Kirk blAug

Jupiter has been wanting to make music lately. When he shows an interest in something, I typically look for ways to foster it. In this case Chris and I found a music class aimed at three and four year olds. It is called Music by Leaps and Bounds and is a once a week 45 minute session. It includes singing, dancing, playing simple instruments, learning about different variations in notes, and more. Jupiter's first day was yesterday. He was a little bit apprehensive at first but by the end of the session he seemed to be enjoying himself. I was supposed to leave for the first 30 minutes of the class and come back for the last 15, but since I had never left Jupiter alone in this sort of environment before, he asked that I stay this time. After class I asked if it would be okay if I leave next time and he said it would. He has so far learned about making long sounds with the triangle and short sounds by hitting two wooden sticks together and it seems that they add new instruments and dy

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

I have been wanting to see this film since I first heard about it. I grew up listening to a lot of punk rock, so I was very interested to see what the artists interviewed and followed in The Other F Word had to say about parenting. The documentary finds several veteran punk rockers and asks them questions about the hardships of touring with their quasi-famous punk bands while trying to raise kids at the same time. At first the film is pretty depressing. It depicts the punkers as absent fathers who are out doing shows which they do not really have very much passion for anymore. One of them admits that they might as well be blowing up balloon animals, implying that they are nothing more than cheap entertainment bought and sold by the same types of corporations that some of them set out to rebel against. In one part of the movie, Lars Frederiksen of Rancid, takes his kid to the playground and clears the whole place out. He jokes on screen about how all you need to do to get the park to y

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

Some of the best toys cannot be bought in the toy section of the store. Regular household items that can be repurposed as toys can inspire great imagination. Jupiter and I had just used up a roll of wrapping paper after we wrapped his cousin's birthday present. I told him he could play with the cardboard tube that was left over. I remember my mother giving them to me to play with when I was a boy and I figured he might like to as well. He immediately found several uses for it. First he made his voice sound tunneled by speaking through it. We have all done that. Next he used it to hit the dogs. I was not to crazy about that and advised him against it. Then he started using it as a tunnel for his Hot Wheels cars to drive through. I am sure he will find many more things he can do with it too. What are some other good household items that can be repurposed as toys?

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