DaddyTips.com

dADDy Tweets for 2009-06-15

• Is it possible to be both empathetic and self-involved? At the same time? #
• Is taking out the garbage EVER a woman’s job? #
• Reading: “9 Year Old Injured In Car When Mom Grabs Whiskey | Strollerderby” ( http://bit.ly/MtNbQ ) #
• Reading: “90s TV Star Potty Trains Her Newborn | Strollerderby” ( http://bit.ly/EKcvf ) #
• Not new, but worth watching if you haven’t seen it: “Barack Obama Orders a Burger” http://is.gd/12Lap #
• RT @whithonea: Taking MILF up a notch. NSFW or your mom! (yes, it’s a few weeks old, but I’m still laughing): http://bit.ly/Zc1rW #

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Policing Versus Judging

A point needs to be made, and this post on Babble gives me the chance to do it.

Judging people is different from policing.

Think about it. The police actually go out and arrest those who they think have committed a crime. Then a judge… passes judgment. (Yes, it’s more complicated than that. Dammit Jim, I’m a blogger, not an attorney!)

In the case of parenting, we all, whether we want to admit it or not, have opinions about how others conduct themselves, particularly when it comes to children. Do some of us (me) have stronger opinions than others? Of course. But I’m highly suspicious of anyone who says that they never, ever judge anyone else and how they choose to live their lives. Read more »

DaddyTips Show and Tell – Holistic Living Edition

We are nothing if not holistic in our house. Wait, I thought “holistic” was the name of a new Wii game. No?

OK, I’m not all that holistic or spiritual or whatever. But I appreciate those who are. And I do eat organic stuff, and just joined a farm share. So maybe we’re a little more ho-ho than I think.

Anyway, here are some links:

• Gorgeous, Healthy Recipes & My Favorite Salad: by Valerie Reiss, via BeliefNet’s FreshLiving blog. I’ll need to do a better job of actually collecting recipes once the farm share food starts coming in. I don’t think the family will be content with my bacheloresque method of cooking vegetables, which is (a) steam, (b) add olive oil, (c) eat. Yawn. I could do it because taste isn’t as important to me as convenience. When you cook for other people, though, you need to pay attention to what they care about. And frankly, there’s nothing inherently evil about following a recipe. I need to remember that. Maybe I’ll make a sign or something.
• How to Be Persuasive (and Not Get Persuaded): also by by Valerie Reiss from BeliefNet’s FreshLiving blog. (She’s a friend.) It’s not “How to Win Friends and Influence People” (although I’ve been told that’s a good book to read, despite the cringe/cliche factor). It has more to do with advertising and the things they (THEY) use to get us (YOU! ME! YOUR CHILDREN!) to buy stuff (CRAP! It’s all CRAP!). Valerie takes a couple of the items to another level, such as this one: “Giving someting away makes it less desirable. (This might be a good one to apply to our relationships–if we over-give, we can be under-valued.)” Indeed. This one, “Admitting you’re wrong makes people trust you more,” might be true for everyone except the President of the United States.
• Intent.com is a strange site. There’s a lot of “I intend to” do whatever. Usually it’s positive, as in “I intend on making today my best possible day,” rather than, oh I don’t know, “I intend to transport a hooker across state lines despite the fact that I’m married and am Governor of New York.” Then there’s this one: “My Intent is to breathe in and out all day :)” I should hope so! I see these “intend” statements and it makes me think of Yoda. “Do, or do not. There is no try.” (Here’s video if you, for some strange reason, don’t know what I’m talking about.) I mean, who INTENDS to do something bad? Or stupid? Or immoral? I guess the idea is something of a “think positive and good things will happen”/”The Secret” type thing. Whatever gets you through the night is all right, I suppose, but at some point doesn’t it make sense to, like, think in terms of actually DOING something?
• Deepak Chopra would like us to “Intend the Return of Laura Ling and Euna Lee.” I mean, sure. That would be nice. I’m guessing diplomacy would work better, though.
• Let’s close out with another Deepak post, this one about what the proper age is to teach children meditation. Best advice in there is this: “It’s important that they don’t feel pressured to meditate because the parents want them to.” Can you imagine? “Dammit Jimmy, I gave you a friggin’ mantra! Now close your eyes and chant! CHANT, DAMN YOU!”

Image: Amazon

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DaddyTips Show And Tell – News and Links

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-14

• Carrie Fisher on the Tony Awards – getting older sucks. At least she’s still funny. (Not knocking her. It sucks for all of us.) #
• ‘Billy Elliot’ on the Tonys – people think this is good? What the hell? ‘OK Billy run! Now grunt! Now tap! Run! Grunt! Tap!’ Oy. #
• Checking the one stock you own 57 times a day is very silly. #
• Great sports name: Omar Cuff, NFL #daddytips #
• Some guy is giving a well dressed woman a hickey in starbucks. Why? When teenagers do that u can say ‘ah, youth.’ This? ew. #
• Tell your kid to stop shouting. Now. Two words – inside voices. #daddytips #
• And what if my kid doesn’t have a fever? Huh? WHAT THEN HEALTH EXPERTS??? #daddytips #
• Me to Thing 2 – “It’s always good to see Superman. Unless you’re a BAD GUY!” #daddytips #
• Thing 2 just called ‘Slow Ride’ ‘So Wide.’ (guitar hero.) a future Weird Al? #daddytips #
• RT @john_sherrod: just watched “Stop Loss” – modern day “Hair” without the music or weed. #
• RT @craftastrophe: Have you voted for Craftastrophe yet? Please do! http://is.gd/Wjld Great site, worth the time to vote. #
• RT @THE_REAL_SHAQ: “Every intersection in the road of life is the opportunity make a decision” – Duke ellington #
• Kids in manhattan playing with a Red Sox beach ball. That’s just wrong. Unamerican! #yankees #
• Should mothers wear the same clothing brands/styles as their daughters? Even if they look good in them? #daddytips #
• Overheard 7 year old: ‘oh look! There’s that Alfa Romeo. I LOVE that Alfa Romeo.’ As opposed to the other Alfa Romeo, that one sucks… #
• When even I look at my clothes and think ‘did you pick those out of the trash?’ its time to do some shopping. #
• out of context it souns creepy – guy saying to little girl “maybe you’ll be as big as me soon!” #daddytips #
• That last msg is why I don’t talk to other people’s children too often. A) they don’t care & B) it can be creepy. #daddytips #
• “I asked for water but she gave me gasoline” – *that’s* a lyric. These kids today. They don’t know what good music is. #daddytips #
• Are there doctors that tell you more than “lose weight”? that tell you what kind of crappy shape you’re in? A trainer/doc combo maybe? #
• RT @momlogic: In a move that surprises no one, the Miss Universe organization has canned Miss California Carrie Prejean http://bit.ly/4fB3lu #
• RT @DrJeffersnBoggs: Sooner or later, we all quote our mothers. #
• RT @tiffy643: A-Rod and Mark Teixeira confront ESPN’s Rick Sutcliffe http://tinyurl.com/m29k3a #
• RT @momlogic: Woman Junks Mattress Containing $1,000,000 http://bit.ly/c95Vz I’m still mad about mom tossing my old baseball cards #
• overheard-The only explanation for that is that u started smoking crack. So u need to calm yr shit… No. That is not my responsibility. #
• Two teenagers are being loud and wobbly next to me. They’re annoying. I’m officially old. #daddytips #
• Going LIVE on BTR at 12:30PM EST-topics include Carrie Prejean and why it’s time to stop beauty pageants. No guest today- http://is.gd/ZWf6 #
• A world where we cannot depend on Mariano Rivera to keep the game close is a sad world indeed. #yankees #mets #stupidmets #
• RT @momlogic: N.J. mom on “Wife Swap” stabs husband with kitchen knife: http://bit.ly/2px5f #
• JOHNNY DAMON! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SWINGING AT? THE DIRT? OK, I’m calm now… sort of… #yankeees #mets #
• “A-Rod is 1 for 14 against K-Rod.” Can we call a ban on baseball nicknames, especially if they’re based on the name A-Rod? #yankees #
• And can we please start calling A-Rod The Rod like I suggested last year? Or we could use his Hebrew name, Schmucky Schmuckstein. #yankees #
• HAAAAA!!!!!! HE DROPPED THE BALL!!!!!! That was unbelievable!!!!!! #yankees #mets #metsarestinky #
• 20 year HS reunion tonight. That, and the fact that when I sit down I say “uh” makes me feel old. #
• Other things that make me feel old(er): refinancing my mortgage. #
• RT @lisarinna: Someone please remind me next yr not to have a sleepover then a party next day at 11 WTF!! #
• RT @JackieMacD: ASSRAGEOUS! http://bit.ly/wAPRb #
• RT @THE_REAL_SHAQ: If everytime I talk I close my eyes and stutter, does that mean I have a breathing defiency thru my eyelids- WOW #
• Thing 2 just crashed his “computer” which is an old keyboard and mouse sitting on the floor. Takes after the old man… #
• Ads on Yankee game: alcohol,heartburn meds,food that causes heartburn (Applebee’s). #
• Sounds dirty out of context: “The Yankees need LENGTH…” “They aren’t getting enough LENGTH.” (from their pitchers, they mean) #yankees #
• More sounds dirty out of context: “Longoria does it with his bat, he does it with his glove…” what a perv. #
• Thing 2 says: “I’ll take my bath when the bad guy is dead.” Sounds reasonable. #daddytips #

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dADDy Tweets for 2009-06-13

• A world where we cannot depend on Mariano Rivera to keep the game close is a sad world indeed. #yankees #mets #stupidmets #
• RT @momlogic: N.J. mom on “Wife Swap” stabs husband with kitchen knife: http://bit.ly/2px5f #
• JOHNNY DAMON! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SWINGING AT? THE DIRT? OK, I’m calm now… sort of… #yankeees #mets #
• “A-Rod is 1 for 14 against K-Rod.” Can we call a ban on baseball nicknames, especially if they’re based on the name A-Rod? #yankees #
• And can we please start calling A-Rod The Rod like I suggested last year? Or we could use his Hebrew name, Schmucky Schmuckstein. #yankees #
• HAAAAA!!!!!! HE DROPPED THE BALL!!!!!! That was unbelievable!!!!!! #yankees #mets #metsarestinky #
• 20 year HS reunion tonight. That, and the fact that when I sit down I say “uh” makes me feel old. #
• Other things that make me feel old(er): refinancing my mortgage. #
• RT @lisarinna: Someone please remind me next yr not to have a sleepover then a party next day at 11 WTF!! #
• RT @JackieMacD: ASSRAGEOUS! http://bit.ly/wAPRb #
• RT @THE_REAL_SHAQ: If everytime I talk I close my eyes and stutter, does that mean I have a breathing defiency thru my eyelids- WOW #
• Thing 2 just crashed his “computer” which is an old keyboard and mouse sitting on the floor. Takes after the old man… #
• Ads on Yankee game: alcohol,heartburn meds,food that causes heartburn (Applebee’s). #
• Sounds dirty out of context: “The Yankees need LENGTH…” “They aren’t getting enough LENGTH.” (from their pitchers, they mean) #yankees #
• More sounds dirty out of context: “Longoria does it with his bat, he does it with his glove…” what a perv. #
• Thing 2 says: “I’ll take my bath when the bad guy is dead.” Sounds reasonable. #daddytips #

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Tip of the Day – Exercising Parental Restraint

There are many things that we want to say but don’t. This is true of everyone but it is particularly true of parents.

For example:

My son says, “I wish you could walk two puffles at once.”

What I want to say:

“I don’t give a crap about Club Penguin. Please stop talking to me about it. I would rather discuss almost any other topic. Stop. STOP!”

What I actually say:

“Oh yeah?”

Sometimes it’s more difficult to keep composure, but it’s worth the effort of course. Still, there will come a day — perhaps five minutes from now — when Club Penguin will be put to bed and I won’t have to hear about it. At least not until tomorrow.

Image: Amazon

(Note: The image has nothing to do with this post, except that it has the word “restraint” in it. I’ve never seen the movie. It looks quite awful.)

DaddyTips Show And Tell – News and Links

New feature here on DaddyTips.com — Show and Tell.

What is it, you ask? A list of things we’ve read that we think you’ll like, both dad-related and not.

Here we go:

• The Onion AV Club (whom I write reviews for from time to time) gives the new Wii version of the classic game “Punch-Out!!” a B, which is pretty good if you consider the fact that it does not contain Mike Tyson. (AVClub.com)
• A father and son pastor team have been accused of stealing $3.1 million dollars to buy “luxury cars, time shares and golf club memberships.” Well, at least they didn’t molest anyone. As far as we know, of course. (L.A. Times)
• I don’t even watch most of the Adult Swim shows, especially now that “Harvey Birdman” is off the air. But I will probably watch all of the clips on this page. Why? Because they all reference “Star Trek.” Duh. (AdultSwim.com)
• Um, hi. This is a levitating toy display. It’s called the Levitron Revolution Series. Only holds “up to 4 ounces” according to Aaron Burgess at Droolicious, but it LEVITATES. I want one. For my son. My son. Right. (Droolicious)
• I love this headline: “Gwyneth Paltrow Finds Noted Music-maker William Joel Just Delightful.” Actually, the whole post is great. (AVClub.com’s The Hater)