Not that I follow all of my own advice, but still, here’s what I have picked up so far, and I hope that it’ll help those of you who are doing the NewDaddyBlogs rather than people like me – I guess I qualify as SoonToBeDrivenInsaneByTweenDaddyBlog?

They are so cute right now. Wait until they start talking. You want them to stand, walk, and talk so badly you can taste it. Then you spend the rest of their lives(that they live with you) getting them to sit down and shut up

Do I do that? No, but I like passing on that nugget of wisdom, it makes me crack up. Ugh, ever type with a finger that you’ve cut the nail too close or you rip part of it off right now? I’m dying right now, but I feel it necessary to pass along this info to you. I’ll clean the blood off my keys later

So what’s it like being the father of an 11 yr old and an 9 yr old? Wow, where do I begin. He doesn’t like being alone. She talks and sings in class and gets in trouble for it (sort of). He’s weird like me. She’s independent like my wife. They yell “Daddy!!” when I come in the door and run to give me a hug. They are friends. I’m freaking because I know they are going to start, very soon, thinking the opposite sex is neat instead of icky. I think it’ll be her sooner than him

It’s frustrating, it’s nerve wracking, it’s cool as hell and wonderful all at the same time. You have to make decisions and actually consider their feelings and recently, allow them to have their say. You have to try to guide them without making it seem like you’re telling them what to do. You have to be their friend as well as be their parent, and sometimes the latter really sucks!

So here’s my advice. My number one thing that you MUST MUST MUST do to be a successful parent.

You have to present a united front with your spouse/partner because if you don’t, they’ll see it, and figure it out quickly. I don’t always agree with something my wife does, but I will always support her and then maybe talk to her about it later. There have been times, however, that we haven’t pow-wowed beforehand and she or I will call each other on it.

One of the things I remember growing up was that my parents could do no wrong, they didn’t make mistakes, they were always right. One of the most important things we are trying to get across to our kids is the fact that we are human. Fae and I both had serious problems with drugs and alcohol when we were young, so much so that we don’t drink or smoke to this day. I think her addiction was probably worse than mine, but it’s something we decided together. We also decided to explain to the kids that Mommy and Daddy did this when they were young, and this is what happened. Mommy has problems with her nose because of everything she put up it, and Daddy took 11 years to finish college because for a large portion of that, he was too busy smoking pot and goofing off.

We believe that by providing examples of what happens, that we can hopefully cut off the addictive personalities they can inherit from both of us later in life. We also hope that they can see that people do make mistakes and that we are EXTREMELY LUCKY to not only have found one another, but to have succeeded as much as we have.

I remember learning about drugs and alcohol in high school – Oh I’m never going to do that! NO WAY! I was adamant. 2 years later, I’m failing out of the same college for the second time because I was smoking way too much pot and barely studying or going to class.

What’s the main lesson from all of this rambling – be honest with your kids. Be the friend when you can, and be the Parent when you need to be. Follow through with things you say, or don’t say them.

Anyway, hope this helps. Solidified all that rambling in my own head

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 at 11:45 am and is filed under Dad, Daily Entry, dadBlogs, nerdlings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.