I have the most wonderful DAD!

Yes, i have the most wonderful dad….unconditional love and the best. He has a blog, Enquiring Mimes and yesterday, he shared what someone wrote about being a father! Hehehehee, he is my father, and i am his kid!

The Art of Being a Father

artofmanliness

On weekends I spend time thinking about something other than just sharing technology with you. How about something else near and dear to me – being a father?

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, a father of six children, writes in a guest post on the Art of Manliness, The Awesome Dad Cheat Sheet: 18 Fatherhood Tips They Should’ve Handed Out at the Delivery Room.

I’ll share five of my favorites and then let let you read the rest in his post.

Don’t look at anything as “mom” duties — share responsibilities. While there are a lot of good things from our grandparents’ day that we should bring back, the traditional dad/mom split of parenting duties isn’t one of them. Some men still look at certain duties as “mom” duties, but don’t be one of those dads. Get involved in everything, and share the load with your baby mama. Changing diapers, giving baths, getting them dressed, even feeding them (you can give them breast milk in a bottle).

he and mum do share responsibilities, he feeds me at 8AM and mum feeds me at 8 pm! I think it has happened that mum might forget and I get fed at 10 or so, cuz dad ask, if i have been fed!

love mum and dad and my food!

A little patience goes a long way. As a parent, I know as well as anyone how easy it is to lose your patience and temper. However, allowing yourself to react in anger or frustration is not the best thing for your child, and you must remember that. That means you need to take a deep breath, or a walk, when you start to lose your patience. Practice patience with your child and your relationship, and your child, will benefit over the long run.

Dad does get very upset with me when he finds out i have snuck out, and even more upset when he has been driving the car around the block more than once and i do not show up…but no matter what, when he finds me, he never yells….patient??? hmm, i think he is relieved, but i guess the patience comes in that mum is still working on my recall so to get me to come when called…immediately……. when i sneak out, they both call, but sometimes i pretend i am deaf!

Sense of humor required. There will be times when your child does something that might make you blow your lid — writing in crayon all over the walls is a good one, as is dumping some kind of liquid on your couch, or sneaking out and taking your car to meet up with friends. While you need to teach your child not to do these things, it’s better to just laugh at the humor in the situation.

hmmm, my dad always has a sense of funny —– humor…. for i all the time get in his way, jump on his lap (he says he can not work), or i get underfoot and the wires get all weird (disconnect his internet) and he has to figure out what got unplugged —– but he just lets me still get on his lap or ‘disturb’ him when he is working! i think he really likes that i bug him, it shows him i love him and care and want to be near him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hehehe, he has two hands, one for petting me and one for the mouse! (the mouse is not a pet! and needs no petting, but dad always seems to be “petting” it)

Model good behavior. It’s one thing to tell you child what she should do, but to say one thing and do another just ruins the message. In fact, the real lesson your child will learn is what you do. Your child is always watching you, to learn appropriate behavior. Excessive drinking or smoking or drug use by parents, for example, will become ingrained in the child’s head. Bad manners, inconsiderate behavior, sloppy habits, anger and a negative attitude, laziness and greed … all these behaviors will rub off on your child.

dad does all the time try to teach me to be polite to others too, not jump on people and not snap at the baby here. dad says, we have to be nice to everyone cuz they are nice back.

i am a good ‘baby sitter!’

treat all ‘living things’ with respect! I think this one is not living! —- but i need to check it out first!

yes, treat all living things with respect —– and no, i am not mad, even though it seems as though, that is MY leash!

ps, i have tape on my head —— you might ask why??? mum did it! she was teasing, cuz she knows i can not get it off! PS, dad does not do things like that!

Treat their mother with respect, always. Some fathers can be abusive toward their spouse, and that will lead to a cycle of abuse when the child grows up. But beyond physical or verbal abuse, there’s the milder sin against the child’s mother: disrespectful behavior. If you treat your child’s mother with disrespect, your child will not only learn that behavior, but grow up with insecurities and other emotional problems.

in this house, mum and dad are different, but they are the same, so things get shared, and i love mum and dad and the real human baby here too, taught to treat mum and dad the same, and as a family of 4, we treat all living things here with respect….. that is the right way around here!

ps, the last few lines are what dad wrote… i think he means the human baby, he is one year old now!..However my dad is my dad too, and he does treat me right and love and good and no matter what, he LOVES me two! Baby is one, I am two!

i told you my dad loves me and i told you —— i love my dad!

I became a father last year at an age older than many and have had a wonderful year trying to learn how to work one of these baby-things.

Jake is over a year and I certainly understand the need for patience. I just told him that I wished he could just tone down the screaming for a couple of minutes so that I could write about how great it was to have a child (with a clear conscience).

kaley corgi kisses : )