Kirk blAug

Chris shared an article yesterday from USA Today that shows that at least some women think that the things stay at-home dads do gets them in the mood for sex: Stephanie Dulli of Washington, D.C., says "hearing nice things absolutely is romantic and a turn-on." But she's with the 25% who say "seeing your spouse as a great parent" or the almost 20% who say it's when your spouse cleans the house or makes dinner that gets them in the mood for sex. "There is nothing sexier in the world than when my husband is giving the baby a bath without me asking. … If he takes it upon himself to do the dishes or the laundry, that's such an act of service, and that's another way he shows he cares for me. I find it dreamy." Dulli has two sons, ages 3 and 8 months. The rest of the article is a good read too. It exposes a study that shows that, while marital sex is not popularized in pop culture, most married women find it very important in their marriages. It

One day a couple years ago, while Chris and I were waiting in the checkout line at Target, she noticed that many parents were using a protective lining in the shopping carts. She asked me why I do not have one of those for Jupiter. I half joked that I was trying to boost his immune system, and she and the checkout clerk had a laugh about it. I was only half joking though, because some people really do try to keep their kids in way too sterile of an environment, in my opinion. I think it is a good thing to spread some germs around a bit to keep the immune system on its toes. I do not want my kids immune system to be so weak that they get deathly ill every time they come into contact with another sick kid. Jupiter does not get sick all that often. We have three dogs, sometimes we think that may be a contributing factor. If there is anything that spreads the nasty stuff around the house, it is dogs. I also do not freak out if the kids pick up something off the floor and put it in their m

This does not sound like the most responsible thing to do at the special moment when a baby is born, but then again, who has a clear head at that moment: We’ve heard the stories of those early-bird babies who just couldn’t wait—making their appearance in the car or on the side of the road on the way to the hospital—but it’s rare that the unexpected moment is caught on film. Luckily, thanks to his cell phone camera, newly reigned father, Zachary Russell, managed to capture the birth—and avoid any accidents!—while he was driving to the birthing center. I am glad that nobody got hurt and everything turned out okay, but I do feel a little worried for the commuters that were put in danger here. Apparently the video in question was very popular on YouTube. This is not surprising.

Boys playing with dolls is supposedly taboo in American culture, but in reality the toy industry caters to it. What I mean when I say that the toy industry caters to the idea of boys playing with dolls is a product cleverly (or perhaps not so cleverly) disguised under the product category of "action figures." What I imagine is really looked down on in boys who play with "girls" dolls. When I was a young boy I had a few different sets of these action figures. I had a Batman , which I recently passed down to Jupiter, who was also a dress up doll as he is able to switch out from his costume to Bruce Wayne. I had a Pee-Wee Herman action figure complete with his pal Chairy from the Pee-Wee's Playhouse series. I also had all four Ghostbusters action figures and some ghosts for them to trap complete with the Ghostbuster's House (dollhouse) and a Ghostbusters car. These are only some of the various action figures I spent my childhood playing with. I was not alon

Parents, watch out! Your kids might not appreciate the sounds you make with your significant other at night. The girl, 15, told an officer that she wanted to go to a local shelter “because she heard her mother having sex” and “felt disrespected” by her 35-year-old parent’s actions. The teen acknowledged that “there was no form of abuse or neglect in the house.” Seems a little over the top to me. After some sense was talked into her, the 15 year old decided that she still wants to live at home. If your kid is trying to regulate your sex life, maybe you should have a look at your relationship with them.

I am constantly amazed with how much the way we get information has changed in so little time. Not too long ago, most of our news came on the doorstep or television. If we wanted to find out what was going on with family or friends we would have to make a phone call, leave the house, or invite them over. Meeting new people meant leaving the house as well. Now, increasingly, the best place to find all these things and more is a cyber connection from your internet service provider. The newspapers, magazines, seven o'clock news, telephones, bingo nights, singles bars, etc. all still have a place in the lives of many people today. Those mediums are, however, getting trafficked less and less. Now for many people a lot of this comes in a stream on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+. You can find out which celebrity died, whose nephew had a new baby, and a philosophical discussion with friends of friends whom you have never met; and all in one page load, thanks to the advent of social networki

I have seen a bit of controversy stirring up in the stay at-home dad world lately. First I saw one of my dad friends post this video about "Little Boy Larry" by Mark Driscoll a few days ago. In it, Driscoll describes at-home dads as less than manly lazy asses who live off their wives and what they really want in a wife is a mom because they are deep down mamas boys. I am not that familiar with Driscoll. I may have heard the name a few times, but this is the first time that his name has really caught my attention. Wikipedia has him as a Christian pastor from Seattle, so the sense of patriarchy does not surprise me. There is a lot of patriarchy justified in the Bible, but I will get to that in a minute. I have have to wonder if, since he calls relationships where the man stays home with the kids while the wife works a mother/son relationship, he then considers a more traditional relationship where the wife stays home with the kids and the husband brings in the income a father

Today, many websites are going black in protest of the Protect IP bill now going through congress designed to ruin the way the internet works. Watch the video and follow the link below to let Congress know that you like the internet the way it is. [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/31100268 w=490&h=276] Fight for the Future

I think divorce gets a bad rap in our society. It gets painted as a problem when most often it is a solution to a problem marriage. Sometimes, for example when people marry their high school sweetheart, people have made an error in thinking that they have found someone who matches what they want for the rest of their lives. In this case, a divorce is the solution. Successful marriages have been studied to be associated with higher education and age. This makes sense. The more you know, the more you know what you are looking for in a partner. Many people are foregoing the whole idea of marriage altogether. Many people realize that as people grow, interests change and that you cannot definitely say that two people will remain interested in the same things for the rest of their lives. I am married to my wife, but I can see that point of view. Marriage in The US is also convenient for legal reasons. Taxes are higher on single people, and while the state using taxes to encourage marriage

One thing that I think I need to work on with Jupiter is being less of a helicopter sometimes. A helicopter parent is a term for one who hovers over their children like a helicopter to the extent that they do not let them learn from their own experiences. It is a form of over-parenting. I do not think that I am as bad about it as some parents I see, but I do think that I could work on it a bit and so I have been. Mostly I have trouble letting him make a mess because it causes more work for me, but I just need to get over it and clean up the mess and be thankful that he had the chance at a new learning experience. The other day we were at the Magic House and all but one small section of the museum was closed until noon. Jupiter was playing in a water area that has a stream of water on several levels with boats and dams and watering cans, as well as a little fountain area, an enclosed water gun case, and a couple other things to help teach young children about how we can interact with w

As CTO of the family, I vetoed the idea of getting cable television when we moved since we never used it in Lincoln. We received our television over the internet through a platform called Boxee . We had Boxee installed on a Mac Mini that sat under the television for the past two to three years or so, and it gave us all the television we needed. Recently, the powers that be at Boxee decided to release its final version of software that is installable on the PC/Mac/Linux. With this software release, the most notable change, for us, was that they dropped support for Netflix. We use Netflix with Boxee quite a bit, so we had to find a new solution. What I needed was support for Netflix, but also support for access to various media types over the local area network because we have many of our shows and movies available in that form ever since our physical media minimization . Boxee was based on XBMC , so I played with that first. There was a sort of Netflix app, but it was not very intuiti

This coming Wednesday, December 28, Michelle Hickman is calling for a nationwide "nurse-in" to take place in Target stores all over. It stemmed from her experience being harassed by Target employees for breastfeeding in, according to her, a nice quiet corner, under a blanket in a Houston store. She was asked to move to a dressing room to finish feeding her baby: I was Christmas shopping with a basket full of items when my infant woke up hungry, so I found a remote area of the store in the ladies clothing department close to the fitting rooms and sat Indian style on the floor next to my basket and a display of jeans and nursed my hungry baby with a blanket completely covering him. Briefly I will say that 2 female employees came and verbally asked me to move. The 2nd one told me that Target employees had been told/trained to interrupt nursing and to redirect mothers to the fitting rooms. Even after I informed the 2nd employee of my legal right to nurse in public she still sugg

This is how you know that the consumerism of Christmas is the least of the problems with your kid: Demanding Mekeeda Austin, 13, warned Father Christmas that he will be 'killed' if he fails to deliver at least two of her long list of lavish gifts. This is pretty pathetic. What was on said list you ask? Oh nothing much. Just a Blackberry, money, a designer sweater, high-top Converse sneakers, Austin Mahone or Justin Bieber (the real-life version), or designer sunglasses. I think the quickest way to correct this is to give her a lump of coal and let her go journey to the North Pole and try to find the object of her threat. She says, "I don't see any problem with the letter, I want all of these things and I don't see why I shouldn't get them." Her mother thought it was funny, and intends to indulge her daughters wishes: "When I first found the letter I thought it was funny, now I think I better get her what she wants, the last thing I want is for her to

There is this "war" that creeps up every year in recent years about Christmas and who gets to celebrate it and what it is all about and where it came from. I, frankly, do not care what your reason is for celebrating, I think you should do it if you like. If you do not feel like celebrating, do not. It really is that simple, but it always has to get complicated with some people who want to own it and make people not in their group feel like the outsiders that those in said group want to believe that they are. Merry Christmas vs Happy Holidays Last weeks Post Secret included the image that you see to your left. I think it is great and I tend to do just the same when confronted. I was at a Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert a few days ago and someone on the stage who represented a local radio station said, "Happy Holidays!" Some guy behind me, apparently feeling uncomfortably awkward at the knowledge of the existence of human beings who may celebrate something other tha

I recently wrote here about how our family treats the Santa Claus character as we would treat any other fictional character. I also mentioned that there are good arguments for propagating the lie from a critical thinking standpoint. An excerpt from Parenting Beyond Belief was posted on Dale McGowan's blog that does a very good job of making that argument : Santa Claus, my secular friends, is the greatest gift a rational worldview ever had. Our culture has constructed a silly and temporary myth parallel to its silly and permanent one. They share a striking number of characteristics, yet the one is cast aside halfway through childhood. And a good thing, too: A middle-aged father looking mournfully up the chimbly along with his sobbing children on yet another giftless Christmas morning would be a sure candidate for a very soft room. This culturally pervasive myth is meant to be figured out, designed with an expiration date, after which consumption is universally frowned upon. While

Because the thing that I really want is to cart my kids around on my back all the time. It is called, The Daddle and it is available from Amazon for the low price of $35.99 This comes from an actual saddle manufacture by the name of Cashel . I hope this does not become a trend, but there are a few amusing customer reviews: Wanderwoman says: Please note that this Daddle is Western Style and will not be appropriate for those trained in the English Father Riding Method whereby one holds a rein in each hand and posts the trot. If you are looking forward to father jumping, father fox hunting, father polo or daddy dressage you will not be able to use this Daddle. Western Daddle riders hold the reins with one hand, and sit the trot. The pommel or horn on this Daddle is meant to hold a lariat which is useful when roping cattle or other competing or unruly fathers.

When my generation hears the word "phone" we tend to think of something that derived from the telephone. That is, an electronic device that is used to transmit audio conversations between two or more parties. Some from my generation may have extended the definition to include the functions of a smartphone but still tend to think of it as primarily an audio transmission device. My son's generation will not think of an audio device. For example, when my son plays with something that he imagines is a phone, he uses it to do a variety of things. He uses it for audio transmission, but he also, in his imagination, uses it for playing games, watching videos, taking pictures, and more. He might as well be pretending that it is an iPod Touch. He certainly does not need to have a phone to provide all of the functions on the device that he is calling a phone. It has been years since the primary function on my mobile device has been the phone. Before I had a smartphone, I used the ce

Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today... Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one Today is the 31st anniversary of the day that John Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman. The song Imagine still inspires an deep felt emotional response every time I hear it. When thinking of my favorite music artists, Lennon does not cross my mind. I do not like choosing favorites when it comes to something like a song, but if

Yesterday was the birthday of our dog, Sunny. Our tradition with our dogs on their birthdays is to get them a cheeseburger and fries. We typically got this special treat from Runza , but with no Runza restaurant anywhere within at least a four hour drive, I settled for the fast food restaurant nearest our house. This was McDonalds . I do not go to McDonalds very often. My taste buds just do not agree with it. I have gotten a Happy Meal for Jupiter from there before, however. The time that I did, they had two classifications of toys. When they asked me which sex my child was. I queried as to the strange nature of asking such a question before providing me with a lunch for my son. They responded by informing me that they needed to know if they should give me a girls toy or a boys toy. I stated that there is no such thing, but knowing that it was not the employees decision to attribute gender to toys, I also told them that Jupiter was a boy so that they could get on with the rest of the p

When I was young my parents followed a tradition which I imagine was passed down to them from their parents who received the tradition from their parents before them and so on for a generation or two before them. I am of course talking about the yearly tradition of deceiving their gullible offspring with myths of a jolly man who lives at the North Pole. I fell for it. They were fairly elaborate to the point of even having a man dressed up as a Santa come to the front door one year. This of course sparked my suspicion a little. Why the front door and not the chimney? Though I do not remember what it was, a satisfactory explanation was given and I continued to believe in it. Eventually I did finally figure it all out, mostly through ridicule from schoolmates and my 3rd grade teacher for still believing it. I did not take the news well. I did not understand that my parents, who regularly told me that lying is wrong and makes Jesus cry, would keep up such an elaborate and ultimately pointl