With the 1977 release of Star Wars, audiences were introduced to Darth Vader, the baddest bad guy in the entire galaxy. As the story unfolded and the prequels arrived on the scene, many people were surprised to learn that Darth Vader was not always such a bad dude. It may be equally surprising to learn that Mr. Skywalker actually did a few thingsright in his role as dad. (But mostly wrong.) If you are a father, here are a few things you can take away from Luke and Leia's dear old dad... …
Parenthood
Key West Wisdom #5: What’s Your Legacy?
We recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in Key West, Florida. With the little one in excellent hands back home, we had a chance for some good old-fashioned doin' nothing. While soaking up some rays and enjoying the surf, we were hit with some bits of wisdom regarding stressing less and having more fun. So we decided to create a six-part video series sharing some of the thoughts we had while we were in a Key West state of mind. In this tip, I talk about one of the most important gifts to give your kids and grandkids, and how to go about doing it. Sign up to receive our …
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Key West Wisdom #2: Invest in Your Marriage
We recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in Key West, Florida. With the little one in excellent hands back home, we had a chance for some good old-fashioned doin' nothing. While soaking up some rays and enjoying the surf, we were hit with some bits of wisdom regarding stressing less and having more fun. So we decided to create a six-part video series sharing some of the thoughts we had while we were in a Key West state of mind. In this tip, we talk about the crucial importance of investing in your marriage relationship. Sign up to receive our free newsletter to get …
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The Best Gift Ever (and Why It’s So Hard To Give)
What's the best gift you can give someone? Gold? Gift Certificates? Ghirardelli? The real answer? TIME. Time has really been on my mind lately because it's such a limited resource. And no one, not even the most acclaimed inventor has figured out a way to create more of it. The other crazy thing about time is that we don't know how much of it we have to work with. Some get 96 years, others get 6. Simply put (as cliche as it sounds): it's priceless. We know this cognitively, but our actions don't reflect this knowledge. …
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Life Will Be Easier When…
Ever find yourself saying, “Life will be easier when...”? If you’re a parent, you can fill in the blank mighty easily. Life will be easier when... ...he can sleep through the night. ...she can feed herself. ...he can tell us where it hurts. ...she goes to school. ...he makes it to the NBA and buys me a ginormous house in Hawaii. This is a diabolical game that Adultitis likes us to play, because it gets us wishing away time, distracts us from the present, and keeps us focused on the negative. …
The Amazingly Stupendous Do-Over
Remember the "do-over" in childhood? Often applied to a "too close to call" play in a childhood game, do-overs were often used liberally by kids who hated to lose. Lucy called for a do-over this morning. She woke up early and crabby (or as I like to call her, "sensitive.") She was touch-and-go about everything. The day ahead was looking like it was going to be an inevitably rough series of battles. I decided to take her out with me to run a few quick errands, just to get her out and change the scenery. On the way home from our short adventures, I looked in my rearview mirror to find a …
Busyness Is Killing Us (Or Why We Should All Take Up Fishing)
I was talking to a friend the other day who works as a youth minister for a church. I asked him what the biggest issues the teens in his community are dealing with. His answer came quickly. “Drugs,” he said. He detailed the overwhelming prevalence of prescription drugs, and went on to tell me stories about “Skittles parties," in which everyone comes with an assortment of pills pilfered from medicine cabinets. They are thrown into a bowl, and each partygoer swallows a handful and “sees what happens.” Of course this creates a conundrum for EMTs, because if a kid overdoses or has a …
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Life’s Little Traffic Jams
[This post originally appeared on Dad-O-Matic, a cool site for Dads, by Dads.] We bought our daughter one of those little primary-colored push car toys for her first birthday. It gets great gas mileage and holds up amazingly well in crashes, of which there have been many so far. The other day, she got herself caught in a traffic jam. The legs of our counter-height kitchen table and its accompanying chairs gridlocked her into a standstill. With all the might a one-year-old can muster, she pushed and prodded that car in an attempt to break free to the open road. To no avail. …
Open Letter to Alton Brown (and Dads Everywhere)
I recently got a copy of Good Eats: The Early Years by Alton Brown. To paraphrase Ron Burgundy, if you don’t think it’s the greatest show on television, I will fight you. As a Food Network junkie, I dig Alton’s quirky, fun, no-nonsense style. Between writing books, filming Good Eats, hosting Iron Chef America and The Next Iron Chef, and appearing in all kinds of Welch’s commercials, he certainly seems to have a lot of burners lit. As I perused the acknowledgements, I came across his thoughts regarding his 10-year-old daughter: “I especially want to thank Zoey for putting up with all the late …
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The First Year of Fatherhood: One Dad’s Review
Well, we did it. My wife and I made it to the one-year mark. (Oh, and so did Lucy.) The first two weeks seemed like a millennium, the last fifty seemed like a millisecond. So, what have I learned, if anything? • It sounds so dang cliché to say, “It’s harder than I imagined, but better than I imagined.” It may be cliche, but is it ever true. • I’m still trying to figure out what a “normal” schedule should be. I’m never quite sure I’m spending time correctly. I feel like I’m still trying to get in a groove. It seems like I should have it figured out by now. I also get the feeling that …
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