Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

   

    

Did you know there’s an under 6 category at the US Kids Golf World Championship?  There’s also an 8 and under basketball tournament sponsored by the Amateur Athletic Union.  An estimated 35 million American kids participate in some kind of organized athletics.  My own two kids participate in organized gymnastics (not that there’s a disorganized kind).  I’m concerned for all these kids who are being pushed at such young ages to[…]

     

Neil (my 7 year old) has just started to take showers unsupervised.  By unsupervised I mean that I’m in the next room and ask him how he’s doing every 2 minutes.  I have to admit that the boy seems proud of his newfound responsibility, and he’s been trying his best to step up to the challenge.  Apart from coming out of the shower with[…]

 

  

I hear a lot of people say that once they had kids their lives changed dramatically.  They talk about how their priorities changed and how things suddenly became much harder – time, money, sleep.  Occasional I even hear people say what a mistake they think they made by having a family, that they would have more freedom and resources without one.  I suppose it’s[…]

  

Doctors at Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge seem to think they’ve hit upon a probably solution.  4% of British kids suffer from peanut allergies.  The treatment the doctors think works involves gradually desensitizing peanut allergic schoolchildren via a yogurt and peanut flour mixture taken daily.  To start 1 milligram of flour is mixed with a small amount of yogurt; then, based on reactions and over time, the ratio of flour to yogurt is increased. […]

   

If you considered getting a flu shot this year but didn’t, that’s called inaction.  You made a conscientious decision to not do it.  It also means the consequences of your inactions or actions are equally yours.  It may seem like a silly distinction, but it isn’t.  Americans, apparently, don’t like taking responsibility for disasters so they attempt to avoid that responsibility by not acting[…]

 

I don’t know.  I’m not there yet.  My boys are 7 and 5 years old and there’s no way I’m leaving them alone for anything longer than a trip to the mailbox.  But, I’ve read a few blogs recently where people are asking the same question.  You know, though, I don’t think there is a right age.  My 7 year old is, in a lot of ways, less mature than my 5[…]

 

  

Is normality defined by the person who proclaims it through the largest megaphone?  Maybe what is normal is decided by committee, a committee I’ve not been invited to join.  I think though that normal behavior is a popularity contest.  The cool people, by default, are normal because most people want to be them.  If you’re the parenting equivalent to a high school geek[…]

  

Besides the ability to read the next most important educational milestone is the successful understanding of the scientific method.  This year marks the 350^th anniversary of the birth of modern science. It was 350 years ago that the Royal Society was founded by the followers of Sir Francis Bacon.  It was Bacon who first argued that knowledge is gained by testing ideas with experiments. […]

  

Michio Kaku, in the video above, is talking about exponential technological growth and ubiquitous computing.  What he doesn’t talk about, and which I think is a component that he’s missing, is the limits people place on themselves and those around them.  Science is hindered by lots of things.  Wars and religion are two factors that contribute to the slowing of human advancement.  Sometimes wars are unavoidable, and sometimes continue

A guest post by Sean Polay from Commuter Daddy.

 

  

The wailing begins in the distance, and the crescendo kick starts with three successive jumps on the floor above.  That is immediately followed by stomping down the stairs as alligator tears flow and screams[…]