Author: Family Friendly Daddy Blog

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Storytelling

It’s A Boy’s Boy’s Boy’s World

December 17, 2013 at 10:23 pm , by 

3 years, 1 month.

Dear Jack,

It was just a month ago that we celebratedyour 3rd birthday with your best friend Sophie. I had pointed out the fact that your other friends who showed up to your party were all girls.

And for Sophie’s birthday party this past weekend atShipwrecked Playhouse, the boys were unable to make it as well.

Here you are again in a situation where you’re the only boy, surrounded by girls.

Not that you minded, or even thought it was out of the ordinary.

In fact, you were quite preoccupied by the fact Sophie had told you earlier in the week at school that she had a surprise for you that you’d receive at her party.

The moment you sat down next to her as the cake was being cut, you politely yet very directly asked her, “What’d you get for me, Sophie?”

She didn’t tell you.

However, you patiently waited for her to open her gifts… knowing afterwards you could see what was in your goodie bag from her.

Sophie and your friend Madison both eagerly watched you open your goodie bag, as if that were just as important as the actual birthday kid opening her gifts.

You were happy: There was Play-Doh in there- which I am finding is like currency among 3 year-olds, as cigarettes are in prison.

Afterwards, I really enjoyed observing the way you played, versus the way your girl friends did.

While Sophie and Madison used the phone to repeatedly announce clean-up on aisle 7…

You drove the Lightning McQueen car around the indoor playground, exploring the ins and outs of the joint. Granted, you visited Sophie and Madison, by parking right in front of them as they played on the phone. You served as the sole, straight-faced audience member.

After a few minutes, you drove away without even the thought of giving them any applause.

You acted like a total boy the whole time. And they acted girls, accordingly.

Go figure.

 

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on funny, parenting, Storytelling

The 3 Year-Old Version Of Cursing: “Poo You! I Poke You In The Eye!”

December 15, 2013 at 9:04 pm , by 

3 years.

Dear Jack,

Half your life ago,which was a year and half ago, I wrote “My Toddler’s [Bleep] Potty Mouth.”

Back in those days, when you tried to say the word “cookie,” it came out as… a word I’m not going to say on record.

You didn’t have the ability to announce certain sounds, so a completely innocent word could end up being something that would be censored on cable TV.

These days, however, you can pronounce most sounds you need to and therefore, “accidental curse words” are less of an occurrence.

However, I’m picking up on what I call “the 3 year-old version of cursing.”

Today Mommy was out with a friend for a little while, as part of her monthly designated girlfriend time (my designated guy friend time was a few weeks ago when I went with some friends to see Thor: The Dark World… then Hunger Games: Catching Fire), so this afternoon I stayed home with you cleaning our “2 and a half” bathrooms.

It was time for your noontime nap, but I really wanted to get the cleaning out of the way before you went to sleep.

So I made you a deal…

You followed me to each of the bathrooms as I cleaned them. While I scrubbed the sinks, toilets, and tubs with Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castille Peppermint Soap, you read me stories from a book your aunt Jeneane recently mailed you for Christmas: Best-Loved Children’s Stories.

As I was kneeling down to clean the shower drain, I heard you say, “Poo you! I poke you in the eye!”

I paused for a moment, as I did my best to keep you from hearing me laugh.

Then I walked out of the bathroom doorway to come see which storyline could have motivated that kind of dialogue.

“The purple page, Daddy,” you explained as you flipped back a few pages, to show me the part in “Ali Baba” where a thief annoyingly questions a lady store worker.

I’m guesing it was she that told the thief, “Poo you! I poke you in the eye!”

What a clever curse from the mind of a 3 year-old. I mean, I don’t want you repeating that at school, where you probably heard it to begin with.

But seriously, that’s pretty funny!

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Storytelling

Can We Just Be Open And Honest With Each Other? (Part 2)

December 15, 2013 at 4:06 pm , by 

Leave a comment Posted on Nostalgia, parenting

Can We Just Be Open And Honest With Each Other? (Part 1)

December 15, 2013 at 3:49 pm , by 

3 years.

Dear Jack,

I feel like there’s this stereotype about fathers, that especially as they get older, they tend to have less of an open door policy with their sons.

And I get it.

By the time the two are both grown men, there’s almost this unspoken rule that the two can’t or shouldn’t talk to each other about serious stuff, involving the need for jpersonal advice… because they’re both grown men.

However, that’s the very reason theyshould depend on each other in that way.

For me personally, I can’t just talk toany guy friend about certain stuff.

My heart is very guarded. I know that may seem out of character for me, being that I appear to spill my guts out in these letters to you. But there’s a whole lot I keep private.

Rabbit trail here, but as I’m nearing my H.R. certification exam on January 11th, I’m planning to start focusing more time on writing songs again (which is why I moved to Nashville in the first place) because soon I won’t have to spend all my free time (which isn’t much) on studying. I can begin easing my way back into my forsaken hobby of creating music.

One of the songs I’m working on contains this line:

“I am a skeleton with meat on my bones/I walk around with secrets nobody knows.”

I think a lot of men feel that way. I think that’s why classic superheroes are so popular. Batman is the example that comes to my mind, immediately. In a way, superheroes compensate their own personal failures, fears, and insecurities by leading and helping others. It’s a great escape and a perfect distraction.

Yet still, they have received an emotional scar at some point in life that characterizes, and in some ways, defines who they are.

I can relate. I have an emotional scar or two. And I would actually be surprised to meet a man who didn’t feel that way about himself. It’s for that very reason it’s important you’ve always got other men to depend on, emotionally… or psychologically, or whatever you want to call it.

It’s not that I don’t trust other men, but  it does take a lot to make myself that emotionally vulnerable. It’s easier just to keep it inside and try to sort it out myself, a lot of the time.

I’m realizing I’ve got more to say about this than I realized, so let me put a bookmark right here. Go grab yourself a glass of water, then come back and read the rest of this letter.

To be continued…

 

Love,

Daddy

Leave a comment Posted on parenting, Spirituality

The Jesus Part Of Christmas (One Solitary Life)

December 12, 2013 at 10:13 pm , by 

3 years.

Dear Jack,

When our family saw The Radio City Christmas Spectacular this past weekend, it reminded me of a deep thought that I feel often goes “unthought of.”

At the very end of the show, a short essay called“A Solitary Life” by Dr. James Allan Francis was read to the audience, right after The Living Nativity scene.

I won’t quote the whole thing here, but the last few lines of it really stood out to me:

“Two thousand years have come and gone, and today He is the central figure for much of the human race. All the armies that have ever marched and all the navies that have ever sailed and all the parliments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as this “One Solitary Life.’”

It’s pretty fascinating to me that if Jesus wasn’t who He claimed to be, which is the Son of God and the predicted Messiah of the prophecies in the Old Testament, then He was simply the most famous and influencial deceiver to have ever lived on the earth.

That means He’s fooled millions of people in the past couple thousand years. That means, back in His day, he caused quite a political uproar over… nothing. In that case, it was all just a hoax.

As C.S. Lewis famously put it, Jesus is either “lunatic, liar, or Lord.”

But again, if He was simply a crazy man or false prophet, He’s the most famous and influential one there’s ever been, to simply have been just a man.

Or, Jesus really is who He said He is, and He’s still the most famous and influential man who has ever lived.

This is the same man who this time of year is better known as the baby born in Bethlehem.

Nearly a year and a half ago, I wrote “8 Non-Religious Reasons To Take Your Kids To Church,” in which I closed by stating my thoughts on the choice to live a life based on faith in Jesus:

The way I look at it; even if at the end of my life I was wrong about God this entire time and when we die, we just die and that’s it, I still wouldn’t regret having believed. Because if nothing else, I had a sense of hope amidst all of life’s uncertainties.

Throughout all the traditional Santa and reindeer stuff we enjoy this time of year, I’m still distracted by the Jesus part of Christmas.

If Christmas was simply about candy canes and snowmen, and still managed to be this big of a deal to everyone, I would really be questioning why we celebrate it.

But I know the basis of this holiday season is deeper than that, and even more than just “the spirit of giving.” It still comes down to a baby in a manger who went on to live the most famous and influential life… ever.

And as I raise you to believe in Him, if He was really just a liar or a lunatic instead, I guess that makes me one of those things too.

 

Love,

Daddy