Before jumping into your regularly scheduled programming with this month’s speedlink, excuse me as I toot my own horn a little. Beyond the Rhetoric is my blog, after all, so we’ve got to allow for some occasional shameless self-promotion, right? Trust me. It’s good stuff though. I only share good stuff.

Remember last summer when I defended Burnaby Heights as the best neighbourhood in Metro Vancouver? Well, a couple of weeks ago, I returned to The Early Edition with Stephen Quinn on CBC Radio for a different topic. I spoke with Amy Bell about how our family is dealing with the post-holiday blues during a pandemic. To go along with the Parental Guidance segment on the radio, Amy wrote an accompanying article for the CBC website. Honestly, we’re all feeling the pandemic fatigue and I look forward to when the weather warms up again.

Now, if you’re reading this, you probably know me better as a “food blogger” or “dad blogger” or something along those lines. In the other part of my professional life, I’m the content lead for WordFinder by YourDictionary. We just published something over there that we’ve been working on for a while. Did you know that the United States is home to the greatest number of critically endangered languages in the world? And Canada ranks sixth? Enjoy a closer look at ten endangered languages from around the globe.

“I’ve been feeling out of it lately,” Jason Dykstra of They Call Me Dad begins. I think many of us can relate with that, having endured almost a whole year of growing pandemic fatigue at this point. And, as discussed in the Parental Guidance article above, we throw the “whole winter sadness” into the mix too. Jason says he feels defeated, not “living into [his] purpose right now.” Life is hard right now, undeniably, but it’s only temporary. We can get through this if we all do our part.

What about unprecedented times outside of these extreme pandemic conditions? Eddie from Yorkie Not Just For Dads shares some insights that every dad should know. With Max, it’s my second time at the rodeo, but a little parental advice now and then doesn’t hurt. There will be good days and bad days, time will indeed fly right by if you’re not paying attention, and remember that little eyes are always watching you. Lead by example and model good behavior.

And finally, we close with a heartfelt post by Tamara Goyette from Discovering Parenthood. Both of us welcomed new babies into the world last September, right in the middle of pandemic restrictions. As a result, she feels like no one knows their baby. We haven’t had anywhere near the same level of in-person contact with loved ones. No play dates, no visitors, no family gatherings. While we can share some precious moments online, it’s just not the same. It takes a village and, right now, the village must help from afar.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema, via Unsplash