The Challenges of Fatherhood

I have learned that being a father can bring great joy.  I have 2 boys my oldest is 5 1/2.  but according to him 5.  my youngest is 18 months according to my oldest 1.

Kids are so precise there is no grey it is all black and white,  I guess as we get older we understand the black and white is there but there can be gray scale in our life as well; but for a child it is all black and white.

I know we want to teach them right from wrong and how to make decisions on their own but do we teach them or do they teach us.  Sometimes I wonder.   They test us they try our patience in what we say.  My oldest is now being defiant and trying my patience along with my wives.  He will also say no after much argumentation and confrontation he gives in to us.

Tonight I told him enough is enough he is old enough to wash his face himself. He got mad and said NO.  The biggest problem is as the school years winds down and many early mornings as of late he is exhausted.  But according to him he is not.

I have learned that reasoning with a child is near impossible you need to make compromises and have them understand why.

I often wonder am I doing what is right by being firm and taking items away and threatening to not do something to make a point.  We take his computer away or his tablet, he has a fit but is he learning by our actions.  Or is it just a justification for us that we are wining the tiny battles or his he the one winning by gaining our attention since he sees us so little with us both working.

I have seen love in him and the desire to emulate both my wife and I in what we do,  He loves drawing and creating with both of us he goes in to my wife's art studio to create he wants to be like her.  He will draw with me and asks me why do I always draw castles or waterfalls.  That is a question I wish I could answer. I know I like drawing them but he tells me I need to draw other things.  I did in the past i guess it is just a stage I am going through.

Enough about me.  Fatherhood has changed me that is for sure it teaches us to slow down and enjoy the little things in life.

How the world has changed in 35 years

As I look back on my life it is changed a lot from the time 1 was 10 till now.

Computers in every house not even a pipe dream cell phones what were they.  We had a rotary phone yes the one you dialed by spinning it in a circle.  Call Display or Speed Dial not an option.  In order to remember a phone number you needed to memorize it or you had in a phone book or paper Rolodex.  The electronic ones didn't exist and the smartphone what was that. Now with Cell phones there is no need for a land line we have eliminated ours as have many other people.  The phone instead of hanging on the wall now stores our life and connects us to the world and our friends.
It is at our sides all the time it is part of us.

My music collection consisted of Records heck tapes were just being conceived little alone the thought of having your music collection on an IPOD or MP3 player.  There was not even a Sony Walkman.  Now you have more music on your computer or in or IPOD or MP3 player than can you listen  to in a lifetime.

The Computer was only a simple calculator I was around 10 when we got the VIC 20 yes a commodore I remember playing Frogger on it for ours and running simple games of a tape drive.
I often think back to this; my phone has 16GB internal memory and 64 GB memory card in it.  The VIC 20 had a whopping 4K of internal ram and a memory expansion card not even a dream.
My phone has roughly the amount of 64 Billion times more storage than my first PC.  I know it is not the exact amount but it puts it in to perspective.

We had a simple tube TV. A flat screen what was that cable with over 400 Channels heck we had an antenna that had a rotator for the antenna to get a whopping 10 channels on a good day. The TV's of Today are insane from what we had as children the colour quality is life like now with HDTV and even 3D.  Heck we now have smart TV's with more computing power than my VIC 20.

We got a VCR when I was about 12 wow it was amazing we could record TV and rent Movies.  Now we have DVD's and Move Collections galore on our PC's that we download from various sites such as ITunes.  Then there is the VCR replacement the PVR with 1 TB and the option to add more storage I have a 2TB External drive plugged in to ours for a told of 3TB of storage.  No need to erase the tape anymore.  You can record a whole season and then have a marathon.  You can even record 10 items at once. That wasn't even conceived of when I was a kid.

This is just a few things as there are many others that have changed and I am just wondering what my Mattis and Felix will have when they are my age.  It just scares me or does it intrigue me.

Big Bang Theory ... The inner geek part 2

Since my first article had such an impact on the world I decided to write part 2 but where to start is the question a lot has changed since then.  Big Bang Theory has advanced to new levels in the past 3 years as well as my own life.

My Little guy is almost 3 and I see characteristics of Sheldon even in him he has own spot on the couch.  It is not the perfect wind to air ratio to positioning in the room.  My little dude is the positioning of the particular angle to the TV so he can watch his favourite TV shows or movie's.

I have began to wonder as I watch my little guy grow if Sheldon is the extreme in us all.  Is he what could happen to us all if things went to the extreme.  Then there is Raj the extreme on the dating scale where he needs a drink before he can even say hi to a girl.  Then there is Amy who I have yet to figure out she is the extreme on one hand and then on the other she is normal, or is she.

There is Penny and Bernadette the perfect yet not so perfect companion  for their boyfriends.  You then have the extreme Mother of Howard, who we can all see pieces of our own mother in caring and wanting to help but not to the extreme like her.

Back to the parallels I have been seen in life since the last 1.

People have the ability to be intelligent yet in the same breath they can be as dumb as a stump.  They do things that baffle common sense just like Sheldon, Raj, Leonard and the rest.

I saw a guy the other week that was the epitome of this he was riding a moped in shorts and sandals with a Third Reich style military helmet.  He looked so out of place it was a laugh.  Then there was the driver that missed the Tim Horton's drive through and ended up in the fence behind a tow truck.

I know the inner geek seems to be in us all even we think not it hides somewhere in us all.

I remember Ogre from revenge of the nerds who changed is ways after getting stuck on the island with the nerds and felt comfortable with them as they accepted him the way he was even though he teased them in the past.

If one can change can we all change and become a geek to some extent.  If our high-school self was to look at most of us now.  I am sure they would think we are geeks.  With the technology around us the computer the cell phone that is attached to our every being.  The little piece of technology that we cannot live without.

Just remember to some extent the characters of Big Bang make us not only laugh at them but help us to laugh at ourselves.

Fatherhood What I Have learned thus far

It is amazing what you learn being a father


My son is now 8 months old.

I have learned how to function on little sleep ...thank goodness for the invention of Coffee
I have learned that he is control of life not me anymore
I have learned that i no longer have time to do stuff and if i do it takes longer
I have learned to distinguish cries in the nigt or at least make a good guess as to what the problem is
I have learned they grow quick and he is only 8 months

Kids should come with warning labels -
1. When changing a diaper a gas mask may be required
2. Anything you wear will be spit up on

I know I will learn alot more as time goes by that is for sure
He has changed my life