock and/or reggae; including Jack Jackson, Dave Matthews Band, and Bob Marley.

Before discovering Radio Margaritaville, you didn’t like me having the radio on for more than a few minutes.

Now, with Jimmy Buffett and friends, you never ask me to turn the radio off. You make it a game to try to figure out when it’s Jimmy Buffet singing the song:

“Who’s singing this song, Daddy? Jimmy Buffett?”

Son, I think you and I are becoming Parrotheads.

Fate would have it that back in December 2011, we did a road trip from Naples to Key West in a Chevy Volt; which now that think about it, was my very first car review.

It was such an awesome trip. We got to experience driving across the Florida Keys and got to stay in cool, old house from the 1930s with a spiral staircase. Jimmy Buffet kind of stuff.

Back then, in December 2011, you had just turned 1. So you don’t remember any of that. It was also your first trip to the beach.

As of today, you are officially 3 and a half. By this point, you are actually going to be remembering our family road trips; like the one we have coming up next month, from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe.

We can be father and son Parrotheads there. But I better grow a pencil thin mustache first…

 

Love,

Daddy

 

P.S. Happy 3rd (and a half) Birthday!

8 Comments Posted on movie reviews, parenting

The Real Villain In Disney’s Frozen: The Parents Of Elsa & Anna

May 14, 2014 at 9:29 pm , by

3 years, 5 months.

Dear Jack,

Had you been born a girl, I assume our family would have already seen Frozen a minimum of 37 times. However, you were born a boy, which means we just saw it for the first time this past weekend.

There’s no question it’s a great movie, worth all the hype it’s received as one of the greatest Disney movies- I’m just simply acknowledging that you personally were more impressed by The Lego Movie– and I think a lot of that has to do with you being a boy.

Meanwhile, your (girl) cousin Calla, who is very close to you in age, is completely obsessed with Frozen… has the soundtrack, toys, dresses, and whatever else merchandize I’m not thinking of right now.

I personally really enjoyed Frozen. But as someone who loves to analyze things, having studied Literary Criticism as part of the requirements for obtaining my English degree, I couldn’t help but notice that for such an epic Disney musical, there was no official villain.

The Little Mermaid had Ursula. The Lion King had Scar. Aladdin had Jafar.

But as for Frozen, Prince Hans is the assumed villain because, near the end of the movie, he proves to be a jerk when he makes it clear he was only trying to use Anna to become a more powerful ruler.

However, Hans was not the character who who ultimately introduced the agency of evil in the plot. He simply tried to take advantage of the situation after the plot had been establishedyears before in the storyline.

Some might say Elsa, the older sister with the superpowers, was the villain- but it’s pretty clear she’s a victim who never wanted to hurt her sister Anna.

The way I see it, Elsa was simply the victim of her parents’ horrible (yet not intentionally evil) decision to keep their only children from communicating during most of their childhood, leading into adulthood.

Seriously, how messed up is that?!

Not to mention, Elsa learned to become ashamed of her special ability and cut herself off from not only her sister, but basically, the outside world.

So by default, the parents of Elsa and Anna, the King and Queen of Arendell, are responsible for whole darn crisis happening.

Though they died in the beginning of the movie, like most Disney parents seem to do, I didn’t even feel sad. Because for me, I felt like the villains were removed from the movie at the beginning, instead of the end.

Therefore, it provided for a more emotional plotline and resolve.

The pay-off, I suppose, is that by teaching Elsa to hold in her emotions most of her developing years, she was able to write and sing “Let It Go,” which is a song no one can get out of their head without having to overwrite it with something super annoying like “Karma Chameleon” or “Macarena.”

With all this being said, Frozen is a wonderful movie about love and forgiveness. I definitely appreciate the fact that the “villain” is not obvious. It’s one of the things that makes Frozen really stand apart.

In fact, I think it would have actually taken away from the importance of restoring the relationship of Elsa and Anna, had there been an official villain who further agitated the characters.

Elsa and Anna saved themselves- they didn’t have to be saved by a prince who defeated a bully. For me, that aspect made the movie more realistic and relatable.

But I’m guessing at age 3, you probably didn’t pick up on anything of this. You did, however, love Olaf and Sven.

 

Love,

Daddy

 

Images courtesy of Disney.