So my wife’s fourteen-wanna-be-eighteen-year-old cousin came to visit this past week from Florida. As an older guy who is not his own father, he does idolize me a tad, largely because I can play basketball with him. I have known him since he was three or four, having joined my wife’s family around that time, so I’ve watched him grow in sporadic fits, only seeing him once or twice a year. And, of course, I remember my own growth when I was a wee lad up until his current age, when I, too, was a know-it-all, pubescent, attention-seeking male.

Oh, the horror.

So he has come to visit every year, but somehow, this was the year when it all changed. Read the rest of this entry »

So the truth has emerged (and I am hoping that no one from my office actually reads this blog).

Last week while we moved, I missed a few days worth of emails, and when I emerged from beneath the pile of boxes, I had a couple hundred messages waiting for me, including a few from anxious clients, to whom I replied quickly and apologetically. I also had one from a particularly prickly colleague who was lashing out at me for not replying to one specific client sooner (and he had cc’ed about half the company, including all of our senior management). I had a combative phone call with him and he apologized, with no real damage done.

I spoke to the client and all has been smoothed over.

But then, I had a subsequent conversation with another colleague who mentioned something interesting: the “Big Boss” had been recently questioning the behavior of certain parents in our group, specifically why we were out, leaving early, or coming in late. Interesting. Read the rest of this entry »

I was raised in a very unconventional family, especially when compared to my friends in middle school (a private school that I attended on financial assistance). It was there where nearly all of my friends were picked up by their mothers or nannies/housekeepers (full-time, live-in, of course). And then, they all went back to their large, suburban, single-family homes.

And then there was me and my brother: our father (not mother) drove up in his slightly rickety van, which frequently had a ladder or two on top - depending on which jobsite he happened to be working that day - and we would go back to our more urban multi-family house (on whose street I was mugged at age 11).

Well, the times they are a changin’… Read the rest of this entry »

Awwww yeah. Here comes the weekend. And likely another Saturday (and possibly Sunday) filled with our daughter’s friend’s birthday parties. And for a sugar-holic like me, I cannot wait for the cake and ice cream. (My mouth is watering just thinking about it.)

Of course, my sweet tooth gets me into serious trouble, especially when the day after the party I have to put on my swimsuit and hit the local lake, shirtless. Yikes. (No pic of that, sorry.)

So what is one to do, exercise self-restraint? Not a chance. Read the rest of this entry »

At my day job, I am so busy working for a large tech company that I am able to devote a solid twenty-seven minutes to writing this blog post, spend serious, productive time surfing the internet, and even watch video online all day and deem it “research.”

Pretty cool, eh?

Well, what’s not so cool is this: when another big tech company decides to give working parents a seriously raw deal on their daycare - click here to read all about it.

The company? Google (maybe you’ve heard of them?) Read the rest of this entry »

So we’re moving. At the end of this month. For the fourth time in the last five years. (Yes, I know, don’t remind me.)

And as we gather ourselves - mentally - and our stuff - physically - I started to think about the last few months and what tasks/responsibilities my wife held down (most) and what I did (whatever was left). And then last night “The Break-Up” was on HBO and that great scene where Aniston wants Vaughn to want to do the dishes, or at least offer to do the dishes.

“Why would I want to do dishes?” he says, so honestly.

And my wife turned to me and said: “Please apologize for your kind.”

It was then that I tried to decide what us men are really good for.

Here’s what I came up with: Read the rest of this entry »

Not that I have a problem with that, but it struck me as curious.

We attended the highly entertaining end-of-year performance at our daughter’s preschool last week, and after the parade of super-cute children, each teacher was given a bouquet of flowers. As I hooted loudly, cheering the teacher’s excellence, each teacher came across the stage, hugged the director of the school, and walked off…and then it occurred to me that all of the teachers are women.

Then I started to think back to all of my teachers in school - they were almost ALL women.

Then I searched for an answer.

But I am not convinced. Read the rest of this entry »

In honor of Father’s Day this weekend, I thought I’d send out a mass THANK YOU to all of you moms, who actually enabled us Dads to celebrate Father’s Day (last I checked, we could not reproduce on our own).

Since my own wife has banned me from my buying gifts for her (since she said she received too many on Mother’s Day), I am hoping that this tribute to the women in our lives will make her smile.

But while I’ve got you here, I thought I’d opine on the state of the American dad as sparked by Lisa Belkin’s recent piece in the NY Times and our own WIM bloggers writing on the recent Dad survey… Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, y’all, I’m getting just a little tired of all this Mommy Guilt talk.

Okay, I know you’ve cornered the market on actually birthing children and breast-feeding them. But I’m here to tell you that you’re not the only ones who are entitled to feel guilty.

Us Dads feel guilty, too. And for many - if not all - of the same reasons.

Let’s air them out. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t you love it when a TV show gives you an idea for a blog post? Me too.

In this case it was the greatest TV show ever created (even though it went downhill in season 4 and beyond): Alias.

In the most recent episode (Season 4, Episode 13) that we watched (yes, we get it on Netflix, don’t get me started), one of the characters has “home-life” problems, according to the stock description. In translation: Character’s son was sick and puked on him, but he told his wife that he needed to go to work, handed screaming child to unhappy wife, and left to go save the life of his colleague in a foreign country.

But how do you juggle it? Read the rest of this entry »