Father and daughter

As I mentioned late last week, I recently joined a daddy blogger group on Facebook. It’s great to have this community, as we share many of the same struggles and triumphs. This has also introduced me to a number of their blogs, which are the focus of this week’s speedlink. Let’s see if father really does know best.

Kicking things off, Sean Singleton explores the issue of going back to work after a paternity leave. It can be quite the dilemma. As a new father, you want to be home to bond with the baby and witness those precious milestones. This is a very special time. At the same time, you can feel the obligation to bring home the bacon and keep a roof over everyone’s head. Those diapers aren’t going to pay for themselves!

From Santa Claus to why you need to eat all the rice in your bowl (more on this another day), there are many stories a father may tell his children that aren’t completely true. What happens, Darrell Milton asks, when your kids catch on to your little white lies and call you out on them? Even hiding part of the truth is akin to telling a lie. You want to encourage your little ones to be honest, but you don’t want to crush their childhood either.

“Ew. Brussels sprouts smell like feet. I don’t want them.” If you’re a father (or mother) of a young child, you’ve surely encountered some variation of this complaint at some point. Creative daddy Eric Williams has come up with an ingenious way of getting his son to eat the yucky soup: try different seasonings. This isn’t to say that adding some Mrs. Dash will cure all ills. Instead, teach your son or daughter to try the same “yucky” dish with a myriad of different spices and seasonings in succession. Before you know it, he or she will have finished the bowl!

Childcare costs can get awfully expensive. Now that both of his sons are enrolled in private school, Buzz Bishop and his wife have decided to say goodbye to their nanny for good. To many parents, this is the norm. Other parents may have the good fortune of having grandma and grandpa around to pitch in. For Buzz, this is their first time “parenting without a net” and it has directly impacted how they plan their lives.

Role models play a very important role. Little Kayla may look up to her father or mother. She may also look up to her teacher at school. But, as Clayton Imoo discusses, what happens when mommy is also her teacher? There is an inherent fear in terms of having a conflict of interest. Mommy could be too lenient or she may also be too strict. And how do you control the boundaries between your relationship at home and your relationship at school?