There’s probably not a lot (positive wise) you can say about your dad without seeming schmultzy. I mean, Father’s Day is full of cards, books, mugs, ties, inspiring calendars and various other dust-collecting knick-knacks that experess deep sentiment in new cliches. Sometimes that makes it hard to really get to the heart of why one man deserves the respect, honor and admiration of his offspring. The dad job isn’t an easy one, for all of their life (or more) you’re the hero your child looks up to.

Dads have a profound impact on their kids. Look at the various TV shows, movies, books and songs written about this phenomenon. Daddy issues or Daddy legacies shape most of those stories.

So when I sing the praises of my dad, know that I do so with the full realization that it might (at times) seem very Halmark-ian. I can’t help myself. For all his faults and all my faults, for all of the times I’ve been frustrated or disappointed, for all of the fights and friction: I adore my dad.

There are a couple reasons for this I believe. One is the universal truth that fathers and daughters have a special bond. Dad was always my “safe place”, when the world around me seemed utterly scary – Dad was there. I was his princess in a kingdom that seemed amazing and full of imagination and life and fun. And it seemed that way because my dad was always around. Dad was not afraid to play with us, hold us, hug us and tuck us into bed at night. He loved being with my sister and I. Even when he had worked a long, tiresome day at construction I remember him coming into my bedroom and kissing me goodnight. He never forgot.

The other reason I adore my father so much is that we are very much alike. Which of course also leads to most of the friction and annoyances with each other. We’re both veracious readers, we enjoy technology, we love to write, we’re both geeks (though our geekdom takes different forms) and we both have a natural leadership quality that can drive other people nuts. Of course, the one area we were fairly polar opposites on was my intense love of cats — but Tigger won him over (slightly) in the end.

Dad bought me my first Sherlock Holmes collection when I was 9 (my first fandom which lead to inspiring me to be a writer), he and my mom edited my first novel, they sent me to college and they continue to help make my dreams come true even as an adult. Recently my dad and I went to a WGA Writers on Writing panel together and enjoyed the entire evening together. Looking back I can see how special that is – being able to talk and interact without it being a weird situation (like a lot of adult children and their parents have).

My dad is still my hero. He works multiple jobs, loves my mom with an intensity that most married couples lose early on, and he strives to be a man of God. There’s a reason his Starbucks card says “Dr. Dad the Incredible”.

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There’s a John Mayer song called “Daughters” and the resounding chorus line is “fathers be good to your daughters, daughters will love like you do…” When I opened this post to talk about Father’s Day, the line was stuck in my head. My father has been very good to this daughter.

I adore my father. I have ever since I can remember. My father and I are very similar in temperment, interests, etc. I wanted to be him. I was proud of my dad and for no small reason. My dad was a pastor (still is) and how can you not be proud of a man whose Boss is God?

Sure we’ve not always seen eye to eye. Who on this world has? Being so similar we similarly can get on each others nerves. I don’t always agree – but I do respect him, admire him and hope that some day my husband can measure up to him.

In a world where people find out every day what scoundrals their fathers are (or were), where kids grow up without their dads, where dads leave moms, I’m so grateful for my dad. My dad is a man of integrity, of truth, of passion and love. He adores my mother. Since we’ve moved out of the house (my sister and I) my dad has made it clear to people that my mom is the center of his life. We were at lunch the other day with a couple and my dad said to them, “I’d rather spend time with my wife than with anyone else – even my kids.” The couple looked rather shocked, but I smiled and said “go ahead!”

Why? Because I love the relationship my parents have. I want it to last, grow even stronger and be even more romantic.

This is really disjointed, but what I really wanted to say is:

Happy Father’s Day and I have the best Dad EVAH!

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Now, I’ve been online for over… crap over ten years. So I have a good feeling for the difference between text vs. spoken vs. actually in person communication, but sometimes even I can forget the difference.

I realized it tonight when talking to my mom. I’ve been really digging the podcast Comedy4Cast. It’s short, hilarious and I have been laughing till I cried over some of the shows.

I emailed a couple to my dad, and he sent an email back that seemed like he enjoyed it, but not entirely crazy about it. Fastforward to tonight when I talked to my mom. She said, “your dad was laughing and laughing at the episode.”

Huh? It’s amazing how much is lost in the translation. I guess that’s why I’ve been enjoying podcasting. You can hear someone’s tone and inflection. A lot more two-dimensional than actually reading their words. I’ve been doing the Twitter thing for awhile now and loving it. Why? I am not sure. It’s part voyerism, part a way to really learn something about other people. My life is pretty much an open book most of the time – so twittering is fun.

That said, I think I communicate who I am more with words than with my spoken word. It’s very interesting the levels of communication and how all of them work together to make cohesive whole.

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I read on our wonderful little kiosk screens in the elevator the other day that kids spend more time watching tv than they do read or being read to. Now, while this shouldn’t surprise me – it kind of did.

I will agree that TV for kids has grown leaps and bounds. I love shows like Dora the Explorer, Blues Clues and others that teach valuable, educational lessons and make it fun.

This does not, however, replace books.

Gosh. READ people.

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My parents just got back to the States (they’re in NY) from going to Israel.

So my mom leaves me a nice “we’re back, we’re good, we’re tired, we’ll call you tomorrow” voicemail.

And then she goes, “Oh, we got you just wanted you wanted. A nice Jewish boy. Dad arranged an arranged marriage for you and we set the wedding date for May 31st.”

(when she left she asked what I wanted and I said nothing really… a nice Jewish boy?)

I love my ‘rents.

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In His Image is the next step for those who have read The Purpose Driven Life. Following the Life Purpose of Mission, this book explores God’s great love for humanity from every book of the Bible.

From the creation of Genesis to the culmination in Revelation, God’s love shines through every page. Never is this ever clearer than in the times of Israel’s great betrayal of their God. His passionate pursuit of His children can be heard dripping from his voice as He calls them (and us by proxy) back to His shelter and protection.

This book was written …

• To convince the reader of God’s intense and immense love for them;

• To encourage the reader to reach out to the God who is passionately in love with them;

• To strengthen the reader’s faith in God’s compassion; and

• To motivate the reader to share the love of God with every person they meet. It is very clear God loves people of all races and ethnicities. Therefore, whenever appropriate to the passage of the day, emphasis is made on the issue of racial reconciliation around God’s love. His love becomes the motivation for evangelism and for community.

In each daily devotional …

• There is a Biblical Scripture they are encouraged to read;

• There is a passage of Scripture to read in the devotional itself;

• There is the devotional to read which focuses the reader on a single thought, broken into two, three or four practical ideas they can utilize that day in their lives; and

• There is a thought to take with the reader each day which summarizes the theme concerning God’s great love for them.

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   “I had no idea!” Surprises are fun most of the time. A surprise birthday party, winning the lottery, your best friend’s engagement to the perfect guy – these are all good surprises. But there are also those “not-so-good” surprises.  And all too often one of those occurs when parents actually see the video games, movies, TV shows and other media that their child is viewing.  Making sure your child is only accessing age appropriate content can be very difficult for busy parents who aren’t active consumers of kids’ media; you simply can’t stay current with the “latest and greatest” attractions. 

    By the time their child is three years old, most parents are tired of hearing the catchy sing-song themes of his or her favorite TV show.  So by the time that child is 8 or 9 it’s not uncommon for those same parents to have stopped monitoring that child’s media choices.  And unfortunately, on those rare occasions when they do – when a parent watches a scene, hears a song lyric, or discovers web sites frequented by their kids, the response is the not-so-good version of “I had no idea”. 

    But you don’t have to wait for that dreadful surprise.  There are ways for you to be proactive – to learn about what your kids may be viewing beforehand and avoid that terrible shock.  The following links are a good starting place (but nothing replaces constantly “checking in” from time to time to see what your kids are up to).                                                                                                           
CommonSensemedia.org    – A very comprehensive review site for movies, TV, games, music, websites and books. It not only includes the website’s reviews, it also allows users to add their own ratings. If you’re looking to find age appropriate material, there’s navigation to take you to materials specifically tagged as appropriate for particular ages.

ParentsTV.org - A nonprofit organization dedicated to educating parents about television. This guide is segmented by the day AND the entire week’s TV programming. It’s laid out to mimic  TVGuide.  It only contains the basic channels and prime time television – not the extended cable lineup.  Some shows are not rated, but it’s still a helpful guide. You can also look up specific shows on the website if you have concerns.  They also have reviews of video games  here.

Parent Previews at Movies.Go.Com -  – These reviews include a short snapshot of each movie based on Violence, Sexual Content, Language and Drugs/Alcohol. Movie reviews exist for movies in the theater, movies on DVD and “family-friendly” titles. There are also full movie reviews.  They also have reviews of video games  and music. 

ScreenIt.com  – this site is extremely comprehensive when it comes to their reviews of movies, DVDs and music. Be forewarned that major spoilers are within the reviews – you may find out more than you want to know if it’s a movie you’re considering seeing. While this can be annoying, the site does give parents a complete run down of any questionable content a film might contain.  Navigation is by release date or by title, which is easier for parents looking for the “movie of the week” to watch.

PluggedIn.Com  – this website is maintained by Focus on the Family and contains witty reviews of TV, movies and music. While the content is not as comprehensive as other sites it is condensed and fun to read.

KidsInMind.com -  this site reviews movies and rates them based on sex/nudity, violence/gore and profanity. The reviews contain explanations of each scene on which they based their rating and the reviewer’s take on what the “message” of the movie is.  Navigation is a bit more difficult on this site and there seems to be no clear cut archive to find specific titles.

These are just some of the more popular sites out there for parents to preview content their kids may want to watch (or already be watching).  It’s another instance of the balance the Internet provides – it makes both good and bad content easy to access.  The key is to learn how to use the Internet for good purposes and limit as much of the bad as you can.  Not an easy task.  But hopefully, this list will make that never-ending quest a little bit easier.    

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This video is from the TV show House MD, the BEST argument I’ve seen in the whole vaccination debate.

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I’ve written a couple entires dealing with "helicopter parents". This is a term referring to parents who seem to hover around their child even after they’ve left the house for college and so on. These parents deal directly with professors, line up job interviews and then complain when their child doesn’t get the right grade or the best job.The worst offenders in the helicopter parents category write their child’s reports for them.

Apparently the trend is continuing within the children themselves.  According to CNN.com:

Almost everyone experiences occasional homesickness, but many young people suffer from a particularly intense form that interferes with normal activities, according to a new study by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The report in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics offers tips to physicians for recognizing risk factors among patients who are leaving home for the first time.

This is just getting ridiculous. I had a hard time when I first left home, I missed my parents, but I thrived at college. I found my niche, I learned a lot and grew up as an adult. I think the environment of parents and children is becoming more symbiotic than relational. I fear that parents in the US are more and more focused on having children as an accessory and less focused on training their children to become independent, individualistic adults.

In the past the whole goal of child raising was to have people who could continue your trade or work your farm. As a result, you learned skills, trades and the basic mechanics of everyday life. Today kids seem to be no more than the latest iPod or an accessory to make them appear younger.

I got my Dad Season one of House MD, a television show about a sarcastic doctor who tells it like it is. In one memorable scene a mother brings her daughter in so the doctor will tell her that sugar is bad and the little girl needs to lose weight. House, in normal fashion, hits the nail on the head when he tells the mother that all she wants to do is dress the daughter up in cute matching outfits so people will say "how cute, you must be sisters". House says the mother doesn’t really care about the daughter, but more about having the daughter make her look good.

This phenomenon means that most kids when hitting college have no real life skills. They don’t know how to balance a checkbook, wash their clothes, make a simple meal or organize their homework and studying. A gross overstatement of this came from a reality show I was watching about some rich girls (no it wasn’t Simple LIfe) and the one girl was home alone and wanted to make nachos. She headed to the local grocery store and wandered around for what seemed like forever. She even stopped one of the employees and asked what the best cheese was for nachos. It was painful to watch because the girl was in her mid-20′s and couldn’t make something as simple as nachos. Not teaching kids how to be adults will only increase the number of college kids and older children who remain at home, afraid of moving out and being their own person.

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