Storytelling

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Free Craft Activity For Kids: Home Depot’s Little Helper Headquarters

December 5, 2012 at 11:53 pm , by 

2 years.

Dear Jack,

You are sharpening your handyman skills quicker and more professionally than I am.

Last weekend we took you to meet your friend Sophie Culpepper atHome Depot’s Little Helper Headquarters, where once a month they have a free craft activity for kids.

We are now are the proud new owners of a wooden picture frame that you made.

Okay, so actually, it was me who glued the 4 pieces of wood together, then drove the nails through, as well.

But afterwards, you got to swing the hammer, while wearing your safety goggles, of course.

If we keep this up, it’s going to be you teaching me how to make bookshelves and change out a bathroom sink, along with all those other things I’m already supposed to know how to do because I’m your dad.

It used to be that I never really cared too much about learning how to do handyman stuff. However, when you came along 2 years ago, I started feeling a greater responsibility to become more involved in fixing stuff around the house.

That’s actually part of the reason the logo for The Dadabase is a wrench.

Becoming a dad inspired me to want to become Mr. Fix It; even it’s the worst version, which is any token sitcom dad of the 1980′s. I feel responsible for teaching you how to work with tools.

The thing is, I barely own any tools. But every time Mommy assigns us a new job, together you and I will figure it out, buying the necessary tools along the way.

It’s just like when I started this whole being a dad thing. I never really knew what I was doing, yet you never seemed to notice.

Sometimes the best way to teach someone is by learning in the moment, out of necessity. I have a feeling that’s going to be the way I teach you a lot of things in life, Son.

Here goes nothing…

 

Love,

Daddy

 

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5 Token Signs of Millennial (Or Generation Y) Parents

December 2, 2012 at 11:52 pm , by 

2 years.

Dear Jack,

You are the product of twoMillennial (or Generation Y) parents.

Both Mommy and I were born a few months apart in 1981, the year that began our generation. The way we will parent you will be different as compared to how it would have been if we were part of the generation that ended just a few months before we were born; Generation X was born roughly between 1964 to 1980.

As the sort of first-born of my generation, I am constantly trying to figure out what makes us different from previous generations. After all, people say that Millennials were the first children not to rebel against their parents. That’s pretty weird…

An article published about a year ago in The New York Times referenced your parents’ generation as the “post-emotion generation… no anger, no edge, no ego.”

On the surface, it may appear that we are sheltered, narcissistic, jaded by the polar extremes of American politics, motivated by recognition more than money, obsessed with green living, and easily inspired by social justice issues.

I’ll be honest- it wouldn’t be a stretch for someone to describe me in any of those ways. Actually, I wonder how else I appear as a stereotype to other generations of parents.

In fact, I’m so curious about the traits of my generation, especially as they relate to being parents, I have decided to pinpoint 5 token traits of Generation Y parents:

1. They give their own kids either extremely classic or extremely original names. For every Jack there is now a Brody and for every Sarah there is now a Hadley. Millennial parents tend not to name their kids the popular names of their own generation, like Chris and Matt for boys, and Amanda and Jennifer for girls.

2. They want their kids to be, or at least seem, unique. That’s part of the explanation for some of the bizarre baby names popping up these days. Millennials were raised to believe they were special; evidently more special than every other child of The Eighties who was told that. Now, Generation Y parents subconsciously still wish this extra dose of uniqueness on their own kids.

3. Millennial parents are overly self-aware of their parenting style. Everybody’s watching, all the time, thanks the social media outlets and blogs we plug into on a daily basis. We make sure no one can ever question if we’re involved enough in our kids’ lives. To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? To spank or not to spank? To helicopter parent or not to helicopter parent? Those are the questions.

4. Facebook replaces the necessary phone call update and proud wallet pictures of our kids. There’s no real need for us as parents to pick up the phone and update our friends and family on what our kids are doing, nor is there reason those people should be desperately curious to see new pictures of our kids: There’s a constantly updated flow of that on Facebook every day.

5.  They are really into what their kids eat. Back in the 1980s, processed food was king. Now, the awareness of disease, cancer, and obesity has caused parents to actually question what “natural and artificial flavor” means. Trust me on this, you don’t want to know. There’s a reason food companies keep those ingredients a mystery.

So there you have it, son. Hopefully I’ve taught you a thing or two about why your parents and your friends’ parents are so quirky…I mean, “special and unique.”

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dad Recognizes His Son’s Kinesthetic/Visual Learning Style For Pottying

December 1, 2012 at 11:26 pm , by 

2 years.

Dear Jack,

I always do a courtesy announcement whenever I’m about to go potty, because usually you rush to the occasion of being able to carefully observe how to stand in front of the toilet.

You’ll run over from the other room with metal trains in hand and shut the door behind us, leaving Mommy out of the show.

It’s a process you treat with respect. You never try to drop your train in the toilet. You don’t really even speak, except sometimes to say, “Daddy’s all done,” as you reach for the flusher.

Tonight though, you surprised me. As soon as you joined me in the restroom, you informed me: “I go potty too.”

So Mommy ran upstairs and grabbed your training potty so you and me could go at the same time. This happened in our downstairs half-bathroom, where the only place to put your potty was behind me.

It was quickly positioned in a way that made you choose between facing and watching me or facing the opposite direction and standing in front of your potty.

Well, you sort of chose both.

You faced and watched me, while standing and peeing directly on the floor, about a half an inch from my foot.

Mommy and I were actually proud just to see you acknowledge that you had to pee and attempt to go in the potty.

I just need to figure out a way to set up your training potty right next to mine so we can go side by side. Evidently that’s the way I teach you a lot of things, from playing cars to drawing to shouting “Oh no, crash!” at the TV while watching Thomas & Friends on Netflix.

Granted, I see a lot of things going wrong with the idea of potty-training you side by side with me, but if you’re so passionate about learning to pee standing up by doing so while watching Daddy do it, then I want to support your kinesthetic/visual learning style.

I’ll have to see what I can work out…

 

Love,

Daddy

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Groundbreaking Theory: Kids Have Less Emotional Intelligence Than Adults

November 29, 2012 at 11:51 pm , by 

2 years.

Dear Jack,

You can’t always change how you feel, but you can choose to decide how you’ll react to how you feel.

In other words, emotions are automatic; behavior is controllable.

That’s the lesson I was forced to teach you today.

I’m not gonna lie. This morning was the most difficult morning I’ve ever had with you.

It was rough! For both of us. Simply exhausting.

After getting you through the front door, I picked up on the fact you weren’t able to let it go that “YouTube time” was over and you had to go to school.

As I attempted to buckle you in your car seat, you screamed at me while bowing out your back, making it impossible for me to strap you in without possibly bruising you, as you violently resisted me.

So I took away your graham crackers and toy train.

That got your attention. I was able to buckle you in your seat as your focus was no longer about fighting me and now you were just simply angry at me for taking away your pre-breakfast snack and morning ride entertainment.

I started up the car and turned around to explain to you the deal, as you began your hostile emotional meltdown:

“Jack, listen. I’m going to give you your crackers and your toy; all you have to do is just one thing: Calm down. That means if you simply stop crying for a few seconds and stop screaming, you’ll get what you want.”

Your response, in a faux German accent: “MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!”

For the following 18 minutes, as I drove towards the interstate, it was a back and forth battle between the two of us: I would explain that all you had to do was calm down for a few seconds, you would retaliate with the equivalent of the Tasmanian Devil cursing.

I held a graham cracker in my hand just waiting for a 2 second pause in your crying. Finally, it happened. I slipped you one cracker.

Then you realized how it worked. If you calmed down, you got the very thing you were demanding.

By the second half of our drive to daycare, you had earned back all your crackers, as well as, your toy train.

Right now, at the age of 2, your emotional intelligence isn’t that high. Being able to manage your emotions is not easy for you.

So that means it’s my job to help you with that.

Your meltdowns seem to be triggered mainly when you are told no. Therefore, my main goal is to help you learn not to cry and get upset when I can’t, or won’t, give you what you want.

On the drive home tonight, I purposely avoided turning down the cul-de-sac with all the inflatable Snoopy Christmas yard decorations that you love to see. Instead, I wanted to test how you’d react.

Son, you did well. You accepted my rejection.

That means next time, you’ll definitely get to see Snoopy.

The more you can handle being told no, the more I will tell you yes.

I know it’s a struggle for you right now, but let me tell you, it’s even a challenge for me as an adult to be told no. I promise I know how you feel.

 

Love,

Daddy

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Dad Speaks To 2-Year-Old Son On 12th Grade Reading Level

November 27, 2012 at 11:40 pm , by 

2 years.

Dear Jack,

I just never could bring myself to talk to you like you were a baby, even when you actually were a baby.

The closest I ever came was back when you were 7 months old, when one of my ongoing bits with you was to say, ”Ya wanna give ya Daddy-Waddy a kissy-wissy on da wippy-wippy-wippies?”

Basically, I was trying to playfully annoy you by puckering up real big and acting like I was about to kiss you on the lips.

But clearly, I was mocking the concept of “talking baby talk” to you. To actually talk to you the way I was supposed to, all cutesy… just the thought of it somehow made me feel phony.

So since the very beginning, I’ve always spoken to you like an adult. And really, so has Mommy.

You’re 2 years old now and we haven’t changed the way we speak to you. But you, on the other hand, definitely have changed the way you communicate with us.

You are now regularly speaking in 5 word sentences. I know that you grasp a good majority of what I tell you, even if you still haven’t figured out the meaning of the phrase, “I don’t know.”

(Right now, your version of “I don’t know” is just to simply look down at whatever Thomas the Train toy is in your hand until I change the subject.)

The main reason I love the fact you can understand what I say now is because I can more efficiently give you realistic expectations, which helps prevent surprising disappointments.

For example, when it’s nearing time for Nonna and Papa to go back home after a weekend of staying with us, I look you in the eyes and map out the plan so that you are not ambushed and consumed with anxiety a couple of hours later:

“Listen, Jack. I want you to know what to expect. After we eat lunch, it’s going to be time for Nonna and Papa to go back home. So make the most of this time because it will be a few more weeks before you will see them again.”

I am not worried about saying words that are too big for you to understand, because at this point, that would include a lot of words.

For what it’s worth, you can now say the name of Mommy’s home state: “California.” You pull it off quite well.

The way I see it, my use of words beyond your comprehension level (and/or reading level) is a good thing.

Besides, you’re used to it by now: You have a Daddy who has an English degree and a job in writing. For all practical purposes, I’m Ross Geller.

I have a feeling you are going to be one articulate little boy. Can you say “articulate?”

No, seriously… can you?

 

Love,

Daddy