3rd Installment of Bringing Home Baby

For those of my readers I was asked to submit three short posts about my experiences bringing home our second child. Myself and two other fellow Daddys and bloggers wrote short posts for Building Camelot.

The third and last installment of our stories are now posted. Stop over to Tyler’s site at Building Camelot to read. Read the third installment here.

Read the first installment of the series on Bringing Home a Second Baby.

Read the second installment of the series on Bringing Home a Second Baby.

Also check out these other Daddy Blogs for some good reading!

Elliott from 21stcenturydad.com

Chris from Dad of Divas

Why Can’t I Relax?

Guess it’s about time I faced up to the fact that I’m a HIGH STRESS DAD and need an avenue to deal with the tension, stress, exhaustion and other things going on right now. That is why I started this blog, to write away any stresses I may have. When I started out that was my sole intension, then I quickly wanted to write about fun events and other things, probably to avoid my real posts of releasing tension and stress. Well I’m going to have to start being more open on my blog and writing about the events in my life — the way I intended this blog to be in the first place. I’m not going to always write to release stress, but there will be times where I just need to type to calm down.

A Weekend Party (of stress)

Over the weekend my wife, kids and I were all at a party and I couldn’t fully relax and enjoy the day because I was worried that one of my kids were going to fall off the slide; get trampled on while on the moonbounce; or something - anything! I’m always looking for WHAT can happen to my kids and HOW they might hurt themselves rather than just taking a deep breath and heaving a huge sigh and just tell myself, “Jeff, everything will be all right. Kids are very durable, resilient and can take bumps and bruises much better then an adult!”

Read the rest of this entry »

What Do You Do When Your Kid Throws a Whiny Fit?

How many parents have the beginnings of gray hairs due to a whining toddler or preschooler? What causes your child to whine? Why does the sound of whining drive parents crazy? Why do I feel like I’d rather hear someone run their finger nails down a chalkboard right now!?

Battling with a child that constantly whines is no fun — for both the parent and the child. Trying to stop the whining using threats or time outs probably won’t work either, and most likely end up in a screaming match of “BUT I WANT TO!“  And I’m not sure which side (in our house) wins.  Sometimes I have to give in to my 3 1/2 year old son because I just can’t take the constant whining. I know…this only leads to future whining. And I know it does. We just battled it out today with Boo because he wanted to ride his electric 4-wheeler but the battery was dead from the previous day’s riding (and Mommy and Daddy forgot to recharge the battery overnight). Read the rest of this entry »

Diapers To Donuts: A Fathers New Years Resolution

Ok well maybe I need to set a New Years Resolution just like this other Daddy did for his children and for him!  I was Stumbling (www.stumbleupon.com) the web tonight and up pops this site called Diapers to Donuts with the following blog post:

Diapers To Donuts: A Fathers New Years Resolution
This year, I am going to do things a little differently. Well, A LOT differently.

I fear I have become one of THEM – those tired, weary fathers I see making their way home on the train each day. You know who I’m talking about. The ones who like to make jokes about hiding in their basement to watch the football game. Yeah, them.

I don’t want to be one of THOSE guys. I don’t want my children to grow up like Britney Spears, raised by Bratz dolls on some kind of Godless culture where little girls are told to act like supermodels and boys are immersed in countless images of violence while Daddy is busy at work or hiding out watching the game on TV.

This year, when I come home completely exhausted and cranky from a nightmare client meeting to the point that all I want to do is focus on my own sad little problems, instead I’ll focus on you. read more

In reading the full post I looked at how I am, how I am as a Daddy and as a husband.  I’m grouchy, stressed out all the time and probably not a lot of fun to be around when at home.  Outside of my home (I can call it the Quiet Zone) I’m usually pretty relaxed, even the daily stresses at work don’t get me so upset. Maybe it’s our old dog that is always in the way and I’m practically tripping over her.  Maybe I’m grumpy because I don’t get enough sleep (yes, this is probably a major factor — hmmm, it’s 11:37pm right now, probably should be sleeping).  But in the end I just think it’s me. I let the small things stress me out.  Like this weekend, my three year son old crying and whining about not having the right kind of cheese on his crackers…why would that stress me out? It shouldn’t at all!  Or the fact that he and one year old  sister may not share or play nice together.  I guess like the other article, there are WORSE things that could happen to our kids.

I do enjoy the good, fun times with our kids. I really do. And seeing the smile on my son’s face is priceless. It makes me feel so good inside! Just this weekend he nodded off on his car ride back from the store with Mommy and I was going to drive him to fill up a 5 gallon water jug. Just as I got into the SUV (this always happens) he started to wake up. I thought since Mommy was no longer in the car that he would freak out, instead, this HUGE smile came over his face and he squeaked out “Daddy!”  I just smiled and said, “Hey there Buddy!”

It was a warmer than normal January day today and I wanted to get somethings cleaned in the garage and leaves raked up but also wanted to have Boo (my son) outside with me. I asked him if he wanted to ride his tricycle but he saw his scooter. I put his helmet on and watched him ride around the garage and driveway. He almost took a good spill one time but caught himself. I just go numb and paralyzed when I watch him almost fall off the scooter. It just freaks me out.  But he only rode that a few times around and then saw the bigger bike, the two wheeler. I said, “ahhh the big boy bike ok let me help you”. He didn’t refuse this time. At first Boo didn’t know exactly what to do so i was coaching him. I loved this moment and can’t wait until spring when he and I can be out there learning how to peddle. He didn’t want to stay out too long today as he hands were getting cold.

So anyway, I need to bring focus back to the kids and give them all the attention that they need and demand. And let me tell you that probably isn’t all that much. Boo is starting to do a lot more independent play, that’s good, but that also means (now that I think about it) that he’ll soon be wanting to do things with friends and nothing with me. Hmmm….I guess I better think that through and spend all the time now playing trucks, trains, with puzzles (but NOT the princess ones that my wife let him play with), his legos and whatever else.

What part of my resolution needs to be is not trying to push my daddy responsbilities onto someone else like my wife, my parents or tv/dvds for Boo to watch.  He needs to be able to play with me.

Ok, here’s the end of this lengthy post.  this is the type of blog entry I wanted this site to contain. I just never found the time to do this! thanks to the real author on Diapers to Donuts for making me realize what needs to be done!

PS: don’t misread the above, I have spent great quality time with my son. I tend to want to leave the house on the weekends and a few times in the past month I have taken him with me to Target or other errands. That is the special time, the fun time, the Daddy time.  We had an awesome father/son lunch at Red Robin the day after Christmas. It was a good day!!!  (Ok, another resolution better be to go to bed before midnight 4 nights a week! so this post is over at 11:59pm)

How to Be a Good Partner When It Comes to After 9-5 Duties

This is a great article to read (from another blog called brip blap) and comprehend if you are a parent. Now my wife and I have to adjust this article a bit since we are both working and the kids go to day care, but some of these still apply.

Don’t ‘decompress’ for an hour after you get home.

Turn off cellphones and BlackBerries when you get home. 

Those are two of the easiest fixes we can make when we get home after picking up the kids. We need to make a change because right now we are struggle with the comments: “I folded all the laundry”, “But I emptied the dishwasher last time”, “I put the kids to bed everynight”, pretty much whatever we can think up.

So when I landed on this article I thought I should help spread it around and give some ideas to other parents dealing with similar situations.

Read the full article written by Steve on brip blap » how to be a good partner to a stay-at-home spouse