Raising children isn't easy! Each stage of their life brings a whole new set of worries and as they grow you learn. The catch is you have to do everything in your power to make the learning curve as small as possible.

Your day is busy with work, phone calls, errands and more chores than I can list. Yes, it's easier to keep your kids in school all day, send to after care and have a sitter watch them on the weekend. This is just a short term fix though.

The only way to ensure the success of your children's future is to take an active role in their lives. Be a role model for your kids and teach them about the world they're growing up in. Be a next generation father instead of a past generation dad!

It's inevitable that dads will have questions. In order to be the best father for your children, make sure and find the correct answers for them. Talk to your father, wife and friends until you find the answers you need. The Internet is filled with facts about parenting; however, always be sure you're not getting someone else opinion when you need facts.

Have any questions about fatherhood? Becoming a 1st time dad, let me know any concerns. I'll let you in on the aspects of fatherhood that other people are afraid to tell you!

A Gen X Dad's Toughest Question

My son is still a little young, but he's been asking me to watch Star Wars. Ever since I found out I was having a boy, I've looked forward to the day when I could sit down and watch the movies that shaped my childhood (obviously New Hope, Empire, and Jedi; not the new ones).

This is where the dilemma comes in! Should I start him at the beginning of the story with The Phantom Menace or do I go with my heart and start where I did as a kid?

Most people have adamantly said I needed to start with #4, but since he is young he would follow the story better from the beginning. What do you think?

I may just leave it up to him!

Dads Need to Take Time Too

The alarm goes off at 6:30am. You get up, have some breakfast and take a shower. Since you have children your morning is even more hectic. You have to make sure their needs are met before getting a chance to brush away the morning breath. As the day goes on: it feels like you were on the phone forever and were glad you got to squeeze 8 1/2 minutes in for lunch. Now it's 6:30pm and you start the nightly routine of finishing up work you didn't get to earlier (plus doing some laundry). Finally the kids are in bed and you get to watch a little TV or read a book while a little pink pill helps you fall gently asleep. Somewhere around 960 minutes have just gone by and how many of them were just for you?

Dennis Waitley, a motivational speaker, said "Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day." Sometimes we feel there aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish all of the tasks we set out to do. Some of you are already waking up 15 minutes earlier to exercise. Now you're supposed to find more time in the day? The minutes are already there, now just practice using them more effectively!

• Learn to say no. I'm not telling you to ignore your core responsibilities of work, children, or chores. Rather say no to constantly checking email or voicemail. Say no to people who are just calling to complain about nothing. Say no to doing favors that are never returned. Say no to new taxes (I was just getting too excited there).
  
• Practice judging time. Since time is something that doesn't really exist, it's easy to get away from us. Have you ever started a task you thought would take an hour and then 90 minutes later you're still not done? Practice learning from that and adjusting your schedule. More often than not we're doing something we have done before. If it took you 2 hours last time, plan for 2 hours.
  
• Let everyone know it is your time now. Tell someone outright you're taking 30 minutes for lunch and just let the cell phone go to voicemail. This is an important part of your 960 minutes, so enjoy it! Relax, think about your upcoming vacation, or escape to a good book. A half of an hour is just about 3% of your minutes; you deserve them (and more).
  
• Learn to say yes. There's a perception in American corporate culture if you take vacation time, then you may not be working hard enough. Similarly if you're self-employed then when you are on vacation, chances are your not making money either. Dictionary.com defines vacation as "a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel." Whether you take 4 or 5 mini vacations or go abroad for 2 weeks, just use it. You'll be a better employee, manager, parent, friend, spouse, and YOU when you take a vacation.

Practice being aware of how you spend your day. Some days will naturally allow you to use more time for yourself than others; however, when you're making a conscious effort to use your time well it will become habit. The more positive patterns throughout your day, the happier you'll be.

You have learned a new skill of happiness... start practicing today!

Evolution of Toys

Will the real Optimus Prime still stand up?

As a member of gen x I grew up with a steady diet of Transformers, GI Joe, He-Man and Star Wars. My older son is just about 4 and starting to enjoy Tansformers and Spider Man too. Certainly a joyous time for me!

I held onto some select toys from my childhood and most of them I've recently passed to my son. Expect for my original Optimus Prime and some Star Wars toys. Looking at the new versions of Transformers is a little saddening, it's more like a de-volution! The same goes for the new Transformers animated cartoon. I find it more violent than the original. That's why we watch the old ones on DVD.

My son seems to love my old toys more than most of his new ones. I'm not sure if he likes them so much because they're that cool or because they were mine. Either way it's a proud feeling to watch my son play with the same toys I used as a child.

While these toys are all great, there's still nothing better than building his imagination. Play outside, arts and crafts, playing ball and reading a book together are still the best!

What Dad Feels Like

Whether you have children now or not, at some point in life we all don’t know what it’s like to have kids. I guarantee, at some point before spending your out-to-dinner money on diapers someone said “you just don’t understand until you’ve had one of your own.” I would even go so far as to say the women at my son’s daycare that don’t have children of their own can’t fully understand (and they are constantly surrounded by poop and tantrums). People (including myself) often rant about how great becoming a parent is, along with how children change your life. Anyone without children try to imagine what having a kid would be like. For any parents reading this remember what your life was like before children. If you haven’t experienced it, you simply don’t know.

Prior to my son being born, I thought I had a pretty good idea about what life with a child would be like. While you can imagine having kids will be great, you also know there’s a lot of work involved. For me, the realization came during a moment at the hospital and I knew just how different my life was going to be. Any parent reading this knows what I’m talking about. We’re not only talking about not sleeping for months and having to be at a newborn’s beck and call. This is more like jumping out of an airplane and your inner self screams “holy shit.” Skydiving is an amazing experience, but it doesn’t compare to the feeling of holding your newborn baby in your arms for the first time.

Young Environment

Your kids are never too young to learn about the environment and how important it is to us. My older son is now 3 1/2 and knows which materials can be recycled and those that can't. As we taught him why littering is a not acceptable, he asked why people do it. I told him because some people are just lazy (which is the truth). Now whenever he sees a piece of trash on the ground he not only reminds us of the lazy people, he proceeds to pick it up and throw it out. He's more responsible than most adults!

Among many of his holiday gifts he got the Bill Nye Paper Recycling Kit. This is a great way to teach your children about recycling andf it's a lot of fun. (Walmart had the lowest price).

I always cared about the environment, but ever since I became a father my reason for caring shifted. Now I want the planet to be in good shape so my sons can enjoy it for their lifetime too.