Posts Tagged ‘Parenting’
Mike Francesa Says Parents Should Relax About Fandom
Remember when I wrote about raising kids to be fans of perpetually bad sports teams? (If not, I helpfully linked to the article for you. I’ll expect a thank you note in the mail.) Today on WFAN, Mike Francesa took a caller to task about the same issue. Basically, he told the caller, a father and fan of the Jets (I think it was the Jets) that parents should relax about fandom.
(Note: the image above has nothing to do with the story except that it is a sports image, and neither person appears to be relaxed.)
The WFAN host’s point, which I basically agree with, is that people take this whole “I’m raising my kid to be a fan of a perpetually bad sports team” thing much too seriously. Or, as Aaron Rodgers put it — RELAX.
Francesa went on to describe some of the favorite Yankee teams of his childhood, which he described as not being very good but he loved them anyway.
I am also a Yankee fan, and here’s where I have to respectfully… not exactly disagree with Mr. Francesa, but add to his point. When the Yankees lose, it doesn’t hurt the way it does when the Mets lose. The same is true for the Giants and the Jets. Even when the Jets WIN, fans find it painful. The first two years that Mark Sanchez was the Jets’ starting quarterback, which were also the first two years’ of Rex Ryan’s tenure as head coach, they made it to the AFC Championship Game. That’s one game away from the Super Bowl. I watched those games, and the ones that preceded it, with a lifelong Jets fan. You know what? Even the games they won, I could feel the tension. There’s always a sense that something bad will happen. I don’t know why, but I’ve seen it firsthand and discussed it with other Jets fans. They agree. Barring another Super Bowl win (and it is worth noting that the Jets at least HAVE a Super Bowl win in their history, something many other NFL teams do not), I don’t know that it will ever not be at least a little bit painful to be a fan of the Jets.
Does that mean raising your kid to be a Jets fan is somehow bad parenting? Of course not. That’s silly. In my experience kids pick up on fandom naturally — if you’re a Jet(s fan) you’re a Jet(s fan) all the way, and your kids prob’ly will be the exact same way.
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End of Game Super Bowl Fight Totally Classless
I don’t use words like classless often, because the word is judgy in a way that I don’t like to be. I’m not against being judgmental; I’ve said many times that accusing someone of being judgmental is, in fact, judgmental. But what happened at the end of the Super Bowl tonight was absolutely classless.
The San Francisco 49ers’ Super Bowl XXIX trophy on display at the 49ers’ Family Day at Candlestick Park. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Seattle Seahawks had lost the game, largely due to what basically everyone is referring to as the #WorstCallEver. (For those who weren’t watching, that refers to throwing a pass that was intercepted by Malcolm Butler instead of giving the ball to Marshawn Lynch at the goal line.) The Patriots were backed up into their own end zone, trying to avoid a safety, which would have given the Seahawks one last chance to win. The ‘Hawks jumped offsides, the Pats got five yards, and were a kneeldown away from victory.
Then this happened.
That’s just not cool. I’m sure the players were pissed off. They lost the Super Bowl. I’m not going to pretend I know what that feels like; I have one career sack and it was in high school during the Junior/Senior football game. (For the record, sacking the quarterback was really fun.) There are hamsters with more athletic ability than I do. Hell, there may be pieces of furniture with more athletic ability than me. But if by some chance I ever found myself on the losing end of a big game, even the biggest of all big games, I really, truly hope that I would show more class than these guys did. Good sportsmanship.
What does this have to do with parenting? Kids watch these games. Much like I prefer to avoid using the word classless, I also mislike the phrase “think of the children.” But here, I’ll say it. It’s not about being a role model. It’s about not acting like a big baby when you lose. Not throwing punches. No temper tantrums. Behave yourselves, guys.
For the record, here is a tweet from Seahawks star player Richard Sherman.
Thank you God for giving us the opportunity…. That's all you can ask for….Thank you everyone for the support all year
— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) February 2, 2015
See? That’s classy. And Sherman was far from happy. Can I get a gif? Yes. Yes I can.
Super Bowl Fight! Super Bowl Fight! (Gawker)
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Google Exec Wants People To Watch Their Kids Graduate On Their Phones
Buried within a New York Times article about cloud storage for businesses is this rather odd quote from Amit Singh, the president of Google Enterprise.
Android logo via Wikipedia
“You’ll be videoconferencing with someone, while editing a supply chain document with someone else in Hong Kong, while he watches his son graduate on his phone,” Mr. Singh said, noting, “you’ll need a lot of infrastructure to do that.”
(emphasis added)
No disrespect meant to Mr. Singh, but, um, what the hell? Is he actually comparing “editing a supply chain document” with a child’s graduation?
What Mr. Singh was attempting to explain, as far as I can tell, is how a businessperson (I’m going gender neutral here; apologies to Caesar and any other intelligent non-human creatures of the future) could make use of the Android operating system on multiple devices at once. But if his idea of quality parenting is not only working while your kid graduates but squeezing it in as if it were just another activity in the stream of a business day, I have to disagree. Strongly.
Google, Microsoft and Others Delve Deeper Into Cloud Storage for Businesses – NYTimes.com.
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Forms, Forms, Everywhere The Forms
Forms, forms, and more forms. Parenting is all about the forms.
Maj. Gary Ruesch completes medical forms as his patient draws. (Photo credit: Official U.S. Navy Imagery)
Not ALL. But there are a lot of forms.
(A note on the photo: isn’t it cute? It’s from here.)
School forms. Camp forms. Other forms. School and camp are the big ones. They won’t let your kid go to either place until you submit a medical form, which requires a visit to the doctor, which requires making an appointment to take your kid to the doctor. Not saying these are the hardest things a parent has to do. But it does require some scheduling.
I’m going to make a form to help parents with these forms. Sound a little meta? Perhaps. But I think it would help me, and if it helps someone else as well, that’s even better. Pay it forward and all that.
As usual, I barely have time to write this post before I need to do dad stuff. The form will come later. But I will do it. Hopefully.
Article About Mentally Ill Kids
This New York Times article about mentally ill kids is troubling. Well-written, interesting reading, but troubling, especially if you are a parent. Caveat reader.
Seeing Sons’ Violent Potential, but Finding Little Help or Hope – NYTimes.com
Songs About Bad Dads (Daddy Issues)
As a former contributor to The A.V. Club I vaguely wish I had contributed to this list of Songs About Bad Dads. Just in time for Father’s Day, of course. Then again, I haven’t heard of most of the tunes on here, so maybe I wouldn’t have been the best writer to tackle this assignment, despite my penchant for all things Daddy Issues.
This isn’t a song, but nobody has more daddy issues than Scott Summers, aka Cyclops.
There are the obligatory indie-rock bands (The Mountain Goats have two entries) but also some surprises, including, I shit you not, Shaquille O’Neal, who apparently recorded a song Biological Didn’t Bother, which I have to admit is a pretty good title. (By the way, because Amazon truly has everything, if you decide you really love Shaq’s song and want to sing/rap it yourself, you can get a karaoke version. Yes. Seriously. For reals.)
Make your way through the full list (it’s not that long) and you will be rewarded with a tune titled Daddy Wasn’t There from Austin Powers in Goldmember, performed by the fake band Ming Tea. It is, as the A.V. Club writers point out, rather catchy, kinda funny, and just a teeny bit sad to those of us with daddy issues of our own. Here’s the video (Bonus: you get to look at Susanna Hoffs.)
The Austin Powers’ movies are, in their way, filled with daddy issues, particularly Scott and his father Dr. Evil.
Click the link below to check out the full list of Bad Dad Songs from The A.V. Club. Here’s a tip: be a great dad and no one will write one of these about you. And happy father’s day!
Bad dads: 19 songs about shitty fathers · Inventory · The A.V. Club.
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Grah! I Am Not Getting Anything Done
I am not getting anything done. This is frustrating.
I don’t think I need a book like Organizing For Dummies
Yes, there’s a book for that too. And it can bite me. (Technically it can’t, unless it’s one of those books from Harry Potter. But I digress.)
The issue for me is not managing time properly. The issue is not having any time to manage.
Parenting, as I’ve said often, is not easy. Raising kids takes time. Some of the things that one must do when raising kids are things that can only be done if said kids leave you alone for awhile. My kids are great. But I’m the type of person who needs multiple minutes in a row in order to accomplish anything significant. Starting a task — even, say, writing a blog post — and then getting interrupted (not always by kids) can and does derail my activity. This isn’t the case for everyone, but it is for me.
Then there’s relaxation. Downtime is a requirement for parents. It took me awhile to realize this, but trust me, it’s true. While it is true that the children eventually go to sleep and I could use that time to do various tasks, that’s not always a good idea. Because a tired dad is a cranky dad, and a cranky dad is no fun for anyone.
Eventually the stuff that absolutely must be done will in fact be done. Because that’s the way it is. This is how we do it. Letting important things slide is not an option. Starting and stopping and getting stymied is still annoying.
Dadding ain’t easy. See also: SAHD WAHD. Then call me a wahhhbulance.
