Last week, in “So how often are you guys doing it?” – I touched on a sensitive topic – how often you are intimate with your partner and the notion that sex is the glue that can keep your relationship strong and vibrant. Alright fellas, I have assembled a team of your romantic, sexually satisfied [...]

Let’s ease into this private question with a scene from the amazing Woody Allen movie “Annie Hall” – (the movie that beat Star Wars for Best Picture in 1977)… Alvy’s psychiatrist:     “How often do you sleep together?” Annie’s analyst:     “Do you have sex often?” Alvy (lamenting):    “Hardly ever, maybe three times a week!” Annie (complaining): [...]

Look at me when I’m talking to you… (or not!) As dads, we are kind of a big deal.  Like Anchorman Ron Burgundy, we are big in stature, big in voice, and big in power.  We need to very aware of that ‘power’ and only use it for good. I am going to keep it [...]

  “Daddy, what happened in Boston?” “Did anyone at school talk about Boston today?” “About our Boston Red Sox Dad?” “No son, Boston the City.  Did anyone talk about Boston or the marathon running race?” “No, Dad….Did the Red Sox win last night?” Whew.  Safe again.  I do not need to have THAT tough talk [...]

** this article was just picked up by the GOOD MEN PROJECT!! Cool! http://goodmenproject.com/families/families-the-day-my-son-discovered-bare-naked-ladies/ “The day my son discovered BareNaked Ladies…” There are many milestones in the life of a parent, photo worthy chapters that demonstrate development and progress.  Ninety percent of those are all positive; first steps, first words, first day of kindergarten etc… [...]

“Daddy, they put pickles on my hamburger!” “Daddy, I wanted the red bike with shocks, not this black one…” “Daddy, I can’t even get Wi-Fi here!” “Daddy, this line up isn’t moving at all, Disneyworld sucks…” I find myself saying one line over and over to my children, “Do you know how lucky you are?” [...]

“Your kids are so well behaved…” I heard that magical phrase 6 times on 2 flights last week… I should be proud.  I guess part of me is, but part of me is troubled. (those are not my children in the photo) I heard that phrase from other parents, from older people, flight attendants, and [...]

Dad Vibe Guide to Princesses… We want to raise strong, resilient, confident girls. As a dad, I also want my daughter to be assertive and tough, maybe even a little feisty.   I want her to stand up for herself and make great choices. We, as dads and moms, are the best possible role models available.  [...]

Happy Spring Break everyone!  I have 3 pretty cool announcements in the Dad Vibe realm. 1 –  I am so excited that one of my recent articles was picked up by one of the biggest Dad networks in the US.. the National Fatherhood Initiative – check it out! http://blog.fatherhood.org/bid/174152/Dad-You-are-a-Hero-Period   2 – The 7th Annual [...]

  Moving past “GOOD JOB!!!” Hang around any playground, playgroup, or place where kids are playing and I guarantee you, within 3 minutes you will hear the most common phrase said to children – “GOOD JOB!”      “Good Job!” – The parenting stamp of approval – “yes, I see what you are doing and I [...]

** Inspired by the incredible Dad 2.0 Summit in Houston I attend last week, bringing together the nation’s top writers, bloggers, and speakers on Fatherhood. The meeting and networking synergy of the group was sensational, with all participants exuding the obvious positivity and joy of adding to the involved Father movement.  At the conference, I [...]

The Disposable Dad A family were killing time waiting for a plane.  While the kids played on the germ-infected play structure, mom and dad passed the time playing a somewhat bizarre game of “Would you rather?” about life and possibilities… The wife suddenly asked her husband, “Suppose we are all in a hot air balloon, [...]

Who do you put first?   Your spouse or your kids? Out of the blue, a friend asked me, on New Years Eve of all times, is your relationship with your kids more important than your relationship with your spouse? I immediately answered “YES!” it is as important, then a second later, I said, “NO!” it [...]

Merry Christmas to you and your lucky family! Just to keep things interesting this festive week, I will not be on my usual soapbox; instead I wanted to pass along musical inspiration.   Here is the playlist for your 2013 MIXED Tape – The “Parenting Mixed Tape” you can (and hopefully) will make for inspiration.  The [...]

3 Hardest Words for Dads to say… As a man, I am always right.  Seriously, I am incredible.  And as a father, my way is always the best way and I always make great decisions.  It’s a curse.  But I have recently discovered that I am sometimes wrong and sometimes I make bad choices.  Occasionally, [...]

Which one of your children is your favourite?? I have a goal that one day my parenting thoughts, tips, and blog will reach and impact millions of people – for the right reasons.  I found another blogging dad, that, in one single sentence, has made the national news and angered thousands of parents when he [...]

PART 2 – Last week, we touched on preparing for the months leading up to the greatest day of your life – the birth of your child.  You have done your reading, supported mom, attending all the appointments, enjoyed a hospital tour (if going that route – as more than 95% of all births do) [...]

“What to Expect when she’s Expanding…” **I was asked by a parenting magazine to put together some thoughts to help dads support mom before and after the birth. I realize most of you have already passed this wonderful stage, but I hope you enjoy reading and thinking back to those days – am I accurate?   Can [...]

When I broke my hand being a good father… I have a gnarly scar on my hand that I will proudly wear as a badge of honour.   A scar acquired in the greatest line of duty – being an involved parent. It comes as no surprise that today’s dads endure a lot of physical injury. We [...]

** this article was picked up by The National Fatherhood Initiative! http://blog.fatherhood.org/bid/174152/Dad-You-are-a-Hero-Period Dad, you are a hero. Period. You are a hero until you prove otherwise. From the moment you become dad, you are put on a pedestal– it’s up to you to stay on there. When a child is born, a father is born. [...]

The Wedding Toast Your report card as a DAD… the results are in!! Talk long enough to any new generation dads (or moms), and this line of question seems to always come up, “Am I doing this parenting thing right? Am I doing a good job? There’s no instruction manual… I don’t want to screw [...]

PART 2 – Your Parenting Ego and the Hurried Child “The Dangers of RUSHING your children through their childhood” Last week, I touched on a parent’s ego and how it may affect expectations and parenting decisions.  From the make-up-laden-toddlers in beauty pageants to kids being pushed to live the unrealized dreams of their parents, a [...]

  How does my own EGO affect my parenting expectations? We found out last week that my son was placed in a regular grade 2 class.  There were 3 possible options; a grade 1-2 split class, a regular grade 2 class, and then a grade 2-3 split.   I know the teachers and principal very well [...]

Why not spank? In doing some research for this article, I typed “Spanking” into Google, you would be amazed at what I found.  After about an hour, I finally found some articles that related to parenting.  The act of Spanking, aka corporal punishment, has been used for centuries on children and teenagers.  And I saw [...]

“BRAVE” – Recognizing the 4 Goals of Misbehaviour!  or perhaps a better title should be… “How to be Brave when your child is driving you crazy…”  I want my daughter to be strong… I want my daughter to be assertive… I want my daughter to be a fighter and stand up for herself… But just [...]

What’s your Love Language Baby??? I was recently facilitating one of my favourite Couples workshops, “Sex, Love, and Diapers”, and I had my couples separated into genders and asked each group to use “Sex and Love” in a Sentence… The women’s sentence was poetic: “If you feel loved and valued by your partner, then you [...]

Can children of divorce receive MORE love?      I have a theory… I am directing this theory to all single parents for inspiration, but also to married couples raising their children together – that they never take their precious time with their children for granted. There is a common belief that divorce puts kids at a [...]

No, stop right there – solitary confinement is NOT a good idea for ‘challenging’ kids… Let me explain what Alcatraz taught me about parenting… Back in my feathered mullet days in the early 90s, (okay it was the mid 90s – I was a late bloomer to the mullet lifestyle) I took a trip to San Francisco.  [...]

I try to keep my writing light and interesting, but sometimes I preach.  Today is a preaching day because I came across a very alarming study yesterday… According to this study, many parents spend less than 7 minutes a day in communication with their children.   That is shocking, scary, and terribly alarming!!!  7 MINUTES!!!  I [...]

We are Dads, not Dummies… I am a “Dad Crusader”.  I am constantly on the prowl for ‘dad injustices’ – something that belittles, demeans, or discriminates against my fellow dads. I have sent letters to parenting magazine editors requesting a “Dad’s Corner” to complement the ever popular “Mom-2-Mom” type advice columns (one of the big [...]

NEXT MEETING — WEDNESDAY – MAY 30 – 615 – 745 @ PARKINSON!!  See you there!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“` UPDATE…. May 16 – 2012 We had an enthusiastic group of dads at the first ever Dad Vibe meeting — The excitement has inspired me to put together a bi-monthly dad’s night — the fellas thought twice a month was [...]

Are you raising a Princess or a Pioneer? My beautiful daughter, Jacqueline, is my princess (that is NOT her pictured above ).  Like most fathers, I do sometimes put my daughter on a ‘princess’ pedestal.    However, I do not want to raise a princess.  I want to raise a Pioneer woman. After reading an incredible [...]

I heard this presented at a wedding by the Father of the bride.  I got tremendously inspired.  I wished I had written it myself, but found, through the magic of Google, the original writer to be brilliant man named Steve Goodier.   With apoligies to Steve, I have condensed it here for you — ENJOY!!!   Parable [...]

  The Best Parenting Advice Ever…. 13 Magic Words I love vacuuming.  Seriously I do.  Not only do I love the resulting clean house, but I love the sound of dirt, rocks, dried mud, and whatever else rockets up the hose.  When I vacuum, baby, I go for it.  And my kids know it. So [...]

Great dads are monkeys… Yes, it’s true – Dads are silly buffoons that can make kids laugh like Monkeys at the zoo… but this Dad/Monkey phenomenon goes much deeper than that.   I want to share a theory with you and how it relates to you – the involved dad.  The “100th Monkey” is a theory [...]

Following up my award winning post, “The Dad Vibe’s Top 11 Dad movies of all time”, I did finally see “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” with Tom Hanks last night. This is not my chance to critique the movie and tell how I would have improved it (the Sandra Bullock mother character was brutal) – [...]

From Treehouse to Teletoon BACK to Treehouse… How I won my son’s innocence BACK… I loved Spiderman as a kid… from underoos to pajamas and lunchboxes, I lived and breathed Spiderman.  He was a dude… kind, helpful, and he could shoot cool webs from his wrists.  When my son was born, I hoped he would [...]

All my life, I have aspired to be a man’s man. Wikipedia, which is usually a super accurate source of information, defines a Man’s Man – “a man that is popular among men… an alpha male, a male that others look up to and aspire to be… women want him, and men want to hang [...]

Learning to share… Tying his shoelace… Riding his bike… These are lessons that either mom or dad can teach a young son… But there are some things that only a father can teach his young son.. this is one of those things… There are many rites of passages and life lessons that a father must [...]

Predator on the Playground? My daughter and I were guests in my son’s classroom today. My son and I had made a PowerPoint presentation of our trip to Florida over the March break – we had practiced his presentation the previous night and he was ready to knock it out of the park right before [...]

The RUNNER… Hey Dad, want a quick test of your parenting bond/attachment with your children? Let’s say your child/teen has made a bad choice, broken something, done something stupid etc… which way are they running?  To you or away from you? Are they running away from you?  Running away because you will only make the [...]

Hey Happy Families! It’s BACK!!!!!!    The FATHER DAUGHTER Dance returns!  (our 7th ANNUAL) MAY 6th – 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the Parkinson Recreation Centre More dancing, more games, more fun! For daughters 2-13! (but there really isn’t an upper age limit!  There will be music and fun for ALL ages!) TICKETS RIGHT HERE!!!  [...]

  A measure of self-esteem is the quality of the key relationships in a person’s life – how well they are working for them.  If a child’s self-esteem is low, the first place I would look is the relationship with siblings and mom and dad. Self-esteem is the gas in the engine.  If self esteem [...]

2 STRIKES DAD!!  (a bad 2 hour span in the life of this dad..) Well, Superdad (as I like to think of myself – why not eh?) showed some chinks in the armour yesterday as I made 2 critical errors as dad yesterday.  Many people would not see these as ERRORS, however I do… these [...]

Here is an article I came across on one of my favourite websites.  Thought you might enjoy and benefit from it… Cheers JH MySpace and Facebook Safety, 101 (from www.fatherhood.org) More than half of all youth (ages 12-17) who are on the Internet are on social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook. Chances are, [...]

From the moment she took his arm to walk down the aisle, to their beautifully comfortable Father Daughter Dance, everyone could see their loving bond, I was mesmerized by it. Then in her graceful and confident toast, she proclaimed her father as “the greatest man she has ever known.” I felt like I had been [...]

Leaving your Sleeping child… (aka The recently conked out sleeping child when you have crap to do) Milk, bread, and frozen pizzas for movie night.  That’s all I need.  The backseat has gone strangely quiet… I readjust my rear view mirror… oh, no Jack, Hey Jack!! No sleepy time – Jack, please stay awake…. Jack?  [...]

** This was a piece I wrote for a freelance writing competition last Fall (JH) The anticipation – waiting The anxiety  – fear The excitement – pushing The crying and then life begins… It always starts and ends the same.  A baby.  Born into a family, born into a world, born into a life. The [...]

Is this a Hill I am willing to die on? My 3 year old daughter is a riot to play games with – especially board games.  My parents were just out visiting over Christmas.  Games with grandpa are always a highlight for my daughter.  I peeked in on them playing “Candyland” for at least 45 [...]

There are not many quick fixes for parenting, but I think this little gem is easy and quick and can change things immensely… OKAY? Try to NOT say OKAY at the end sentences when directing your children. Take a day and count the number of times OKAY is mentioned to a child….  here is a [...]