What you think does matter

Parenting Advice: Build your children’s self esteem with Rap Music? Here is a "Parenting Advice" and "Parenting tip" - It’s a bit unorthodox so hear me out. I used a little Nelly rap song to teach my child [ daughter ] to build her self esteem. " I am #1, 2 is not a winner and 3 no one remembers… What does it take to be #1 - hey, hey, hey ..." This method of “Parenting advice” may sound a bit off, but please - give me some time to completely explain my madness. I know most people hear the words “Rap music” and they think - degrading, thug, junk... So how did I teach my daughter about having good self esteem with a rap song? Well, one day I heard this song and it was so catchy - I spent days humming the chorus and singing the chorus to myself. I just couldn’t get it out of my head. Then came a conversation with my wife - she was expressing her concern over our daughters “shyness” and her fear that our daughter may have low self esteem. So an Idea

Marriage is like a boxing Match In the immortal words of Forrest Gump’s Mama : “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get”. And this is so true, Life is always a surprise and as I contemplate the meaning of Life, I can not help but ponder the comparison I see in a marriage and a Boxing match.... Maybe it’s me or maybe lack of sleep - but think about it. After having one of those [ what the hell were we fighting about ] bouts with my wife, I came up with the comparison of marriage and a boxing match. Indulge me as I show my reasoning: Marriage - compared to - a Boxing match You get married ---- you agree to clash You have disagreements --- you come to disagree You fight --- you throw blows You fight several times --- several rounds to fight You quickly change topics --- you dodge and weave You get hurt --- you get the snot beat out of you You choose your battles --- you choose your punches You bite back --- you bite an ear off [ learned that fr

Curbing Child tantrums Question: how do you deal with your childr's disruptive temper tantrums? Parents TV weighs in [ see video below ] Look, maybe I'm old school - hell, I am old school. Want to know how I deal with children’s tantrums - "Corporal Punishment".. That’s right - I said it. I know, your shocked, surprised, appalled - oh my. Look, I am not talking about abuse or child endangerment - I'm talking about punishing your child. Depending on what age my child is and his/her mental capacity [ meaning if it hurts him more to take away the x-box than a spanking - take the x-box away ]. And ofcourse if your child leans towards talking fine talk - but. I mean but, never forget your child is a child and will do things to test your limits and it will require you to punish that child in a corporal manner [ spanking ]. Let me give you an example: My father-in-law has this story. He tells me that when his youngest daughter was very small he asked her to do something

Don’t try to grow up so Fast! I tell my daughter all the time - "don’t worry about growing up, that will happen. Enjoy being a child now, because when you do get old [ grow up ] you’ll wish you were a kid again". This leads me to a conversation I walked in on with my daughter and wife. I walk into the kitchen and bang the conversation stops [ clear sign I should get involved ]. So after poking my nose in - I find out that my eleven year old girl wants to "shave her legs" - so first I get defensive and ask why and throw in a "your too young". Then I get logical - I break it down for her with a series of questions: How old are you? Who are you trying to impress? Are you a model? Are you going somewhere other than school? What hair on your legs? [ still has thin small almost invisible baby hair. ] I told her look, I can’t see any hair to shave and if you start shaving now, the norm is that your baby hair will grow in thicker and then you will need to shave. S

? ? ? Honey what’s that Smell? So here we are watching TV and the kids are doing what they always do [ argue about something trivial ] and this weird smell hits me. It just seemed to fill the air. I didn’t notice it before so I was a bit confused - ofcourse at first I thought someone let one rip [ you know, silent but deadly ]. After much debate [ it was daddy, no mommy, no Isaac, oh that smell...] we soon realized it was coming from that small little creature called general. Our visitor was starting to smell, it’s normal after all he is a dog [ literally ]. So the time came for my wife to give her first "doggy bath". Hey that’s what you have to do if you have a dog. I expected this to be a disaster, a real nightmare - but it turned out to be a mild inconvenience.. The dog was no trouble at all, my wife on the other hand was acting like the dog was a new born baby and she was a first time mother. Can I do this, will this hurt him, is it the right soap... On and on.... it’s

A lesson in Humility from a King. I am sure we've all done it, I know I have. You sit there upset because you know you deserve better. In fact you expect better - after all - your special. My kids do it all the time - they act like things are a given - they forget and I occasionally have to remind them that my love for them does not make them deserving of everything. You still have to work for things and you can't get everything you want. But I ran across this news video [ posted below - excuse the ad ] - it reports on this African King who is in New York and he drives a bus. Unlike the Eddie Murphy movie "coming to America" he isn't rich - but he is humble. He doesn't want people to know that he is a King. In fact he is here working hard to help 20,000 people that live in his tiny kingdom village - he's trying to build a well for drinking water. Which surprised me. You see, my first thought was - hey a bus driver who learns he's a king - boy he has it

Oh look out generals back!! Well, guess whose back? Yep that little dog with the big name "general". General is cool but he just has a weird effect on my family. My wife treats him like a baby, probably gives him more attention than me. My daughter - she treats him like a china doll - afraid that everything will hurt the dog. look out here, look out with the dog... no he'll get hurt... leave the dog alone Isaac.. My son is the funniest of them all - this kid of mine spends most of his time calling general to him only to run in fear when general comes near him. It only gets worst in the morning when my wife lets the dog loose, my son does not want an excited pup jumping on him at six thirty in the morning - lord help me. Don't let these pictures fool you - it takes all the nerve my son can muster just to be this close without getting hysterical... Well, general is going to be here for a while [ helping out a friend ] so I better get use to the insanity. Look at me...

Teaching my child the meaning of true friendship? Ok, so my little girl is not so little, after all she’s eleven years old. According to her she’s a pre-teen [ whoopee doodad ]. The problem is that she is to nice for her own good. I don’t think she’s naive or gullible - just innocent. She has this one friend who only seems to want her around when she has no one else- you know the type. The so called friend who doesn’t know you exist until she has no one else to call. It’s bad enough that when she is interested in communicating with my daughter - she calls three or four times a day. They cackle on the phone for ever - But when she has a new “new best friend” - poof, you don’t hear a peep from this girl. It’s the kind of person I call friend but really consider them an acquaintance. Maybe I’m being over protective, or maybe I want my little girl not to be so blind. I guess it’s one of those things kids have to learn on their own - child, pre-teen or teenager and in some cases - adults. W

The end of the first week of school and his 1st report. If my son is enjoying school, he sure isn’t letting on. I ask him everyday the same question after I pick him up from school. How was school? What did you learn? What is your teachers name? Have you made any friends? What is his response - nothing! The most I get out of the boy is that he eats "coconut cookies" for snack time - whoopee... Ofcourse he has found time to tell his mom that he has made 2 friends at school and has been playing games at school. I finally received his "end of week" school report. I am glad to see that he has a good report on behavior and work habits. I was afraid he was going to run the teacher ragged since he can’t stay still at home. But I am a bit confused with why they have “ability to open and close door” as one of his study units???? I get the games that use grouping and identifying items. I understand using games and play to teach kids their numbers and alphabets… but "abi

What do you do when your facing down possible hurricane It’s been about three or four years since several Hurricanes came thru our town and brought a stop to the belief that people were safe inland. So when the reports came in that tropical storm “fay” was projected to become a level 1 hurricane - lets just say some people went bonkers. I’m glad it didn’t turn out as bad as it was predicted - but there has been a lot of damage, especially flood damage around all parts of Florida. We did our part to get ready for the storm after that we just had to sit and wait. So what do you do while you wait for the worst and try to keep your family calm? Here is what I did: Watched chicken little movie with family Played black jack with kiki Played uno w/ kiki Played with my son Ate dinner together - early just in case Relaxed as son played in shower and daughter played her DS Played battleship w/ kiki Talk with wife and helped clean up [ she always clean when nervous] Relax as waiting for next “fay

First Day of school - first trip of this school year. I don’t know what was worst - being all torn up and trying to be tough or watching my little boys eyes well up with tears as we left him at school all alone. Well not alone - but with out us. I’m sure by now he has a friend and doesn’t remember we exist. It was a hard day for the wife - little girl in middle school [jr high] and little boy starting school - driving her to school was tough - she’s holding back the tears and I’m trying to be strong. Imagine if we both would have broken down..... Here I am - alone at home thinking of when I have to pick him up. Who knew I would miss him so much. Man that kid has me all messed up. Excited but always playing Little girl - first day of Jr High [ middle school ] Have to look good you know - my kids......

It’s a dark day at my house, the first day of Pre-K school is this Monday and today we had to take my four year old son to his school orientation. Getting the family ready today was hectic and probably an indication that everyday from here on forward will be the same. Personally I’m torn - I want my boy to grow up and all that - yet I want him to stay my little man. My buddy I spend my days with. My partner in fighting crime [ or more like committing crimes against my wife wishes.... ] First it was the shock of having my baby girl turn eleven and starting jr high [ here it’s called ‘middle school’ ]. Now I’m faced with my little guy starting school and it’s a bit too much to handle. I know - your thinking I should be celebrating - wee their off to school - I get a break.... But maybe I’m just weird that way. Tell me, who really wants their kids to grow up and face the inevitable that they will leave you and worst - that your growing old. First it’s the first day of school, then they wa

In poor taste? My significant other saw a video clip [ part of a video ] I was creating and said that it was done in “poor taste” on my part. Well, I’ll let you be the judge of the complete work. The goal behind this video was to help me talk about the “Effects Movies can have on children”. You see, we let our kids watch just about anything on TV, videos, internet or in the movies. I don’t mean you personally or I myself - I personally try very hard to shield my kids from a lot of programming on TV. But I will admit that America as a whole - parents don’t really concern themselves with what their kids watch. I also admit that there are times I let them watch things they really shouldn’t. Not because it’s bad but because it can effect them adversely. I know this will sound silly and it’s embarrassing to me - but I a grown adult can’t seem to take a shower or use the bathroom without wondering if someone is just on the other side of that shower curtain. Really, Psycho [ Hitchcock's o

Kids are kids and I know from my experiences of my youth that kids are attracted to dumb things. But as a parent, I just wish my kids would do more than watch things like Sponge bob and Some of these dumb silly cartoons. Not that my kinds turn into vegetables or coach potatoes during the summer. My little has done a lot to improve her math skills over this summer - but she seems drawn to [ what I call - dumb cartoons]. I remember when all she watched was animal planet, Emerald Leggasse and other constructive and educational programming. But sometimes - even the kids in me over whelms the adult in me. I walked into my room yesterday and found my daughter and son singing and dancing to this video and I instinctively joined in on the dance craze. I’m such a bad parent….. LOL The Hippo video

I hear people talk about how video games are a bad influence on our children. And I am starting to wonder if they are right. I think my 4 year old son has a problem - atleast with video games. He woke up this morning and asked me one thing - “Can I play now?” Looking at this photo - I'm wondering if he wasn't sleep walking - boy does this kid have it bad for video games.

It's amazing what children will do when your not watching them..... Here I am doing some work on the computer and taking phone calls - and I notice that my kids are quite - way to quite. so like any good parent i raise my antenna and I hear them whispering and getting things from their rooms. So being the nosey parent that I am - I went to check on them. I don't know about your kids, but it's amazing what crazy ideas pop into my kids head..........

If you stay still - I can still see you That's not a manly hat - it's not even a mans hat..... Are you looking at me?

I can’t believe what I just said - I think I had a brain fart. “Go watch TV or I’m going to hit you!” Did I just say that? I can’t believe this. I know I said this because I wanted my son to watch some educational television and yes I was in the middle of something and found it easy to just send him to watch TV. But it hit me after I said it - I was going to hit him if he “didn’t watch TV“ ??? Boy does that sound wrong in so many levels. I hear people talk like if the television is a baby sitter and how others believe TV is bad for kids [ too much tv that is ]. But in this case - I just wanted him to take time to learn. I have always made it a habit to have him watch educational television in the morning because #1 - I want him to learn and #2 - after a certain time there is nothing very educational after 12 noon. So I got a bit frustrated because he’s been watching “junk” tv with his sister and I wanted to make sure he got in the educational stuff like sesame street, Dora, Diego, Arth

You know as a parent, you concern yourself with a lot of things. You think - money may be tight but I want my kids to have fun. I can do without - but my kids shouldn't have too. So with this in mind, I tried to create a fun week end for the kids. I invited my wife's 15 year old cousin [ you know so it's not just the kids playing ]. I rented a movie, planned a barbeque for Saturday. I planned on waking up very early on Saturday to mow the lawn, clean up and get the pool cleaned - and ofcourse prepare the grill. i wanted to do it all - so my wife could also just enjoy the day. So What happened... Well, after my wife picked up her cousin - everything did not go as planned. No one watched the movie - to busy ... ended up watching my regular Friday night shows that I was willing to give up on [ lucky me ]. Then we went to bed - or so i thought... Apparently my daughter and my wife’s cousin decided to stay up till two in the morning watching TV - and they also decided to sleep

Enjoy today, remember it - don’t take it for granted A while back I wrote a post on how " I hate the Hypocrisy of fathers day " - because of all the hypocrisy there is involved in these special days. So I thought I would expand on that thought today. You know, sometime we go thru a lot to make someone happy, feel special or just make their day comfortable. But what often happens is expectations are too high and most people either ignore, overlook or simply take for granted what they have and are given. Take for instance yesterday. I’m no big cook, but I decided I was going to make the best dinner I could [ ofcourse I was making ribs my favorite so I wanted the best... mmmmm ]. I went all out - I cooked, I cleaned, I did laundry... why laundry? I did everything I could to make sure my babe came home and had nothing to worry about [ no complaints ] ..... The kids bathed, the cloth washed, the beds made, the food ready and dishes cleaned. So what happened.... Well, first she ca