Darren

What is the role of a dad today?

Fifty years ago, the media portrayed dads as being strong father figures who provided for their families and provided for their wife and children. With few exceptions, it seems like dads are now portrayed as simple idiots who are often “duped” by their kids, can’t provide financially and have no real direction.

As a father of half a dozen kids, I feel like I have learned a lot about being a dad over the last dozen years. I’m still far from perfect but I hope that I have learned a few things over the years.

I approached the birth of my oldest with excitement and fear. I was scared that I had no idea what I was doing but as soon as I saw his little face, I went into provider mode. I then spent the next number of years working full-time, going to college full-time but also doing late night drives trying to get him to sleep along with attempting to not get peed or puked on to many times.

I am not going to discount that I am certain my wife has regularly out worked me when it comes to the kids and household, but I am certain that I am far from the way the “traditional” father is now portrayed in the media. I have worked hard for my kids and know many other fathers who have done the same, lets not forget them.

As I see it, the role of a dad is to:

1) Provide
2) Protect
3) Lead by example
4) Teach

I hope to use this blog to help other parents learn what hast helped me in my family.

Can you Make Money Driving for Uber?

by Darren

Have you been wondering if you can make a good side income driving for Uber? As a father of six, I’m always looking for a good side hustle so I set out to see if Uber was a valid way to make some extra money.

People claim that they can’t make enough money to make a career out of driving for Uber. I wanted to test it out for myself so I signed up as a driver. I love the idea of something flexible that parents can use to earn extra funds and still allow them to work around hectic family schedules.

Getting Started with Uber

The process to get setup with Uber was pretty simple. I signed up online then attended an in-person event to finish the process. They ran a background check, requested some documentation and a vehicle inspection. The entire process went fairly smoothly, despite the fact that I chose to use my electric car, a BMW i3 (more on that later).

Driving for the First Time

With the kids off to school, I put the Uber placard in my window, placed pepper spray in the driver’s door (just in case) and logged into the Uber Partners app on my smartphone to tell them I was ready to drive. Within minutes, I got a notification that someone wanted a ride. I accepted and used the GPS within the app to drive to the pickup location.

My first passenger was an older couple who wanted a ride to the train station, a short 14 minute ride of 7.63 miles and a fare of $14.06.

I can do this, I thought.

Safety

One of the biggest concerns people have about driving for Uber is safety. Will they be safe while driving? Since there have been a few high-profile news stories about Uber passengers getting violent, this seemed like a valid concern.

I didn’t find safety to be an issue. I met lots of very nice people and drove in areas I was familiar with.

I did take a few precautions. I kept mace in my door just in case and used a mount for my smartphone so I could stay handsfree.

I learned almost immediately that you MUST have some sort of mount to hold your smartphone in place. I honestly think Uber should make this part of the vehicle inspection. It is simply not safe to be looking at a phone for directions or where to pick someone up without a mount.

Proclip makesvehicle-specific mounts for just about any car and sent us one that was perfect for the i3 coupled with my iPhone 6S Plus. The mount even charges the phone and will accommodate a wide range of cases.

I always stopped driving by about 10pm so that I was taking people out for the night rather than bringing them home. So far I’ve avoided picking up an overly drunk passenger. I think this is a major part of the reason why I have never felt unsafe, but you do make more money if you are willing to drive later at night.

Flexibility

I loved the flexibility Uber offered. I was able to login to drive anytime I wanted and sign out anytime I was done. I found that demand is always highest in the evenings on the weekends here in San Diego. I did try and schedule my driving around those times as much as possible because I knew that I would make more money driving during those times, but I was free to set my own hour and adjust them to fit my schedule.

Demand

Demand while the kids are at school was a lot more sporadic. I might give several rides back to back and then have nothing for hours. I also found that even though Uber is completely flexible with when I can login and work, the end time is much more difficult to schedule as you never know where the next ride is going to take you. It might be right next to your kids’ school (which I had happen perfectly once) or your last ride might want you to drive them to the airport which could take hours so you want to make sure you aren’t on a tight time schedule while driving.

Overall, the experience was good and driving for Uber is something I think I’ll continue to do as my schedule allows time for it. I met some great people and it was a really interesting experience. I actually found that it was great for networking and as a work at home dad it was a great way to get out of the house.

Interested in driving for Uber? Sign up here.

Super Bowl Ads with Kids

by Darren

UPDATE: USA Today’s Ad Meter ranked Hyundai’s Dad Ad as the #1 Super Bowl Ad of 2015

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R_483zeVF8[/embedyt]

Every year I watch the Super Bowl with my kids. We enjoy lots of great food, cheer for our favorite team and laugh at the Super Bowl ads. This year, like last, I loved that most of the ads were very kid-friendly. There were no sleazy GoDaddy ads and not even the Pepsi ad of years past. This year it was KungFu Panda, weiner dogs running towards ketchup, a family sitting down for PizzaHut together and a dad watching out for his teenage girl on a date. It seems that the advertising companies are now trying to attract the attention of families.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouTeio9AzGQ[/embedyt]

As a parent, I laughed at the Doritos Ultrasound ad of a baby wanting to eat Doritos and was honestly intrigued by how many people it offended. I have snuck my kids all kinds of things before they were supposed to have it so the idea of an unborn baby wanting Doritos does not offend me.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugn_qmQ0NFo[/embedyt]

My 10 yr old son loved the T-Mobile “Drop the Balls” ad! He didn’t know anything about Steve Harvey’s Miss Universe mess-up. He just loved seeing all the balls overwhelm and make fun of Verizon as he has seen their ads.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI8YZdejPKg[/embedyt]

Let’s hope that media continues to be “kid-friendly”.

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