Fatherhood Tuesday

What a month this has been. My ten year wedding anniversery, my oldest childs birthday, increased obligations at church and more. Not complaining, but I am sorry for dropping the ball here. Time to pick it back up.

I posted the following on a forum I am quite active in The Fastlane To Millions. It illustrates one of my more proud moments as a dad. I hope you enjoy.

Post 1:
For the past few months I have been working out the details of an invention I have been working on. A couple weeks ago we were getting our kids ready for bed. Me in the bedroom getting some dressed, and my wife in the bathroom overseeing the teeth brushing.

I hear her say "that is a really good idea Jonah, you should tell daddy." So my 4.5 year old son comes and tells me his idea. He see his sister has a toy that does x, he said, "they should make a y toy that does the same thing."

I was blown away. Not only was this a good idea, it was infinetly more marketable than the idea I had been working on. Within a day, I had 2 companion product ideas as well.

Today I began working on the sketches to submit with the patent.

Next week file patent and create sales sheet.

end of next week, beginning of the following week, start calling manufacturers about licensing.

If all goes well, my son will be one of the youngest patent holders in the U.S.

All because my wife took the time to listen.


Post 2:
This was really cool as a dad on many levels, but the three best parts were-

1. he did not fuss and say "why don't I have something that does that" which is typical

2. he looked for a solution and thought outside the box, a little scary considering he is only 4.5, I am afraid he will be able to out reason me by 10 instead of 15 like I was hoping

3. when I showed him what I created on photoshop today and asked him what it was, he said "oh, that is y that does z" In his mind it is already a reality, it is just a matter of waiting for its arrival. That was cool. FYI, my photoshop skills are extremely limited, so his mind created the reality more so than my skills.

Fatherhood Tuesday

So far, after being a father for almost 5 years, I have two favorite books on parenting.

On Becoming Babywise by Gary Ezzo- This is the best book I have read for starting out as a parent. Through the recommendations in this book, all of our children slept through the night consistently by 8-9 weeks old. A must have book for any parent.

The Five Love Langueges of Children by Gary Chapman- A book about loving your child in the way the need loved which may or may not be the way you naturally love.

Hope you all get a chance to read them.

Fatherhood Tuesday

This past weekend, on three different occasions, I had to witness pain in my children and be able to do very little to fix it. As Dad's and men in general we tend to be fixers. That is our natural inclination. Show us a problem and we will fix it. However that is not always possible.

The first incident occurred after we came home from eating as a family at a restaurant. This particular restaurant gives this children balloons as they leave. For this reason alone, this is one of my kids favorite restaurants.

Balloons
As we got out of the minivan and were walking towards our steps, our littlest balloon came off the string bumped into the overhang of our garage roof, and all of sudden, Dad (me) with Mr. Myagi type reflexes, snatches the balloon out of the air and saves the day.

Then my oldest daughter's balloon bumped against the overhang and popped. Tears were forthcoming like lies from a politicians mouth. She was devastated, and there was nothing I could do to fix it.

As I watched my wife comfort her, I had climbed our stairs and was on our porch looking down at them. Out of the corner of my eye, I see our middle daughter right below me, loose her grip on her balloon. Once again, my Myagi like reflexes saved the day. I reached out a snatched to string right before it was too late. Thank you Karate Kid.

Bikes
At our family picnic on Sunday, my brother in law had brought bikes for his kids to ride. These bikes were kindly shared with my children as well. This was greatly appreciated since I had not thought to bring bikes for our kids.

I was sitting enjoying conversation with a relative when I noticed my daughter riding down a hill way too fast. Her fall at the bottom was brutal. There were about 20 years separating us, and I have not sprinted that fast since High School.

Upon reaching her, I scooped her up and held her. She was bleeding slightly from her knee and elbow. After bandaging her, the tears kept flowing. She kept telling me that her knee still hurt even after the band-aid was on. My children have a belief that band-aids relieve pain, so this was difficult for her to understand.

These are the moments when as a dad you wish you knew magic. You wish you could just take their pain away immediately. But alas we cannot. Within a few hours she was back on the bike again, so all was well.

Balls
I was trying to teach my four year old son to play catch. Things were going well and he decided to back up some. The first toss at this point hit him in the leg. He said ow, but that was the extent of it. The second toss was a repeat of the first.

A dad with more wisdom would have had him move closer at this point, but that would have made too much sense. So for a third time, I tossed him the ball. This time I tried to give it a little more loft so he would have more time to watch it a grab it. He watched it all right, right up until it hit him in the eye and nose.

Slight bleeding from the nose, and many tears from the eyes. Even more so when he saw the blood. The boy freaks out when he is bleeding and this was not exception. It took about 30 seconds for the nose to stop bleeding and about 10 minutes to calm him down. Not my brightest dad moment.

Conclusion
Even though our tendency is to be Mr. Fixit, being a great dad is not about that. Being dad is about being there. Being part of your kids lives. Kissing booboos, holding through the tears, and just being there. That is the key.

Fatherhood is trial and error. However, to try and error, you need to be present.