Straight Dope Dad | A Father's View on Parenting

Summary: No matter how bizarre and unlikely, you should take your child seriously when they insist the “impossible” is possible. This story happens during our very recent and very long wet spring. In you live in the bay area our spring was unusually wet. It seemed to rain at least once per week. Bes

So my daughter and I have been playing Uno in the evenings. It’s a fun, easy game to wind down the day with, and with two people it goes rather brisk. Skip cards now skips the next hand directly back to yourself. Reverse does the same thing. To make it less painful we allow you [...]

Summary: A Toddlers Transcendent Stair Climbing Experience leads to Bedtime Nirvana My daughter’s always been a powerhouse of gross motor skills. The very first time she picked up a spoon she held it like an adult. Same with a pencil. No gorilla grips for her. So when she started walking I was not t

I’m doing some gardening when my daughter walks up. “Am I a tomboy?” “Well some may consider you a tomboy because you’re strong and athletic and like things like dinosaurs, skulls, and boys underwear and swim trunks. But I don’t like the term tomboy because it implies that a girl should only behave

Summary: Tens seconds of classic rock leads to ten minutes of relationship talk. I’m on the way to the boardwalk with my daughter and her good friend when I click on the classic rock station to clear my head. Wouldn’t you know it, it’s old favorite by Foreigner. But you’ve got to give me a [...]

Summary – Sometimes it’s not about solving a problem but about rolling with the punches…literally. How I rode out four hard years of tough tantrums from toddler, to preschool, to kindergarten. As much of a fan I am of modern parenting techniques and philosophies they also assume a certain basic leve

Summary. The sociopolitical implications of miniature golf and a broken arcade game redistributes the wealth. It’s two weeks before the new year and we’re burning through our coupon book for the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk. You see, every year we get a year pass, and with that pass comes a coupon boo

My daughter has a bit of a problem hitting her “thuuu” sounds. Many times they come out as an “fuuu” sound. Now this is really common and it’s not a speech problem because she can hit the “thuuu” if she concentrates. Me, my partner and my daughter are in the car on the way to [...]

Summary – Not all boys are destructive, but nearly every destructive person is a boy. That’s not a value judgment it’s just a reality. If you want to see why the world is the way it is just go hang out a family entertainment center and watch the action. In San Jose there’s a killer [...]

Summary: Kids can handle the truth. They can handle death.  It’s adults than need happy stories to ease their discomfort. When it comes to the big “D” parents just fall apart. They use euphemisms and abstractions when explaining it to their children. To complicate matters, most parents believe in so