I have lived in Nashville for over a decade now and didn’t even realize we had a boat show here. But sure enough, because of my blog, I was provided complimentary tickets for our family to attend the 2016 Progressive Nashville Boat and Sportshow, so we did.
My agenda the whole time was to simply follow you around with a camera, as would demonstrate what kind of fun a 5 year-old boy could have there, so I did.
One of the places you spent a good amount of time was the Drake’s Creek Marinaexhibit. You loved being able to explore boats, as well as yachts.
As long as your shoes were removed, you could go explore each one.
We began to explore beyond the boats and a man making balloon animals was the first to catch your attention. He was with the Nashville Boat Club. You smiled as he made you a “white dog” by your request.
You also really enjoyed being able to go fishing. There was this big tank full of real fish and you were given a fishing pole with real bait on it.
It just so happened that you were one of the few kids there who, within just a couple of minutes, had a fish bite. We quickly pulled the fish out of the water together.
You were so happy. That made the first time you had ever caught a fish; you’ve always been intrigued by the concept of fishing.
Thanks to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, there also was an area where you got to shoot a bow and arrow towards a floating ball. You liked that a lot!
From there, we stepped inside a trailer that featured the skins of forest animals; like a fox and a wolf. That really impressed you.
The place was packed. Here I had no idea the Progressive Nashville Boat and Sportshow even existed, and yet all these other families already knew, since they walked among us.
I have a feeling our family will be going back next year!
When you are expecting your first child, by default you are bombarded by people giving you what they think is good advice, when in reality, it’s just nonsense:
“Make sure you get plenty of sleep now, because once the baby arrives,
you’ll be wishing you had more of it!”
Lame.
That doesn’t even make sense. Even if you sleep 12 hours every day leading up to when that baby arrives, that won’t change the fact you still will be deprived of sleep once the baby is born.
It’s not like the outdated concept of “rollover minutes” on your flip phone from 2003.
Now that my second child is due in April, I’m collecting my thoughts on how to prevent making the mistakes I did with my 1st child.
Last week one of my friends I grew up with, whose first child is due a week before my second child, asked me over Facebook if I had any tips for him.
And that, of course, inspired this blog post today.
I should give this disclaimer, though: All 3 of my tips today are unpopular with the majority.
However, I know that these three tips have led to me being a more efficient parent personally and have led to the making of a good kid.
Seriously, my 5 year-old soon is a good kid. He’s bright, he’s creative, he’s active, he’s funny, he’s well-behaved, and he’s healthy. And he doesn’t get in trouble at Pre-K.
I say those things not to brag, but to provide evidence that the parenting tips I am submitting today are personally effective; not just simply my opinion.
This blog post today is written for open-minded, soon-to-be first time parents, who I am grateful are taking the time to hear what I have to say, in an effort to proactively seek help.
1)Use the “cry it out” method. I have now just revealed that I am not an “attachment parent” or a “helicopter parent”. Unfortunately, my wife and I didn’t learn this lesson until our son was 7 months old.
Your baby is depending on you to learn when night time is and when he or she should be asleep for several hours at a time. By answering your baby’s cries each time during the middle of the night, it is actually counter-productive as it prevents your baby from getting the necessary rest he or she needs; as well as yours and your spouse’s.
Yes, it can be psychologically challenging as the parent to apply the “cry it out” method, at first. It can difficult to choose efficiency over emotion, but my child is proof that this method is not damaging to the child’s psyche.
2)Fruit juice is not a healthy drink option. Yes, fruit juice contains vitamins and is hydrating. However, it doesn’t contain the fiber from the fruit needed for digestion and to balance out the sugar. So what happens is your child gets an unhealthy sugar dose (and possibly excessive gas.)
My son gets a skin rash anytime he drinks juice. That’s what fully convinced me it’s not good for him. Even my son’s dentist, Dr. Snodgrass, quickly agreed with me when I mentioned it to him during my son’s visit first. The dentist immediately acknowledged he can always tell when a child regularly drinks juice, because their teeth typically aren’t as healthy.
So with that being said, obviously sports drinks (like Gatorade) and soda are nothing less than taboo in our household.
Instead, your child can get vitamins from actual fruit and vegetables found in fruit packets; plus I highly recommend buying a Baby Bullet, to provide your child with the right nutrition.
3) Discipline your child without spanking them. Your job as the parent is to provide certain things for your child that, on their own, they are not capable of understanding they need in the moment. They are depending on your lead for these things.
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).
Unfortunately, it’s only natural as a parent to, in the moment, forget about these things and instead, assume your child is “misbehaving”.
Five years into this, I now know to go off the check list when I am tempted to think my son is “misbehaving”. Each and every time, he’s either hungry, tired, bored, lonely, or sick. (I invented that check list, by the way.)
My role is to proactively provide for his needs, not to physically strike him for seeking negative attention for those symptoms.
Additionally, here are my 5 alternatives to spanking that I learned from when I blogged for Parents.com:
Ignore attention-seeking behavior; pay attention to good behavior; redirect your child; teach consequences that make sense; and use time-outs for serious offenses.
Consider that professional psychologists who have actually studied spanking have come to the same conclusion: Spanking is actually less effective. Even if it was only equally effective, why physically strike your child if you don’t have to?
For me it’s all about efficiency as a parent. It’s about working smart, not necessarily hard.
No need to make yourself a martyr if you know what’s really going on in your child’s brain.
If you are open-minded to my personally effective methods I have shared today, please feel free to comment so I can get back to you.
It was 4 months ago this week that Mommy and I started telling everybody about you. I first officially revealed the news about you in an episode of my 1st web series, Jack-Man.
With your due date on April 21st , the day after my 35th birthday, Mommy is now more than halfway through her pregnancy. As crazy as it sounds, you’ll be making your arrival in just a little more than 3 months from now!
I was telling Mommy this week how weird of a thought it is that when you turn 5 years-old, like your brother Jack is now, I’ll be 40 years-old.
But I would choose 35 or 40 any day over being 25 or 30. I like how settled life is these days. Life is good. It wasn’t that way when I was officially “young.”
With us living in our new house for a year now (we moved in January 29, 2015), our family has basically been on cruise control, in regards to any kind of major challenges.
We’ve survived debt, getting out of debt, car issues, and even job insecurities since your brother was born; in addition to adapting as a family raising a child for the first time.
It looks like you will be born into a stage of our family’s life when things are calm and stable.
Granted, one of my life quotes is this: “Life is either bad and about to get better, or it’s good and about to get worse.”
I believe it’s important to never take for granted when you are going through a smooth patch in life. I am just as aware of God’s grace now as I was when our family lived through those stormier years.
Hopefully, the upcoming challenges this year won’t dramatically alter our smooth sailing days.
Between 1) welcoming you into our family, along with 2) my New Year’s resolution of attempting to do what it takes to go full-time with my blog and YouTube channel, as well as 3) our family possibly replacing at least one of our vehicles, this year is will have its fair share of positive challenges.
I want those kinds of challenges.
Mommy and I have been cleansed by the fire; we have been forced to mature. Now we’re looking forward to keeping life on cruise control, just not staying on the same roads.
Mommy and I have noticed how exceptional the children’s program is at our church, The Church at Station Hill. As part of your class curriculum each Sunday morning, you all get to walk over to the craft room after the lesson, where I am always impressed by what new craft you make.
I love it that our church has a room set aside just for kids’ crafts; most of which are edible. It’s always interesting to walk by that room and peek in to see what you’ll be making each morning as we take you to your classroom.
This past Sunday as we were walking back to the car after church ended, you showed Mommy and me the newest one.
It was baby Moses floating down the river.
What made this craft a lot of fun, especially on a Sunday morning as I was now buckling you into your car seat, was that baby Moses was actually a Sour Patch Kid, floating on a river of Blue Jell-O.
As I drove home, with you and Mommy in the back seat, I could hear you enjoying eating your Sunday School craft:
“Mmm… baby Moses tastes good, he’s crunchy!”
I’m just glad that it was Moses floating down the river in a basket, and not baby Jesus in the manger. Because that would really seem weird. It would take the concept of Holy Communion to a different level.
An edible gingerbread house is fine, as his baby Moses floating down the river, but I think an edible manger scene might be a little too crafty.
But as for baby Moses, he floated down the river of your digestive track and you were happy I was letting you get away with eating candy so early in the day.
Needless to say, you definitely now know the story of baby Moses floating down the river.
I’ve never been a believer in making New Year’s resolutions for one simple fact: I’ve always believed that if I really felt a need to change something in my life, it would be asinine to wait for an arbitrary, culturally celebrated date on the calendar.
When I really care enough to change something in my life, I have always just changed immediately and never looked back. That’s in my blood.
Looking back on some of the biggest changes in my life in the past decade or so, none of them took place in a January:
In November 2008, I became and have remained kosher. In December 2010, I became and have remained a vegetarian. In April 2012, I became and have remained a vegan. In September 2012, I became and have remained caffeine free.
These “never look back” commitments in my life don’t typically take place in January…
(Except for January 2008, when I proposed to my wife… but I wouldn’t consider that as any sort of New Year’s resolution; that would be quite the understatement!)
But perhaps January 2016 can be the exception to my track record. It truly is a coincidence that I am becoming so mindful of this conscious change I want to make, but by default, it might technically be a New Year’s resolution:
My goal for 2016 is to make major progress in growing my blog; in particular, my YouTube channel. I want to deliberately work towards blogging and YouTubing full time; as a stand-alone career.
I remember back a few years ago in November 2013, when I was invited by General Motors to attend an event in Detroit featuring their Buick brand as well as OnStar. While there, I met a full time travel/food blogger named Stefanie Fauquet of Mommy Musings, who told me, “You know, you could be doing so much more with what you’ve got going on.”
She inspired me that day, but it was like a put I bookmark on that thought for later when I could be ready for it.
I believe the time has now come.
But back then, our family was still working our way out of a lot of debt, our son was still very young, and we still lived in our townhouse. (Not to mention, I didn’t have a smart phone yet!)
We had a lot of other goals we had to focus on first at the time.
Here we are in January 2016, having been debt-free for a couple of years now, having lived in our new house for a year, with a decent amount of savings in the bank, and our son is now 5 years-old. Not to mention, my wife and I are both secure in our positions where we both work. And we have smart phones too!
What that means for me is that I now can focus more directly on “doing so much more” with my blog; in an effort to do this full-time, not just as a hobby with benefits.
It’s a simple case of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I need a new problem to solve. I need a new challenge. I know I’m capable of more.
In other words, I’ve reached the blessing of getting to the point where I am very comfortable in life. However, I’m not wired to be okay with being comfortable.
Being in this position only makes me think, “What else could I be doing right now to improve my life?”
Yes, my wife and I are having another child in April, which will surely bring challenges. However, this is “kid #2”, so I feel we as parents already now the basics of what to expect.
I look at more people whose careers inspire me, as did Stefanie Fauquet. I consider food and travel blogger Bren Carrera of House of Bren, someone else I met on that same event in Detroit back in November 2013.
Since then, I have been following her on social media. I have watched her progress as she was invited to be a guest on The Today Show, thanks to her cooking abilities, and then to be invited back. I have enjoyed seeing her evolve into the media personality she is today.
A few weeks ago I read where she explained on Facebook she had publishing company keeping their eye on her, who recently offered her a book deal. I love that! I am so happy for her:
“After dreaming for 10 years, I finally got a book deal. This publishing company had been watching my work for some time and decided it was time to reach out.”
I also think of my friend and professional photographer, Joe Hendricks, who I’ve now known for a decade.
Recently, he moved his family out of their house, and into an Airstream. They are able to travel the country as a family, as Joe teaches seminars across America, as well as does photo shoots, while also selling his photography online. How awesome is that?
And then there’s my most recently inspiring blogger friend, Jarrid Wilson. Our families met each other at Whole Foods one fateful Saturday morning… and the following fateful Saturday morning after that.
Both Jarrid as well as his wife, Julie Wilson, are full time bloggers. Jarrid simply reinforced the words of Stefanie Fauquet from back in November 2013: “You could be doing so much more with what you’ve got going on.”
All these people inspire me. They have turned their passions (and by default, their lifestyles and hobbies) into adventurous full-time careers.
My New Year’s Resolution for 2016 is make great strides in growing Family Friendly Daddy Blog into a full time career.
I feel that my newest kids’ show series on YouTube, Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest, has a lot of potential. I designed the outdoors segment of each webisode to be a good mix of action, adventure, and psychology (regarding interacting with others as well as understanding one’s own emotions). However, the first (indoors) part of each webisode is designed to engage the viewer in creative thinking.
Right now I am thinking about Jesus’s Parable of the Talents (found in Matthew 25). I don’t want my talents to be buried in the ground. I want to invest the talents I have now and make more talents because of it.
I feel that I have a lot of talent that needs to be seen by a larger audience. But like Sylvester Stallone said in his cult classic movie, Over the Top, “The world meets nobody halfway.”
And there’s also Sylvester Stallone’s quote in Rocky 3, as well: “Nobody owes nobody nothing! You owe yourself.”
Therefore, it’s up to me to prove to the world that I am truly the innovative writer and entertainer I know I am. I must successfully convince the free market.
It’s important to me that I grow my audience, proving to major publications, studios, and networks that I am worth investing in.
I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, but I do believe in this one.
This is my new prayer of 2016: That God will grant me more responsibilities in my talents.
I’ve got all the ingredients necessary to reach my goal of becoming a full-time blogger. Now I must figure out how to utilize them in a way that allows me to reach that goal.
Family Friendly Daddy Blog 