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Half Dozen Dad

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Parenting and Humor

Privatize Educational TV

by Darren

 

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: – Ecclesiastes 3:1

I believe there is a time and a place for everything. At one point, the newspapers were the public’s source of news. At another, retail giants such as JCPenny and Sears were where people would go to get the goods they needed. And at yet another, the government needed to be heavily involved with the funding of PBS and educating our children.

It’s now time for a change. Private companies can produce better content than our government.

A few years back, HBO inked a deal to fund Sesame Street in exchange for them being able to air the shows before PBS. At first, I have to admit that I was quite concerned with this arrangement. Could the same company that produces many shows that I would never let my young children watch actually produce a show that I would encourage my kids to watch?

I have to admit, the results have been impressive. Not only did the partnership produce something that I feel remained fairly true to the educational mission of Sesame Street but with the additional funding that HBO provided, it quickly became a more updated and entertaining show. They even recently incorporated a character with Autism, something I don’t feel PBS had the capabilities to address.

Today, I watched Julie’s Greenroom, a Netflix original show staring Julie Andrews. The purpose of this show, is to educate children about the arts. I was shocked to see not only Julie on the show but also Idina Menzel, Josh Groban and Alec Balwin teaching about singing, writing and acting. Who better to teach the arts that people that have become career experts in them? It also utilized Jim Henson’s puppets which gives it a feel much like Sesame Street. Overall, I am exceptionally impressed and my kids can’t stop watching it and learning. My 4 year old daughter can now clearly explain what a script is.

We need more shows like these and I believe that companies such as HBO and Netflix are in a better position to fund and create this content than PBS and it doesn’t require funding from our government.

This isn’t to say that I don’t understand the argument that PBS was always meant to be public and free to everyone.  I just have to believe that parents would often be willing pay the subscription fees for these services if it does a good job of teaching their children. In the case they don’t want to pay for the content, I love the HBO/PBS agreement where PBS can broadcast the shows for free 6 months after HBO first shows it. It seems like a win for everyone. Let’s see more of this for the benefit of our children.

Filed Under: Parenting and Humor

Dad, Don’t Sign my Reading Log!

by Darren

Dad and Son

Dads can’t sign their son’s school reading logs.

In the news today there is tons of talk about equal rights for women but nobody ever mentions equal rights for dads. This true story with my son and his school absolutely blew me away.

Every Friday, my son has to turn in a reading log showing what books he read during the week and how long he read them. These reading logs are then signed by a parent before they are turned in.

Last Thursday night, my wife was out of town so I told my son I could sign his reading log. He was very hesitant to give me the log but I quickly looked it over, signed it with his pencil, and told him to turn in in the next day.

Reading LogMonday morning my son presented his reading log to my wife to sign with my signature erased.

It turns out his teacher had rejected his reading log and told him to go have his mom sign it instead. Her exact statement was “Only moms can sign it!”

I was absolutely flabbergasted!!! Why in the world can’t a dad sign his son’s reading log? Not only that, his teacher made him feel like it was wrong for him to have me sign it and made him “correct” it.

I would like to state that this was a strange isolated incident but I put this in the same class as the comments like, “Is your wife gone so you are babysitting?” or when I show up for a kids school event in the middle of the day “Don’t you work?”. Dads just are not perceived as being anything other than financial providers for their families.

Dads are so much more. Yes. Men and women often approach things differently but that doesn’t mean one way is wrong and one is right. I can cook a meal as well as my wife. I can support my kids at a school event. I can keep my kids my getting lost in public places. I even can calm my daughter when she cries. Dads are an important part of the family and we need to not forget it.

 

Filed Under: Adventures, Parenting and Humor

Is your kid your friend?

by Darren

A video has been circulating recently that makes the bold statements that “I am not my kid’s buddy. I am their parent and they are angry with me because I parented them.”

While I agree that more parents need to parent their children and not worry so much whether them doing that makes the kid happy. I also feel that in today’s day and age, your child has to have a friend that they can confide in. If you are not friends with you child, how can you hope to know what is going on in their lives. This doesn’t mean as a friend that you need to always give them their way, it simply means that you are constantly working on building a relationship of trust.

We walk a fine line as parents. My guidelines for being a good parent are:

1) Love the child.
2) Spend time with them.
3) Listen to them.
4) Be an example.
5) Be stern but understanding.
6) Correct and punish, when necessary.
7) Show an increase of love.

Parenting is hard. Trust me, with 6 kids, I get it but being a successful parent goes far beyond just laying down the lay and forcing them to comply.

Filed Under: Humor, Parenting and Humor

What is the role of a dad today?

by Darren

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.

Filed Under: Parenting and Humor

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.
electric car, ev, bmw, i3
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 makes vehicle-specific mounts for just about any car and sent us one that was perfect for the i3 coupled with my iPhone. 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 log in 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 happened 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. 

Filed Under: Adventures, Cars, Humor, Making Money, My Wife's Stuff, Parenting and Humor, Tech

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”.

 

 

Filed Under: Cars, Humor, Parenting and Humor, Tech

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Yes. All 6 are mine.

Yes. I must have my hands full.

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...and yes. I wouldn't trade being a dad of 6 kids for anything.

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