The DAD Zone

[Technico Support]

3 hours ago, Robert C said:

My favorite is when they suddenly discover a bathroom emergency that has to be dealt with NOW.  Of course they couldn't possibly have gone any of the nine times you asked them to go before you left the house.  

Oh lord.  And it's always at the place that has just the nastiest bathroom around.  Our closest grocery store is really nice but they don't really keep up the restroom.  I flat out tell her, "that place is disgusting.  Hold it until we get home."

[JustJay]

Holy cow. Can't believe this thread is still ongoing, 

 

My oldest is now 16 and has her temps, saved up enough money to buy her first car, a 2011 Dodge Avenger and she's also in a career center and going to be a nurse. She's currently working this summer at the Veteran's nursing home. Youngest is going to be going into 3rd grade. It's kind of crazy how fast they grow up. Blink and they go from baby to driving.

[Technico Support]

21 hours ago, JustJay said:

Holy cow. Can't believe this thread is still ongoing, 

 

My oldest is now 16 and has her temps, saved up enough money to buy her first car, a 2011 Dodge Avenger and she's also in a career center and going to be a nurse. She's currently working this summer at the Veteran's nursing home. Youngest is going to be going into 3rd grade. It's kind of crazy how fast they grow up. Blink and they go from baby to driving.

Congrats, man!  Good for you.  Yep, my daughter is seven now and it's just insane how fast it's flying by.

[Robert C]

My parents still live in the house I grew up in, which means they still have the door they used to mark my height on when I was a kid.  We started putting my son on the door pretty much as soon as he could walk, which means we can compare our respective heights at different ages.  He's 7 1/2 now.  Measured him on there this weekend, since we hadn't done it in a while.  He's barely shorter than I was at 11, and I'm about 6'2''. 

He's a big, broad shouldered kid, with wild, bushy hair that's basically impossible to brush.  He also has no filter and absolutely no volume control at all.  Think Brian Blessed as a second grader, that's pretty much what I'm raising.

[Mike Campbell]

My daughter singing the corn song.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

For those of you in here with multiple fruits of the loin.

How was it different the second time around?

Especially in the final stages of waiting? 

I'm really struggling. First time around - very proactive, so many little projects to do to keep me occupied, I had a certain energy that made me get through the difficult first few months of adjustment. In hindsight - I probably wish I'd spent less time preparing myself mentally and more time physically, because I was up for everything, and physically struggling to get up off the floor during bath times. 

This time around, I feel flat - fine from a mental health perspective, but physically there's nothing there. It's just, let's just get to ten weeks time, and see how we go. And I think a part of this is just knowing that we pretty much smashed it last time and there isn't that weird fear motivated adrenaline to it all, but at the same time, after the past three years, I'm exhausted. And I'm not sure what that ratio is.

Edited January 15, 2023 by GuerrillaMonsoon

[DEAN]

6 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

For those of you in here with multiple fruits of the loin.

How was it different the second time around?

Especially in the final stages of waiting? 

I'm really struggling. First time around - very proactive, so many little projects to do to keep me occupied, I had a certain energy that made me get through the difficult first few months of adjustment. In hindsight - I probably wish I'd spent less time preparing myself mentally and more time physically, because I was up for everything, and physically struggling to get up off the floor during bath times. 

This time around, I feel flat - fine from a mental health perspective, but physically there's nothing there. It's just, let's just get to ten weeks time, and see how we go. And I think a part of this is just knowing that we pretty much smashed it last time and there isn't that weird fear motivated adrenaline to it all, but at the same time, after the past three years, I'm exhausted. And I'm not sure what that ratio is.

Well, it was 26 hours of labor with my oldest and it was like I was at a construction  site the whole time, constantly checking on the monitor and walking the wife around and stuff.  The second youngster was like 6 hours of labor and they had to wake me up for the delivery.  Your second is a lot less stressfull usually because you know what's coming and how to handle it.  My fourth was hilarious because the nurse scoffed at my wife telling her that she immediately having the baby, said it was instead going to be 8 more hours and an hour later IIII, Dean Rasmussen- Untrained Medical Person- ALMOST delivered the baby (which actually meant I was screaming into the nurses remote "I can see the head!  Y'all might wanna get the fuck in here!"

[Lawful Metal]

Happy Fathers Day you bunch of lunatics. 

Reading Dean’s post above made my day.

[J.H.]

Sandra Violet is 5 now, she turned 5 back in June. She got more Bluey stuff than should be allowed to leave Australia. She celebrated like it was Times Square on VJ-Day!

Today I took her to the movies for the first time. I let her pick between Elemental and Across The Spider-Verse. The kid loves Spider-Man so it was a no brainer what she picked.

She got the kid's snack tray (kid popcorn, kid drink and fruit snacks). We got there early so there were a few trips to the bathroom before showtime.

This movie is 2hrs and 20 minutes. I really should've taken that into consideration. I really should've paid for 1 ticket because she snuggled in my lap for 3/4 of the movie. Plus 5 trips to bathroom (she kept sneaking sips of my large Mr. Pibb).

After the movie we went to the kids play area in the mall. There were several Muslim families there with their kids playing. Watching my daughter make friends with them and play was a truly a beautiful thing.

After 2 and a half hours of play we had dinner at McDonald's. I felt bad to take her away from her new friends but it was getting late.

Life on my end has been not great this year so far. I needed this day. This day with Sandy was perfect in every way. I'm the most at peace I've been at the end of the day in months.

It was truly a Perfect Day

James

Edited July 22, 2023 by J.H.

[J.H.]

Sandy and I were chilling in the living room. She points at my shirt and asks "who is he?"

It's my purple  "Man You Are Right Out of A Comic Book" shirt with "Black Belt" Jim Kelly on it.

She immediately wants to know who Jim Kelly is. I ask her "Do you want Daddy to show you on the TV?". She excitedly says yes and so I load up Enter The Dragon.

Makes me happy because:

1. I get to share one of my favorite movies with my daughter

2. I don't have to watch Blippi/Ryan's World/Diana The Princess of Play for 99 minutes (I actually more than tolerate ZZ Kids because I think the dad is kinda funny)

Many questions are answered about things she doesn't get (like the uncomfortable explanation of what O'Hara and his goons were trying to do to Angela MaovYing).

The highlight of this Daddy/Daughter viewing experience comes during Jim Kelly's scene/Fight with Mr. Han (Shih Kien).

As Kelly is getting obliterated Sandy looks at me and utters "How come he's losing? I thought he was too busy looking good!"

I busted out laughing so hard!

My daughter throwing shade at Jim Kelly was just too good not to share!

James

Edited July 23, 2023 by J.H.

[J.H.]

 

So it begins!
She was so excited that she opened the door and didn't even say "Good-Bye" to me.
This is the culmination of the last 5 years of getting her ready for this. She is more than ready and I'm proud but still a blubbering mess...

James

Edited August 25, 2023 by J.H.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

Took daughter one bowling a few months back. She did....as well as a five year old would, and she got very upset about it, saying she wasn't good at anything, the worst kid ever.

Took her back the next weekend and made a big deal about how much she improved on last time. Since then has been bugging me to go back a lot.

A fortnight ago I took her again, she was competitive with a bit of help from the occasional deliberate gutterball here and there. Demanded a rematch.

So again we went over the weekend. Same story. I'm putting every second ball in the gutter, but she's now winning. And now I'm actually trying and she's still knocking down pins.

Gets to the final ball, there's a small crowd of teenage staff watching on with bemusement, where she needs two pins to win with eight still standing...and despite bumpers up, manages to bowl a gutter ball, saving me face.

I've announced my retirement from the world of bowling and will now be ducking her challenges for the rest of time.  #finishthestory

Edited September 5, 2023 by GuerrillaMonsoon

[Robert C]

Back to coaching my sons baseball team again.  I’ve had to tell the kids a lot of stuff over the last four years.   But I’d never had to say “stop humping that sycamore tree”.
 

At least I hadn’t had to do that before last night. 

[J.H.]

Moments ago...

Sandra Violet: Why she called Granny Goodnes if she's not good?
Me:  Because Jack Kirby liked being ironic in his humor
Sandra Violet: What's "ironic" and who is Jack Derby?

Ah the innocence of a 5 year old!

James

[Log]

I volunteered to help coach my son's flag football team. Well, it was really one of those things where they asked, I said yes, and as the word was coming out of my mouth I instantly regretted it.

Turns out, it's actually really fun! The kids are awesome and, so far, the parents are really nice, too.

We had our first game this past Saturday, and we won! By far the best part, though, was that, after the win, my son ran to me as excited as he's ever been about anything and gave me the biggest hug. Literally tearing up just typing that out.

Oh, and turns out that he's a hell of a football player. Played some QB and scored as a running back. He also blocked really well on another TD and played some strong D. He played every single down on offense and defense. And, yes, while I am coaching, I'm just an assistant and don't make decisions on playing time.

[Mike Campbell]

My twelve year old actually made a pretty funny crack the other day. Just for backstory: The local Starbucks has a massive staff shortage right now, because a bunch of people got fired for abusing their employee discounts and giving it to their friends and family.  I took my kids out for tea over the weekend to reward them for helping out with yardwork. We get out drinks and she says "I'm going to work here when I'm old enough, they get to wear those cool shirts and hats."  I ask her if she'll give me a discount when she's working there and she says "No, I'm not going to get fired like all the people at Starbucks!"