Author: Family Friendly Daddy Blog

1 Comment Posted on Health, parenting

Dadvice #4: Would You Recommend Using A Midwife?

March 19, 2012 at 9:35 pm , by 

16 months.

Knowing that my wife Jill and I were gung-ho about have a natural as possible delivery for our son back in November 2010 and used a group of midwives featured on TLC’s “Baby’s First Day,” a Dadabase reader asks about our thoughts on it in retrospect.

“Hey Nick and Jill!

I am pregnant again.  Although I had a natural and mostly intervention free labor and delivery with my first child, I had to fight for what I wanted the whole time.

Thinking about doing all that again makes me anxious and exhausted. I’ve seen the show on TLC ‘Baby’s First Day’ that takes place at Vanderbilt and it appears they are very natural friendly. Is it really like that?

From what I’ve found on the web I don’t see any restrictions for sibling visitors any time of the year. Is there any particular midwife or group you would recommend?

I know there will be a higher price tag to deliver outside of our town (Clarksville, TN) and the inconvience of driving to Nashville for all the prenatal appointments but I think the end result will be positive.

Thanks for taking time to help me out!”

It’s funny; we were actually invited to be featured on the first season of “Baby’s First Day” because decided against since all we’d get for our trouble was a free DVD of the episode we’d appear on. Interestingly, one the women who gave birth the same night as Jill is on one of those episodes. Could have been us…

To answer your question, I passionately recommend going through the Vanderbilt Nurse-Midwives in Nashville and I think it would be worth the drive for all your appointments.

I just hope you don’t get Elaine: During one of the appointments she told me to make my hands into a vagina and then she demonstrated forcefully how to massage to bring upon the labor process. That was with my mother-in-law in the room.

Awk-ward…

Other than that, we couldn’t have been more pleased. They completely respected all of our wishes concerning our attempt to go “all natural” to the end. In fact, if we have another child, we will absolutely be going through them again.

Regarding visitors, I can tell you this: The morning after Jack was born, among the visitors was a couple with a toddler and an infant. Those kiddos made it through so I imagine your child will permitted without any hassle.

If you haven’t already watched “The Business of Being Born” on Netflix streaming, I think it would be a great idea to get you even more pumped up about doing this your way; with the encouragement of midwives.

And congratulations!

Leave a comment Posted on Health, parenting

My 16 Month-Old Son’s Febrile Seizure

March 18, 2012 at 9:31 pm , by 

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So I Married A Daddy Blogger: 3 Questions For My Wife

March 17, 2012 at 9:52 pm , by 

16 months.

Since my first daddy blog post on April 13, 2010, my wife Jill has been highly visible yet never heard; other than in short one-sentence quotes in my stories. Well, after nearly two years, that is going to change.

Today, I am handing the mic (actually the Mac) to the feminine side of The Dadabase.

After all, it’s basically because of her that my blog (on WordPress at the time) was eventually picked up by Parents.com. Jill sent an email to American Baby magazine about my daddy blog “Dad From Day One” a few months after I started it; then they decided to feature my blog in their October 2010 issue; which randomly is the cover featured at the top right side of this screen, underneath the header Family Fun.

That started a short chain of events leading me to this point. But not only do I have my wife to thank for getting me this kind of exposure; she also serves as my daily editor.

Anything too stupid, aimless, or chauvinistic-sounding; she either helps me decide to redirect it or nix it all together.

Without her, The Dadabase would be a bit different. (In fact, it would simply be “Dadabase.” She suggested the “the.”)

Now, let’s do a little interview.

If this blog were The Mommybase, how would the tone and topic material
differ as you cover your version of parenting Jack?

My version of The Mommybase and parenting would emphasize my realistic
perspective of it, whereas I see The Dadabase as your positively
optimistic and often abstract perspective. Parenting is one of the
most difficult journeys I have been on in my life– it changes you so
much in ways you’d never know until you had the opportunity to parent
a child.

It’s just like when we used to laugh about how other parents
would give us advise when I was pregnant and we’d think, “Sure, that’s
not gonna happen to us,” and then a few months down the road, it did!

I think The Mommybase would also serve as a place where mommies could
find answers to those everyday questions like, what should I be
feeding my 12 month old and do cloth diapers really work? It would be
a place for mommies to relate to one another in the loving moments, as
well as the frustrating ones (because we all know that comes with the
territory).

What has being exposed to my daily articles on fatherhood taught you
about the mind of a dad?

That dads love their children just as mommies do and have a high
regard for caring for and nurturing them the best way they know how.
Granted, the best way they know how is often coming up with bizarre
antics to entertain them! Daddies sincerely want to help, but may not
know how and just need some gentle guidance from a patient mommy to
make the household peaceful.

You have the last word. What do you want people to know about you as a mom?

I love my little boy with all of my heart and thank God for his
presence in our lives. I’m not always going to do or say the right
thing and I completely acknowledge that, but I’m learning as he grows
and I would just hope that others saw me as a good mommy to him.

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Why Huggies’ Backlash Is A Bookmark In Dad-Bashing Advertising

March 14, 2012 at 6:07 am , by 

15 months.

As predicted by the entire world and any possible life forms living on Earth’s moon, Huggies finally started pulling their “Ultimate Test: Dad” ads after a huge backlash in the sub-universe of social media last week. Today I read a blog article on HuffingtonPost.com by Lisa Belkin, who interviewed Aric Melzl; the brand director for Huggies.

The post ends with this Shark Tank type of warm wisdom from Melzl:

“Huggies is reponding to unhappy men, because those men have the ear of women. All of this, the initial campaign, the full-on response, is targeted at moms… I don’t want there to be any question about who we we’re going after.’”

Even though dads now make up 1/3 of stay at home parents, that doesn’t necessarily equate to men buying at least 33% of the diapers. According to the article, we’re worth about 5% in terms of actually buying them.

As in my case, I don’t buy the diapers because I’m waiting in the car with our son, who is taking his Sunday afternoon nap, while my wife is inside Publix or Harris Teeter doing the shopping.

Okay, I get it; I am commercially worth 5% as a parent.

To be fair, though, Huggies is simply the untimely scapegoat at the crossroads of “Surprise! Dads are more active now than ever in their kids’ lives” and “social media will not let you get away with that kind of stuff anymore…”. Plenty (!) of other companies have been recently dissing husbands and dads in their ads; they just might have been a bit more subtle.

In fact, in my post last week about this whole fiasco, I featured a video clip montage of several recent ads making dads out to be the classic idiot father; including brands such as Lysol, Hasbro, Cheerios, Benadryl, Febreeze, Naturemade, Stanley Steamer, Glade Sense and Spray, Uno Attack, Walmart, Orville Rendenbacher’s, Ortho, and Yellowbook.

Here’s my prophecy on this: Huggies’ faux pas will serve as a bookmark and a warning to any other advertising companies who dare to reach the mom market by poking fun at the dads, even if in the slightest and most innocent of ways.

This event has marked the beginning of the end of “dad jabs” in advertising.

Let’s face it: There’s now officially an army of daddy bloggers ready to out the next unsuspecting dad-basher. But on the flip side, we’re also always on the look-out for paternal praise from advertisers.

I wonder if the blessing of the salvation of positive dad ads is equal to the damnation of the curse of dad-jab ads?

Even if we dads never end up buying the proper percentage of a product to be marketable, we still have the power (via daddy blogging, Twitter, etc.) to take away from a company’s “cool factor.”

Considering how eager businesses are to get people to “like” them on Facebook, it’s pretty clear in this economy, and in this age of social media relevance, that being cool matters more than ever before.

So, apology accepted… I guess?

 

Leave a comment Posted on Nostalgia, parenting

Top 5 Most Bromantic Boys’ Dolls Of The 1980′s

March 13, 2012 at 12:13 am , by