My 103 year old grandma said to tell you to back off and give me a break or she'll come and beat you with a stick.
Really. She said that. I'm a bit shocked, but she really does rock.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Daddy Blogs
Okay, now that I've posted about the dearth of father blogs, I'm finding them all over the place. Single Dad Laughing is blowing up on the internet. Backpacking Dad seems to have picked up the pace (though of late with lots of guest blogs). Then an friend tipped me off to a blog, Rice Daddies, that had the following video. I'm not a big fan of the "news" show in which talking heads sit around and make stupid small talk, especially when it's the mainstream media. But since I whined publicly about it, I thought I should point out that there are lots of father blogs/websites out there. I'm going to withhold a bit of judgment at this point on my recent discoveries since I opened my mouth prematurely a few days ago. Here's the video if you care. I'm not sure it's worth watching (how's that for an endorsement), but it is about fathers online.
As noted on Rice Daddies, there are a couple of interesting statistics that show up at the end.
p.s. Thanks kh.
EDIT: Okay, as a means of procrastination I've looked at three of the websites of those interviewed in the CNN clip above. I stand my my original claim. On one of them, I clicked on a link of the "most commented" post. 19 comments. Really? On Soulemama there were 19 posts to her This Moment post in fewer than 12 minutes. I'm not kidding. As of this writing, there are 208 comments. The post below that, 236. Single Dad Laughing does get a high number of comments, so people are reading and commenting there, at least. It makes me question CNN's selection of bloggers.
As noted on Rice Daddies, there are a couple of interesting statistics that show up at the end.
p.s. Thanks kh.
EDIT: Okay, as a means of procrastination I've looked at three of the websites of those interviewed in the CNN clip above. I stand my my original claim. On one of them, I clicked on a link of the "most commented" post. 19 comments. Really? On Soulemama there were 19 posts to her This Moment post in fewer than 12 minutes. I'm not kidding. As of this writing, there are 208 comments. The post below that, 236. Single Dad Laughing does get a high number of comments, so people are reading and commenting there, at least. It makes me question CNN's selection of bloggers.
Friday, October 8, 2010
This Moment
{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. -- via SouleMama
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Awesome and Inspiring
Read this story of father and son who sent a HD video camera 19,000 feet up to film outer space. It's an awesome story and an amazing video. It's also inspiring to me as a father who like to tinker and to teach. I could blather on about the importance of parents working on projects with their kids (and not just school projects involving Popsicle sticks), but it's hard to compete with images from space. I think I've got some work to do.
Does anyone know where I can get a weather balloon?
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
New Style
I've been tweaking the style a bit for this blog yesterday and today. There are a number of reasons beyond aesthetics, but let me know what you think.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
A Blogging Father in a Mother's World
As I spend more time reading, studying, practicing, and blogging about trying to be a good parent, I'm constantly reminded that there aren't many men out there like me. Sure there are lots of men working to be good parents, some writing about it in different venues. Alfie Cohen is a good example as are a couple of the blogs I've listed in my blogroll. But I find there are far, far few fathers writing blogs and sharing their experiences online than mothers.
Some of the fathering blogs I check in on, though very heartwarming, insightful, and informative are infrequently updated. There are a couple of fathering websites I've found, but they seem a bit vacant to me. For example, I visited Fatherville.com and there seems to be some helpful information. I visited the forums page, where fathers can gather and chat about just about anything. It's practically dormant. GreatDad.com is another example; the forum doesn't look like anyone's contributed in nearly two weeks.
For a comparison, if you go to many sights by and for mothers, a forum post two weeks old is so buried in the forums it's hard to find. On the Mothering website forum, numbers of posts are often measured in thousands; on the fathers', they would be lucky to be in the hundreds. For this post, I decided to search the Mothering forum for "Fathering" and see what came up. An early hit was for a woman looking for resources for her envious husband, last posted to in July. There were a total of six posts in the thread, none listing specific resources. They claimed an internet search found some interesting sites, but listed none. Mothering Magazine recently listed a number of fathering websites, such as The Father Life Magazine, which is updated regularly, but the community is vastly smaller than that for mothers.
Okay, I think I've belabored this point for a while. Why the whine? It's just an interesting observation, and I can only speculate why this is the case. So here I go.
Mothers are still the primary care givers in the home. Yes, there are many exceptions to this, I know, but I still think moms rule the roost. Mothers are more interested in sharing their parenting experiences, and many, such as SouleMama, have used their skills to turn their websites into profitable businesses. I know it isn't that men aren't interested in sharing experiences or turning their experiences into profitable businesses; I see it all the time on other forums, but less so for parenting.
What does all this mean? I'm not advocating for a secularized, digital version of Promise Keepers rally. I don't think dads should all come together and sing Kumbaya It means I spend more time reading mother's blogs about family matters than father's. That's mostly okay with me, though sometimes I feel like a stranger in a strange land. And maybe my stranger metaphor is the reason so few men write about their experiences. Maybe they are strangers in a strange land of parenting. I'll leave you with that, saving a discussion of fathers in the land of parenting for future posts. But in the meantime, what are your thoughts? Let's play armchair-sociologists. Why do you think the disparity in online presence?
I hear little ones starting to stir upstairs and I'm on pancake duty this morning.
Some of the fathering blogs I check in on, though very heartwarming, insightful, and informative are infrequently updated. There are a couple of fathering websites I've found, but they seem a bit vacant to me. For example, I visited Fatherville.com and there seems to be some helpful information. I visited the forums page, where fathers can gather and chat about just about anything. It's practically dormant. GreatDad.com is another example; the forum doesn't look like anyone's contributed in nearly two weeks.
For a comparison, if you go to many sights by and for mothers, a forum post two weeks old is so buried in the forums it's hard to find. On the Mothering website forum, numbers of posts are often measured in thousands; on the fathers', they would be lucky to be in the hundreds. For this post, I decided to search the Mothering forum for "Fathering" and see what came up. An early hit was for a woman looking for resources for her envious husband, last posted to in July. There were a total of six posts in the thread, none listing specific resources. They claimed an internet search found some interesting sites, but listed none. Mothering Magazine recently listed a number of fathering websites, such as The Father Life Magazine, which is updated regularly, but the community is vastly smaller than that for mothers.
Okay, I think I've belabored this point for a while. Why the whine? It's just an interesting observation, and I can only speculate why this is the case. So here I go.
Mothers are still the primary care givers in the home. Yes, there are many exceptions to this, I know, but I still think moms rule the roost. Mothers are more interested in sharing their parenting experiences, and many, such as SouleMama, have used their skills to turn their websites into profitable businesses. I know it isn't that men aren't interested in sharing experiences or turning their experiences into profitable businesses; I see it all the time on other forums, but less so for parenting.
What does all this mean? I'm not advocating for a secularized, digital version of Promise Keepers rally. I don't think dads should all come together and sing Kumbaya It means I spend more time reading mother's blogs about family matters than father's. That's mostly okay with me, though sometimes I feel like a stranger in a strange land. And maybe my stranger metaphor is the reason so few men write about their experiences. Maybe they are strangers in a strange land of parenting. I'll leave you with that, saving a discussion of fathers in the land of parenting for future posts. But in the meantime, what are your thoughts? Let's play armchair-sociologists. Why do you think the disparity in online presence?
I hear little ones starting to stir upstairs and I'm on pancake duty this morning.
Friday, October 1, 2010
This Moment
{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. -- via SouleMama
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)