What's Up Wednesdays: Wind of Change

Following months of severe drought, Vancouver was hit with a heavy rain and wind storm over the weekend. This wreaked all sorts of havoc, knocking down trees and leaving thousands of people without power. As Stacey Robinsmith points out, complaining about losing your power for 24 hours or more doesn’t do you any good. If anything, this crazy wind storm has indicated that too many people are unprepared for natural disasters. You need to be able to survive on your own, with or without power, for at least 48 hours.

After learning that I would soon be a parent early last year, I have become much more cognizant of traditional gender roles and societal expectations… and how they need to be thrown out the window. Nick Browne reminds us yet once again that dads don’t babysit their own children; they’re just being dads. The first assumption should not be that mothers are automatically the primary caregivers; the first assumption should be that both partners, regardless of gender, are equal partners who share the parenting responsibilities equally.

How do you feel about posting pictures of your kids on the Internet? Jon from Daddy Scratches started blogging almost a decade ago and now that his kids are a little older, he has decided to erase their online existence. He has exercised the “nuclear option.” As these children get older and become more aware of what mommy and daddy bloggers are doing without their knowledge. It’s an issue I struggled with before my daughter was born and it’s an issue I continue to struggle with today.

The world for today’s children is different from the world of our childhood. They have the Internet. They have smartphones. But, Amber Strocel says, they’re missing out on one big thing, because so many homes don’t have a landline telephone anymore. What this means is that tweens in particular can have a harder time communicating with one another, because they oftentimes don’t have their own phones (yet). That said, they can still organize themselves through instant messengers and social media. I guess it’s just a different world.

And we close out this week’s speedlink with another different world: the one of the home office. Larry Alton shares his tips on how to stay productive when you work from home as a blogger. It’s really easy to get distracted when you don’t have a set schedule and you’re surrounded by all the things that remind you of home and leisure (because you are home). Setting a schedule, changing clothes, and making time for exercise are a good start.