Apr
18
Tonight I am totally shocked and scared.
My son has said a few words that just freaked me out.
And these words were not “shit” and “fuck” — those would have been nice!!!
What he said was “I’ll cut you in half” and “I’ll kill you” during his “no-nap, long-day-running-around meltdown” from 7:30-8pm tonight. And he was saying that directly at his sister since he wanted Mommy to put him to bed. My wife heard him say that an immediately asked him where he heard such words. His response, “[name removed] from Pre-K2 at school.”
Great!!!
Well the unnamed child is the same one that less than a year ago was talking about guns and stuff — and he was only 3 years old then! This is going to be A PROBLEM! And one that I am addressing with my child’s daycare immediately via email to the Director as well as on Monday morning with a phone call or face to face. Something like this needs to be addressed immediately by the school and a resolution to the issue by removal of the problem student and any siblings. Harsh? No, not at all…it’s a private daycare, one where I’m paying $1200 for both kids to attend. This situation calls for an immediate and appropriate response from the school’s director. If not, then I’ll have to go to the corporate office for satisfactory resolution….which in my mind is the immediate removal of the problem child.
Not only were these words just awful to hear…I also find out that the same child is making all of the boys in the pre-K room speak like robots or people with traceotomy tubes. Ok that isn’t anywhere near as bad as cutting someone in half, but still it’s an annoyance I, and my son, don’t need. My wife learned about the annoying voices while at soccer practice today. There is a child in the earlier soccer class, and that goes to my son’s same daycare, that came up and said hi to my son in that weird voice. My wife looked and said to the other child’s mom, “Your son does that too!??” And the mom said, “YES! It’s annoying and he’s learned it from another boy in his daycare class”…ends up being the same child that is alleged to have said the bad words and phrases.
Anyway…Over the past two weeks my wife and I noticed that our son just didn’t seem himself at daycare/school. I even emailed his teacher directly to ask her if everything was ok. She replied and said everything seemed to be ok and that my son was playing with all of his friends like normal. For all of you…my son is very affectionate, caring and considerate and while talking with my wife before writing this post we think our son was acting the way he was because of things going on at school. He knows not to say bad words and stuff and if he was hearing those things he might have felt out of place and unsure of what to do.
My wife finally got my son to calm down and like I said, he told us where and from whom he heard “cut you in half” (just say that like 3x to yourself and think about those words coming from your child’s mouth) it’s sickening. He’s never said anything bad like that.
Do any of you [other parents] reading this have any advice for me? Do you have children in daycare and pre-k that are learning inappropriate phrases or behaviors? I’m not sure what to do?!? Any thoughts?
About MeI'm a husband and father of two children, a son (2004) a daughter (2006). I try to find humor in everything my kids do and therefore blog about those situations.
Mar
26
Awesome contest over at Dad-Blogs.com where they’ve teamed up with Kid Creations to giveaway a kick-ass wooden swingset / playset to one lucky family (living in Chester County, PA). Oh please let it be me! Otherwise I have the long, drawn-out task this spring to build a playset for my kids. We already have 2 slides, the rock wall, but NO wood…like as in NO actual tower, landing, and swing bar. I guess I could always find a low hanging branch and bungee the rock wall and slide to it.
Does that work??? Hmm, probably not safe, eh?
So if I don’t win the playset then there goes 7 minutes 38 seconds of each weekend to build one! My wife WANTS me to do projects like finishing my basement, or “hey honey MOVE that plant from there to here…no the OTHER here!”, and “can you plant me a garden”, and oh I forgot…”you can’t do this stuff during the day!” So….my kids will be 22 years old by the time I’m done and wondering why the Hell I built them a swing/play set!!
Anyway, Kid Creations is a manufacturer of wooden swing sets and accessories and located smack-dab in the middle of the US, as in Kansas. Good for shipping to the east and west, I guess. Which is perfect for shipping down Interstate 70 or whatever road is close by.
In any event, what a kick-ass contest to be running in time for spring and summer fun, barbeques, playdates, my annual Autumn Pig Roast, etc.
Why Kids Love Swingsets and my time as a kid
I’m not sure why all kids LOVE swingsets but they do. “PUSH ME!!!!!” “No!!!! Not that fast!” “Faster!!!!” oh sorry, i had a relapse back to a few nights ago… Well I might have an idea as to why they love it. When your kids are young they enjoy having Mommy and Daddy there with them, pushing, pulling and laughing with them. As kids grow up a swing set could be a way to boost a little confidence…i.e, jumping off at eight feet high!
I know when I was a kid we had one of those old Rusty-Pole-with-Metal-Chainlink-Swings swingset. We also had some rickety old metal-tetinus-causing jungle gym to climb on. But guess what? My friends and I loved it! Wherelse do kids learn to be afraid of heights? haha…I am and it’s probably because I used to swing fast and high and then jump off. Who didn’t!?
Ok, wow, I was just going to write a short paragraph about all of this, but then my fingers just kept typing and I got to remember my youth! cool! time to get some sleep.
About MeI'm a husband and father of two children, a son (2004) a daughter (2006). I try to find humor in everything my kids do and therefore blog about those situations.
Mar
12
Ha! I wish I meant that kind of “lucky night” (i.e., Business Time - watch video)…but unfortunately my lucky night isn’t about having sex…it’s about the evening I get to spend alone with my wife. Usually once a week my parents (mama and papa) take both kids for the night - picking them up from preschool and dropping them off the next morning. Do I miss my kids??? Not really…well of course I miss them…but I also love the fact that I get to spend alone time with my wife to talk about things, grab a nice dinner alone, and tackle house chores and projects that can’t get done when all four of us are home.
As for our kids, well they really do love going to Mama and Papa’s house (15 minutes away) and playing, watching movies, eating popcorn, getting a fun bath, you name it — they like it. And so do my folks! Sure, my wife and I are probably spoiled because we have my parents around to watch the kids one night a week — no…we are spoiled and WE LOVE IT!
For instance, tonight…my wife and I hit Wegmans (food store) after work to get food for the rest of the week and weekend. Then we hit Victory Brewing Company, Downingtown, PA for a good meal and beers, we had the Abbey 6 ale. Truly amazing ale! After dinner it was time to head home where we got to do our ‘own’ thing and then off to bed…yeah, I know, I’m lame and posting this from my bed right now while my wife is sleeping.
Ok, I know what some of you will say…but having two kids, sure takes the “energy” out of us and even on our alone nights we spend the time talking about us or fun things. Sometimes we even catch up on missed shows on the DVR.
About MeI'm a husband and father of two children, a son (2004) a daughter (2006). I try to find humor in everything my kids do and therefore blog about those situations.
Feb
24
B R E A K I N G N E W S ! ! !
[Candyland, 2/12/2009] It looks like tonight that Mr. Mint and Gramma Nutt have finally been caught. What crime did they commit? Let’s just say they were in the wrong place when cops raided Gum Drop Mountain after an anonymous tip.
In parenting terms…I gave my children’s Candyland game a time-out.
Why you may ask?
Well because it was getting late in the evening and we were all playing a quiet game of Candyland. My wife usually “stacks the deck” in favor of our kids and lets them draw the cards with the candycane, gumdrop, gingerbread man, etc. Well for whatever reason — I drew a pretty sweet card and traveled the the front of the pack, at least 20 spaces in front of my 4 year old son. Well……….
Tip #337 of the Parenting Guide - Let you Kids Win
With the combo of being 10 minutes from bed time, me going halfway to the finish line (in front of my son), that just made my son just lose it. He said, “I don’t want to play anymore, I NEVER want to play again!” Of course, those words were just that — words. But he pushed all the pieces off the board and I just about had it and therefore took the game and stuck it on the top of our canopy bed frame. In a time-out!
“HAH!!! that’ll teach you,” I thought with a smug look on my face. Well did it work?
50/50 I would say. Of course, I actually felt like I got my point across to him. He was saying sorry about 100x at Formula 1 speeds - he does that when he knows he’s wrong and my wife and I are going to take something away or not allow him to do something as a form of punishment. He knew that he did something wrong, but he was just over tired and couldn’t think it through.
Sure, I was being a hard-ass Dad, but i just needed to do this. My son is NOT the type of kid that does well in time-out (himself) so i resorted to removing the game from the child. I read that somewhere a year or so ago, ’stick the game or toy into timeout has good results’ (I’ll have to dig up that article again).
My son one that can be talked down from his rants and rages by my wife -God bless her! She is really good at talking to him and making him understand what happened, why he was in trouble, and in this case, why the game was in time out on top of our bed frame!
I guess my point is this: Parents, choose wisely on what you punish for and how you punish. Maybe I went a little overboard on this one…but I still think he learned from it.
We’ve yet to play Candyland again.
About MeI'm a husband and father of two children, a son (2004) a daughter (2006). I try to find humor in everything my kids do and therefore blog about those situations.
Feb
20
I just learned of this site tonight, Dad-Blogs.com, a new, freakin’-awesome site for us Dads! Dad Blogs is a site based on the vision of two dads, Joe Schatz (author of Joeprah) and Pete Janelle (a.k.a peteej from My GPS Camera Phone). Thanks guys for for getting this site off the ground!
First Impressions
I just joined and am very impressed by the layout, the interaction and how simple the site is to navigate and find groups, participate in forums, find buds (friends), write reviews on movies, beer/wine and much more. I can’t wait to actually be more awake to dive in and see who else had joined and what groups are out there.
Shit, this site has it all for us Dads!
Gotta Love the Posts!
Just to get you started…here are two of my (or soon to be) favorite posts. I’m going to have to read, re-read, share, and explain myself to my wife.
Top 6 Things Not to do if you want More Sex with your Wife
…and another post that I NEED to learn from
Parental Cursing Could Become a Child’s Habit, No Sh*t
Ok, so here is a snapshot of my profile to give you an idea of what the site looks like.
Another sweet aspect of the site is that I joined the group for BEER DADS, where we can chat about the beers we all enjoy and so badly need at night. There is even an event scheduled for tonight, 2/20 9pm to chat. I’m hoping I can make it!
Well, enough babble from me…if you haven’t yet checked out Dad-Blogs.com, do it now.
Also, stop over to Building Camelot, where author Tyler, wrote his review on Dad-Blogs.
About MeI'm a husband and father of two children, a son (2004) a daughter (2006). I try to find humor in everything my kids do and therefore blog about those situations.
Feb
10
Are you looking for something fun to do with your kids this weekend for an hour or so? Didn’t get your wife anything for Valentine’s Day? No worries…here is a great solution to both! (Image from RunnerJenny on Flickr)
Why not participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count? Yeah, that’s right, sit by your window or journey onto your deck (if it’s fairly warm) and count some birds. While counting have your kids draw some pictures of birds and slap some hearts on it. Give that to Mommy as a Valentine’s Day card.
I receive an email from Green Daily and the post was in today’s feed.
If you enjoy birdwatching or even just need a good reason to get outside, consider the Great Backyard Bird Count which takes place February 13-16. In the midst of the Valentine plans for the weekend, take a few minutes to look for some birds.
Read the full article “The Great Backyard Bird Count Coming This Weekend“
By counting the birds, you’ll be teaching your children about nature and possibly how birds migrate — and if your kids are 4 and 2 yo like mine, you can teach them to count and learn their colors. Have them count the birds on the ground, the birds in trees, and even the birds flying. Try to determine which bird is bigger than the others. By doing all of this and interacting with them you may spark an interest in nature in your child which I always think is a good thing! I’ve done similar nature activities with my kids last fall…when I took them on a “nature hike” in our backyard. We looked for bunnies and I even showed them “where the bunnies live”. It was just a brush pile in the woods behind our house. But they sure thought the bunnies lived there — in that EXACT spot.
So if the weather is nice in your neck of the woods…why not get outside, breathe the fresh air and teach your kids a little bit about the birds and the bees…well there won’t be any bees in my area yet…whew! I can hold off on that conversation for a long time!
About MeI'm a husband and father of two children, a son (2004) a daughter (2006). I try to find humor in everything my kids do and therefore blog about those situations.
Feb
07
Good God, kids have so much energy. They don’t stop moving, squirming, or fussing. And mostly, they never tire out and want to fall asleep at night. If you don’t know, my children are 4 and 2 1/2…so you know how things are going if you have similar ages.
Right, hectic at times!
I need to write tonight (now this morning). I think it helps me deal with the struggles I go through with my “Groundhog’s Day” life. Same thing day in and day out. Same mornings, same evenings, same old thing.
Ah, the beautiful morning…la la la LA la la laaaaaa!
Ok let’s start with the morning. It’s 5:45am and my son decides for some crazy reason that he is”bored” in bed and wants needs to wake up. Who’s name gets screamed? “MOOOMMMYYYY!!!!!”. Who has to go in to his room? RIGHT! The author of this post, me, Daddy! I’m not going to ask “why is that?” because it won’t do any good. It’s been that way for over 4 years. My wife just loves to sleep. I an early bird (and night owl), probably why my kids are so messed up with sleeping.
At least lately I’ve been having my son stay in bed until 6am despite his concerns that he thinks it is boring. GOOD! I want it to be boring. I am also having him color pictures which he loves to do, which makes him stay in his bedroom (I’m in here now typing this). And right now I’m thinking that after his pictures we’ll go downstairs and do ‘adult things’ like fold the laundry. He’s going to love that? Who cares! It’s a morning adult task — and those are what Mommy and Daddy do when we wake up in the morning. I will refuse to turn on the TV like I’ve done many times in the past. He just needs to learn to sleep in until 6:30am at least. Without sleeping in my son gets tired in the afternoon, his “batteries” wear out and takes refuses to nap at home on the weekends. This has an ill effect on our evening and bedtime routine. He is sometimes a real bear to get to bed, going into a meltdown just after dinner. So parents beware, kids NEED to nap/rest on the weekends. Or at least have quiet alone time, time to recharge. Definitely makes the night time more fun for all. (because lately I have zero patience for meltdowns and whining).
Ok so that was my mornings…now let’s learn about my evenings.
Our kids both attend a great daycare school and he pick them up around 5:30pm and therefore get home around 6pm. Yeah, it’s not the most ideal situation, but we’ve gotta work and that’s just how it is. We’ve accepted it. So by 6pm, they are usually hungry, sometimes a little snack in the car helps with the hunger pangs. Sometimes nothing helps and that hunger turns to them arguing. They BOTH want the attention of either Mommy or myself, whomever picked them up from school. Ok, that is natural for them to want to share their day with us. I love to hear it too! But not both at the same time. Recall, ages 4 and 2 1/2…so the battle between then ensues and my head is ready to explode. Yesterday I had enough and just cranked the music up in the car — and I mean loud! It was the Cha Cha Slide song. They both love to listen to it and try to stomp their feet while strapped into the car seat. Of course the song only helped for so long. Soon after the next song came on, my son’s new favorite (Beautiful Girls buy Sean Kingston — don’t ask…he must like the beat…) things went bad, fast! My daughter started to sing along but didn’t get the words right…so that made my son go ballistic. I had to pull over and stop. That didn’t help. I had to get out of the car. That didn’t help. I then (honest to God) smacked his cheek very lightly to get him to stop. It did. He was being extremely disrespectful to me at that moment and it’s been a thing of his to yell at mommy and me when he’s upset. Anyway, I feel bad for doing that but I need a way for him to learn he cannot CONTROL us and I know that i need at way to not let his control me or my wife. Otherwise I’ll be crazy in 9 years when he’s a teenager!!
Ok, we’re home and I need a beer. Dinner was good and bathtime was good. Good!!! Earlier crisis forgotten.
Bedtime, yay!!
Noooo. Bedtime battle! I typically put my daughter to bed which was always an easy task until about 2 months ago. She’s starting to not want us to leave the room. Yeah, I know…that is common for 2 year olds and up. They start to realize we are not there in their room. But why does she cry??? Let’s investigate.
Does she seem afraid?
Heck no! My daughter says to me with a laugh, “Monster get my toes…better cover up!” So what do you think? Afraid? No way…just a stall tactic. I won’t be fooled.
Is she screaming to get attention?
DEFINITELY!!! Even after a bath and fun times asking about her day and then 3 books, she still wants “One more book”. If I hear that “One more time” I’m gonna freak out. Now wait….I’m not being a grumpy old Daddy. I’m being reasonable. I’ve tried the “one more book” sob story many nights…and it turns into my reading her what equates to a whole shelf of books and lasting until 9pm.
So my thing is to enjoy about 30 minutes with her and then read three books, whichever books she wants. I try to read the last book in her bed, the others I read on the floor or chair. Then I let her pick a song for me to sing, like “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, “Baa Baa Black Sheep”, or “ABC’s“. Of course, last night I got half one through Baa Baa and she switched to ABCs. I just kept going with the flow and made a longer medley of songs. This is her way of keeping me in the room longer.
But after repeated warnings of “Daddy is going to bed now” I finally stand by the door as she’s crying out my name and slip out with a “Goodnight Sweetie, I’ll see you in the morning”. I then stand outside the door for a few minutes and soon the crying becomes wimpers and then nothing. I’ve peaked in after 10 minutes to sometimes find her sound asleep and other times she is still up reading books to her stuffed animals. I don’t mind if she is reading until 9pm. It’s good for her to learn to fall asleep on her own. My wife and I messed up with our older son, he still needs us to stay in his room. Things are getting better with that…some day things will be all good.
I found the below information on FamilyEducation.com:
Now, what about the screaming? Is she tired? Since she falls asleep in five minutes, it seems unlikely that her screaming is because she is not tired. To encourage a regular sleep pattern, try waking her at the same time each morning. At this age, one afternoon nap of no more than two hours should be sufficient.
If you stay in her room or extend her bedtime ritual, she interprets her screaming as successful. It would be better to leave the room and ignore her crying (though it may get worse before it gets better). (From Family Education web site)
Closing
I write my true feelings to share with others. If I did something bad I’ll mention it. Sure, I try to find humor in what I write, but this stuff is real. If you’re a new parent I want to give you my issues, my fun stories, and any ammunition you may need to battle similar situations that I’m facing. Good luck to all the Dads out there.
If you have similar situations let me know. I could also use some help from time to time and appreciate your comments and feedback.
About MeI'm a husband and father of two children, a son (2004) a daughter (2006). I try to find humor in everything my kids do and therefore blog about those situations.
Jan
21
How many of you are from families where both parents work?
How about just one parent that works?
Well in our family, both Mommy and I work, and we work hard during our 9 hour day away from the kids — they both go to school/daycare. Mommy has a little longer of a commute (30 mins from work to daycare) and therefore a little more “transition time” from work life to home life. Me on the other hand work minutes from our kid’s daycare — and I used to be the primary parent for evening pick up — giving me like 3 minutes to destress from a busy day at work to both kids so excited to see me. Sure it’s awesome to have them excited to see me…but I was always experiencing both of them trying to talk over one another, tell me about their day, and just trying to fight for my attention.
My attention? How could I pay attention to them with only 3 minutes of downtime from work? I try and I try and I never seem to be able to do that.
Well lately my wife, the saint that she is, has been picking up the kids and I’ve been heading home directly from work. I get home around 5:30pm and take care of the kitchen. Some nights it’s emptying the dishwasher, others it’s just cleaning up the bomb that went off from the morning!! Shit everywhere! And sometimes I might just do nothing — just to relax. I need to relax! I’m a high stress individual , not a good mix for a 4 and 2 year old right now. (I’ve written about that before…and probably write more on that subject again!)
Finding the time to relax and enjoy playtime
So…as I was typing. I’ve been heading home before the rest of the family. Take tonight for example. I left work at 5:10pm and stopped off at ACME (food store) to grab a few things for a salad (it was eat lite night) and return a RedBox movie rental (My Best Friend’s Girlfriend - or something like that). So by the time I got home it was 5:40pm. Not too bad — I had 30 minutes of transitioning from work to home (the drive is usually 15 minutes). I felt good when I got home!
What Worked
Having dinner almost ready when the rest of the family arrived home made all of us more relaxed. No more last minute running around the kitchen like a one man chef at a busy restaurant. No…it was rather peaceful. The whole night was peaceful.
I had the kid’s dinners ready, food on plate, milk in cups, napkins, forks and spoons for them. Then i prepped a simple salad of baby spinach, feta and sunflower seeds for my wife and I. Poured her a glass of Shiraz and I enjoyed 2 Heinekin Lights. (It was eat lite night).
I did not yell tonight! That might be the first night in like months I didn’t have to raise my voice! It was a great feeling. And I could tell that my son really liked that. He would say, “I Love you Daddy!”
So after dinner he and I went into his playroom and created a pretty kick-butt GEOTRAX train layout. He was so excited that I went in and ASKED him to play trains with me. I usually try to clean up and do house stuff so my wife and I don’t have to do that once the kids are asleep. We do need our own time as well. But she packed lunches and cleaned up while the kids and I played.
The Best Night Ever
Well at least tonight ranks up there in Top 5 nights for me. There was absolutely NO WHINING! That’s right. No Whining at our house! Or none that I remember, so that’s good. Took my son up to bed and read him 3 books. He kept saying he had fun with the trains and than he loved me. That sure makes me feel good and I do feel good about it! I made his night!! and he made mine!
Now I just have to remember to stay calm and continue this!
About MeI'm a husband and father of two children, a son (2004) a daughter (2006). I try to find humor in everything my kids do and therefore blog about those situations.
Jan
14
ahem…ladies and gentlemen…
I am back tonight from a few weeks off from blogging. I am not sure where my nights have gone lately. Oh, that’s right…my Dad had bought me the first season of The Wire (HBO) and I watched 2-3 episodes a night for little over a week. Well anyway, here I am trying to jumpstart my blogging again. I find it relaxing and fun. Sometimes stressful when trying to think up new topics.
Well tonight was easy. My son helped me think of it. Actually, he didn’t help think of it, he just gave me the idea from a very cute thing he said…”Daddy, Bears eat honey!”
Huh?
Yeah, that’s what I thought. What does he mean?? Then it struck me….I had asked him if he would like to try a spoonful of honey to help soothe his nagging cough. And again his response was “Bears eat honey!”
See…it makes sense. He’s four. He reads books with bears. Bears that eat honey. Just like Winnie the Pooh. And the same reason the image I chose for this post is a honey bear. Those poor bees…they get no credit. I’ve never seen a BEE-SHAPED honey container.
So anyway, I thought it was cute what my son said and wanted to share that with everyone. Also, here is a post I wrote back in March 2008 about the same thing…the Nighttime Coughing.
By the way, all is quiet in the bedrooms. Guess the humidifer, vapor rub, a little bit of honey and his grape lollipop worked!
Disclaimer: there is no scientific proof that a lollipop helps soothe a nighttime cough…but holy crap I think it worked!!
Also I grabbed the image from Carlisle Honey, check out their site.
About MeI'm a husband and father of two children, a son (2004) a daughter (2006). I try to find humor in everything my kids do and therefore blog about those situations.
Dec
31
Wow this wagon is pretty sweet! Look at it!! It is the latest from Radio Flyer… the Cloud 9. I bet it is like being on “cloud 9″ with the bucket seats, MP3 player, 5-point racing harness, and that’s not all! Parents can also track temperature, time, distance and speed all using a digital handle. That is insane! But at the same time, really cool! I would have liked to have seen a motor for helping to pull up hills! And where is the hidden beer cooler for sneaking into parks and beaches… haha.
Read the Full article on Gizmodo.com
About MeI'm a husband and father of two children, a son (2004) a daughter (2006). I try to find humor in everything my kids do and therefore blog about those situations.
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