My kids hate breakfast. Well, at least cold cereal. There isn’t much, besides Frosted Mini Wheats, that they’ll tolerate. At first I thought it was because our line-up included bland fare like Cheerios and Oatmeal Squares, but they don’t even get excited about Froot Loops or Trix! As a kid, we lived on cereal. It was the one meal that we didn’t need any prodding to eat. I can appreciate the fact that it’s a low maintenance, quick meal. I just wish my kids would reconsider – I get tired of preparing granny omelets and french toast every morning.
Category: kids
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Cold Cereal
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Parenting
After this week I can honestly say, I prefer man-to-man coverage over zone! My wife left on a four-day business trip Monday and flew in last night. Don’t misunderstand, the four days with my boys was really nice bonding time but parenting definitely requires a partnership between committed individuals! In my opinion, it takes equal contributions from a Dad and a Mom. I discovered this week that there are certain roles that only Mom can fill (physically, emotionally and physiologically). No matter how hard a person tries, Dad can’t be a Mom (and Mom can’t be a Dad). I feel for all those individuals that are enduring single parenthood. No one should have to do the job of two people themselves!
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Where the Wild Things Were
Whenever my boys act up in public, I feel like the karma train has hit me. My younger brother and I were often “wild” when the family took an outing and were always scolded by my mother to stop whatever it was we were doing (which was usually just picking on each other). In department stores we would hide in the clothes racks or loiter in the toy aisles long enough to get lost. In supermarkets we’d fight over who got to squeeze into the cart’s bottom shelf or play hide-and-seek. One time we took turns in a restaurant nonchalantly pacing the floor while selectively stamping on a ketchup packet. We finally succeeded and exploded that thing all over the walls and whoever had walked by. Yes, my parents (and my two sisters) were saints for putting up with us boys. At least I know what to expect.
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Video Gaming
It’s astonishing how ubiquitous video games have become in today’s society. My boys frequently remind us how we are the only family in the civilized world that does NOT own a game system. Before you shed a tear for them, please know that they are not suffering. They do have supervised access to two computers and play video games on a somewhat regular basis.
The graphic cards required by most games today are nothing short of miraculous in how they mimic reality. In spite of these advances, I have to laugh when I think of the good old Atari 2600 we grew up with. Commanding a blob of pixels to move orthogonally through a multi-colored lego-like universe, with paddle or some-time functioning joystick, was impressive to us. We could play Combat, Asteroids, Missile Command, Pitfall and Breakout for hours at a time. I doubt that the crude compilation of chunky pixels that comprised most game graphics of the early 80s would hold a kid’s attention for more than 2 nanoseconds today. It would be interesting to see the sales demographics for the re-release of some of those classic games I grew up with. I have a suspicion that most were sold to “kids” my age.
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Making Friends
We can learn a lot from kids. I marvel at their ability to make friends so easily. It’s not uncommon for either of our boys to start playing with other kids for hours and not even know their names. For whatever reason this carefree and nondiscriminatory attitude towards relationships becomes more conditional as we age. Judgment of character is important to protect ourselves from being hurt but accepting others for who they are is something I want our kids to practice. I know there will be trials in their lives when they choose their peers, but we try to encourage them to be leaders and good examples to others. Will they fail? Certainly (we all do), but I hope that they can be the friend they’d want for themselves. Friends are a blessing I often take for granted and I am certainly grateful to have them in my life.
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Lucky 7
Today, our youngest boy, Chase, turns seven! We’ve been hounding him for quite some time about what he’d like to do that’s special for his birthday. So far, Mom and Dad will be making a guest appearance in his class to read his favorite books. He wants to have a party some weekend with some friends, and then the next day he doesn’t. Then he does, but with different people. He’s our introvert, I guess (our older son, Mason, has actually tried to encourage him and even goes so far as to suggest which classmates he should invite). He doesn’t like big group events and doesn’t require a lot of attention to be happy. I can relate. One thing he likes to do is draw, so I figured I’d let the kid post a guest inkling (or penciling) on the blog for his birthday. Either his cartoon is a little too sophisticated for me or maybe it’s even funnier than I probably realize. I think he inherited my dry sense of humor, so again, I should be able to relate.
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If only it were that easy…
I have to agree with my wife, I too, wish our kids had a floating stats meter above their heads to give us immediate feedback as to when they’re feeling tired, sick, angry, happy, scared or hungry. It seems the older they are the better they think they are at convincing you what they’re feeling – even if their body language suggests otherwise. Just think of all the arguments that could be avoided with such a meter. Our oldest is going to a birthday party/sleepover today and I’m quite sure at some point tomorrow his meter will be completely empty. I know when we suggest he take a nap we will inevitably get “I’M NOT TIRED!” To which we could confidently, yet calmly reply with “but your meter says you are.” End of discussion.
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Energy Efficient Escalator
My soon-to-be seven-year old son, Chase, has always been fascinated with the escalators at the downtown Wells Fargo Bank Building (what kid isn’t?). But he’s concerned about the fact that they are always running – “wasting power”, as he puts it – even when people aren’t using them. His invention: a motion-activated escalator that would power up or down when someone walks by the sensors at either end. There would obviously be a point in the day when it would run continuously, but think of the “down-times” when no one is using it. I thought it was a pretty clever idea. I’m no mechanical engineer, but I’m guessing there would likely be some logistic wrinkles to iron out. I figure if they can do it with lights, it wouldn’t be so far off for escalators. Now if we could just get our budding young conservative to take shorter showers.
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Progress?
I’m amazed at my kids’ generation and their fascination with cell phone technology. My oldest was begging for one as a fourth grader. What in the world would a fourth grader need a cell phone for?! Granted, there seems to be a fair number of “cell phone” kids (formerly known as “latch key” kids) out there that do, at the insistence of their parents, have a cell phone so that they can keep tabs on them during those idle hours between school and the 5 PM end to the workday but I say you’re getting the bad with the good. The investment for a device that will keep you connected with little Johnny or Jenny has been elevated by these children as a status accessory coveted by all their peers and will most likely not be limited in use by them to just two hours a day. It seems that many young cell users could get by without ever having to make or take a phone call on their little hand-held social taskmasters. Let’s face it, to them making a call using a cell phone is so 20th Century now. The mantra that this generation speaks is, “if you want to communicate with someone, don’t dial digits – text!”
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Boyhood Fantasy #01
One of the best things about being the father of two boys is playtime. It’s not difficult for me to get caught up in the things they do because I was into a lot of the same things as a kid. Last night I was recruited into a Nerf Gun battle. I’m amazed, to say the least, at how much of an extended product line Nerf has created. Though my boys only possess the handgun variety, I see stores even have chain guns and swords now – sheesh! After some simple instructions on how to operate and load the weapon I was handed a six shot revolver and pushed toward the front lines. This morning, while debriefing about last night’s tactics, I asked my oldest son what Nerf should come out with next. Without hesitating he said, “a tank.” Imagine the fear of your enemies when you pull up in this baby.