Posts Tagged ‘Parenting’
Kids Stop Talking To Father Over Will
From the Social Q’s column of the New York Times, a story about some friction between father and child over a will:
My husband and I, both 70, were married two years ago after living together for 20 years. When we shared our plans with his grown children, then 25 and 28, they were angry. His son demanded to see my husband’s will, which my husband showed him. In it, he leaves his entire estate to me, just as I leave mine to him. His son had hoped to inherit my husband’s New York loft and pay me an allowance. Eventually, the loft will go to his two children, and our upstate property will go to them and my daughter. Still, his children accused him angrily of not putting family first. It has now been two years since they spoke to their father. In their last conversation, my husband said he loved them and was always there to talk. Should he reach out to them, or is the onus on them to apologize? Also, should we tell them we’ve decided to sell the loft?
Wow. What the hell. This is awful. My father-in-law remarried after his wife died, and I suppose I can see where his children would be upset if everything was left to his new wife. But certainly not with this reaction. I’ve been mad at my mother plenty of times but I don’t stop speaking to her. Two years? TWO YEARS? Are these people nuts? The author agrees with me so I recommend the article, linked below.
Source: My Husband’s Children Stopped Talking to Him After They Saw His Will. Help! – The New York Times
Being with Dad Helps
A study conducted by Dr. Kyle D. Pruett found that infants between 7 and 30 months respond more favorably to being picked up by their fathers. Pruett also found that a father’s parenting style is beneficial for a child’s physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioral development. Mothers reassure toddlers when they become frustrated while fathers encourage them to manage their frustration. This helps the children learn to deal with stress and frustration. A long-term study Pruett conducted proved that a father’s active involvement with his children, from birth to adolescence, promotes greater emotional balance, stronger curiosity and a stronger sense of self-assurance in the child.
Source: Stay at Home Dads – Pros & Cons – Stay at Home Dads
Texas woman learns her mother’s fertility doctor is her biological father | Daily Mail Online
This is super messed up and of course it’s on television.
From Daily Mail:
- Texas woman Eve Wiley, 31, learned her mother’s fertility doctor is her biological father after taking Ancestry.com and 23andme genetic tests
- Wiley believed sperm donor Steve Scholl was her father and developed a father-daughter relationship with him 14 years ago
- But genetic tests pointed to Dr. Kim McMorries as her biological father
Source: Texas woman learns her mother’s fertility doctor is her biological father | Daily Mail Online
Stan Lee and Superhero Parenting
What is Superhero Parenting? It’s parenting like a superhero. It’s using lessons from comic books to raise your kids. It’s allowing comic books to teach lessons to your kids, lessons they might not want to hear from you but will gladly absorb from a fictional character in a costume.
The biggest lesson of all – “with great power there must also come great responsibility” – comes to us from Stan Lee.
One of the best things my father did for me was introduce me to Marvel Comics. (Note: my father was, at best, something of a putz.) My first was Doctor Strange, and I still vividly remember the splash page – the colors, the small words. (Compare the letters on a Richie Rich comic to a Marvel or DC book from the late 70s/early 80s. It’s a big difference.)
Later I got into Spider-Man and learned the immortal lesson of great power and great responsibility, maybe the best thing parents can learn. Think about it – what greater responsibility is there than parenting a child?
I’m hardly the only person thinking about parenting on the day Stan Lee died. Kevin Smith wrote on Instagram, “Outside of my parents, you were the one adult who gave me the most useful life skills I still use today.”
I think this is true for a lot of people. In some cases Stan might be MORE important than their parents. That’s not true for me; my mother had a huge influence on my moral compass. But so, in his way, did Stan.
More Stan:
Famous people remembering Stan
Stan shows up on these great old Fantastic Four radio shows
All of Stan’s cameos, or “Staneos”
Image: Wikipedia
NFL Should Not Be Convincing Parents To Let Kids Play Football
This article from ESPN about the state of the NFL under Roger Goodell had a line that made me go “hmm”.
“How it will convince mothers that their kids should be allowed to play football.”
So… no.
First, is this article suggesting that fathers have no say in their children playing football? Or that fathers are throwing their children onto the gridiron whether they like it or not? I don’t think so. Can we at least start saying “parents” instead of “mothers” unless we’re talking about breast-feeding?
Second, and this is my main point — how the hell is it the NFL’s job to convince parents to “let” their kids play football? Answer: it isn’t. I suppose the idea here is that to keep a fresh supply of players in the pro league you need kids playing pee-wee football. (Pee-Wee!) To me, the NFL’s job is to make sure parents are informed about the dangers of playing football, and then parents can make their own decisions. If nothing else, the NFL shouldn’t be PREVENTING that information from coming to light, something they have almost certainly done.
Really though, is it the NFL commissioner’s job to “convince mothers that their kids should be allowed to play football“? Fuck no.
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content.)
Warning: More Superhero Posts To Come (But It’ll Be About Parenting Too)
I know this is DaddyTips.com, but I think there are going to be more superhero posts to come. You have been warned.
This will not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me or anyone who reads this site with even moderate regularity. I mean… well, I’ll let the picture say a thousand words.
Personally I prefer The Avengers. Have I mentioned that lately?
In case anyone is wondering, the phrase “Me and The Avengers DVD Combo Pack = happy dad” is still true. I could watch that movie almost any time. Luckily there is a steady supply of other stuff to watch, some that even doesn’t have superheroes in it like Stranger Things. (Stranger Things is all the things, by the way. I’ve already watched it twice. It’s good the second time around, in case you were on the fence about watching it again.)
Deutsch: Zentrale Heterochromie: Grüne Iris, um die Pupille herum jedoch ein braun-gelber Ring (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
(The image above is totally unrelated and is included just to freak you out a little.)
I will be doing a better job of tying the superhero stuff into parenting and related topics. Not that this is necessary. To paraphrase Whit Honea from way back when we both blogged for Babble.com, superhero movies are relevant to a parenting blog because I’m a parent and I like superhero movies. (Whit’s kind of awesome; check him out here, and also everywhere.) I also watch them with my kids. The values they impart are important. Not that it’s all about values. It’s also about fun, and sharing something fun. The world is a rough place. There’s a reason it’s called “escapism.” But while escaping, it is worth noting that sometimes there are good values being imparted. Acceptance of others (Vision and Scarlet Witch). The complications of friendships (Captain America: Civil War). How awesome and weird it would be to have super-powers at age 15 (Spider-Man). OK, that last one isn’t really a value. But those three are all from the same movie. I’ve got more than that, trust me. Because with great power, there must also come great responsibility. (Ahem.)
Face front True Believers! Welcome to the DaddyTips age of Superhero Parenting! Trust me, it’ll be a fun ride.
Related articles (Note: These are offsite links; DaddyTips takes no responsibility for outside content.)
Enough With The Gorilla Thing
I’m calling it – enough with the Gorilla story.
What prompted me to write this? I suppose it’s because this is still a news story.
Parents of the boy who fell into gorilla enclosure will not face charges: https://t.co/12GlLAUrD3 pic.twitter.com/pPyN2Ny66Q
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) June 6, 2016
(Full disclosure: I sometimes write for The Daily Beast.)
Now: OF COURSE the parents won’t face charges! That would ridiculous. If for some reason the zoo didn’t have the proper fencing in place, that’s who would face charges. However, by all accounts that I’ve read, the zoo DID have the proper barriers up. Unfortunately, a small child got through them and landed in the gorilla’s area.
Here’s some video. It’s not that shocking but if you don’t want to see it for whatever reason, you’re not missing much, in part because half of it is blocked by a tree. But it doesn’t feature the gorilla getting shot, or the child being harmed.
Here’s Jack Hanna, animal expert, defending what the zoo had to do, which is kill the gorilla.
It’s sad that the gorilla, named Harambe, was killed. But what were they going to do? Let the kid get killed? The gorilla was dragging him around like a sack of potatoes.
By the way, this isn’t the first time a child has fallen into a gorilla habitat. I don’t think this particular gorilla was a Silverback, but that’s only because I don’t know stuff like that. (It appears to not be a Silverback because it doesn’t have a silver back, but I’m color blind, so who knows.) Here’s a video from — wait for it — 2015. You know, a year ago.
This incident worked out much better because EVERYONE was OK. Not saying the circumstances are the same. However, in the 2015 video above, you can see the barrier and in theory it should be enough. It wasn’t.
Oh look! Here’s another time a kid wound up in a gorilla habitat at a zoo. In 1996.
As Kimberly Harrington pointed out on Medium, “do accidents happen anymore? Especially when a kid is involved?” (That’s just a quote from the headline. The whole article is worth reading.) Kimberly posted a lot of memes/tweets that resulted from the Harambe incident, but these two really horrified me.
I mean… wow.
Here’s a quick quote from Ms. Harrington’s excellent article:
This is the perfect (shit) storm for the Internet, especially the American variety, because it involves: a) kids, b) animals, and c) parenting. All of the things that the Internet likes to flip its collective wig over. All of the things that allow the Monday morning quarterbacking to gush forth in a rage orgy. Someone needs to pay! She’s a woman? Let’s call her horrible names! This is our chance, Internet!
Yeah. That pretty much says it all. In 1996, maybe all the Prodigy and Compuserve chat rooms were aflame with enraged parents and animal rights activists digitally duking it out. But I sort of doubt it.
Bottom line: everyone needs to take a breath and calm down. Jack Hanna says the choice was between a human life and a gorilla life (paraphrasing here) and the zookeepers chose the child. It is absolutely sad. But there’s no excuse for the kind of vitriol shown above. You can see much more at the link below.
Me? I say enough. No más. It’s over, Johnny.
Except that these are the Interwebs. It’ll never be over. Well, maybe when something else shows up to outrage people.
See also: Hey America, do accidents happen anymore? Especially when a kid is involved? — Be Yourself — Medium
