Posted in Books, father first, parenthacks, pride on Jun 2nd, 2008 Comments Off
I’ve written about the importance of reading dynamically to kids , and about recording their voices for posterity, amusement, and a good old fashioned cry now and then. We read together every night, without fail. Sometimes it feels like it’s taking forever and I want to go veg on American Idol. Sometimes I just want [...]
Posted in Books, death, father first, Fatherhood, food, vegetarianism on May 19th, 2008 2 Comments »
We all need help with our adventures in fatherhood. Hence, the growing daddy archive of ideas that is Father First. Some of the best books I’ve read to my kids are drawn from the “classics.” We’ve become huge E.B. White fans: Charlotte is a font of Buddhist wisdom and Stuart is a boy-adventurer for the [...]
Posted in Books, Family, Fatherhood, parenthacks, showing up on Dec 15th, 2007 1 Comment »
I recently heard an interview with Dr. Jerome Groopman of Harvard Medical School whose new book, How Doctors Think, attempts to explain, among other things, why doctors misdiagnose patients somewhere between 15 and 25 percent of the time. Part of the reason? Doctors interrupt their patients, on average, within the first 18 seconds of a [...]
Posted in Books, father first, Fatherhood, parenthacks, Parenting on Dec 5th, 2007 5 Comments »
Here’s the latest Father First Bright Idea: As most poppas know, daddyhood means carving out quality time when there really is none. It means finding a way to be together and still take care of the drudgery of daily living. I’m not a stay-at-home dad, so time on the ranch doesn’t mean we’re hanging out [...]
Posted in Books, Family, father first, Fatherhood, parenthacks, Parenting on Nov 14th, 2007 2 Comments »
This book should probably be called The Dangerous Book For Dads because it is so incredibly addictive, brilliant and satisfying. Imagine a book that includes everything that matters. Wondering how to tie “the five knots every boy should know?” What the heck latitude and longitude really are? How to build a treehouse? A go-kart? A [...]
Posted in Books, Family, Fatherhood, Parenting, Picks, sleep apnea on Sep 30th, 2007 No Comments »
Hi. My name is Lou, and I’m a snorer. I took the kids to a nifty little independent bookstore the other day and we discovered a book whose title begged us to read it: My Daddy Snores. It’s about a mom who is driven to extreme measures to escape the locomotive power of her husband’s [...]
Posted in Books, Fatherhood on Jul 3rd, 2007 1 Comment »
All dads looking for a great, if grim read, should consider hunkering down with Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Just imagine finding yourself on the ass-end of the apocalypse with only your little boy to keep you company. You have only one purpose: keep him safe and try to make an unlivable world livable. It’s a [...]
Posted in Books, father first, Fatherhood, ideas, parenthacks, Parenting on Apr 29th, 2007 1 Comment »
When you read to your kids, remember to create a different voice for every character of the story. And if there aren’t a lot of characters, then make sound effects, like a little doop doop doop for the footsteps of the Nightmare in My Closet, or the crash of the Great Glass Elevator at the [...]
Posted in Books, Fatherhood, Picks on Mar 19th, 2007 No Comments »
Satisfyingly silly, Razzamaddaddy captures that quintessential dad/kid spirit you’re always striving for. Convertibles. Sandcastles. Jazz on the beach. You’ll wish every moment with your kids was like this. Closer inspection raises one question, though: is this standard daddytime, or is it a single dad on a weekend visit? The ambiguity works for me — and [...]
Posted in Books, Fatherhood, Picks on Mar 16th, 2007 No Comments »
Jerry J. Jingle’s dad is everything you love/hate about being a dad. He’s brimming with awesome ideas (which appear above his head in various forms of ingeniously rendered light bulbs), totally A.D.D., ambitious beyond reason, handy with a toolkit, and completely out of control. Guaranteed to start a ruckus before bedtime.
