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DIYFather.com is an interactive online forum for fathers aimed at providing information on parenting, a support structure and male perspective on what it means to be a dad these days.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'bruce sallan'
A dad\'s point of view - a dad, his son and poor grades
What parent hasn’t dreaded report card time, especially when a child is underperforming? How do two kids, born of the same genetic material, turn out so differently when it comes to school performance and their work ethic? When is it wrong if the ...
A dad\'s point of view - raising kids takes a lot of luck
Raising kids, like many things in life, involves many factors but luck is a key factor. I’ve faced recent reminders about this when I attended the Bar Mitzvah of a young man with severe learning disabilities, whose parents had the poor luck that h...
A dad\'s point of view - random musings
Sometimes there are many ideas fighting for attention in my mind, covering all the subjects I tend to write a column about, but each isn’t worthy of its own full-length coverage. Consequently, I collect them. So, in no particular order, here are m...
A dad\'s point of view - my son has the swine flu
We just went through the swine flu with our older son, Will. We didn’t panic or allow the hysteria of the msm (mainstream media) to scare us. His first reaction was simply, “Darn, I’m going to miss Halloween.” I believe our media have become...
A Dad\'s Point of View - Can Families Avoid Playing Favorites
Sitting in Starbuck’s the other day, waiting for my car to be serviced, I sat next to a mom who shared a “dirty little parenting secret.” Her kids, and she and her husband, have “favorites.” She gets along better with their younger child w...
A Dad\'s Point of View - Stuck Between My Wife and the Kids
In every marriage, spouses face an inevitable choice between their children and their spouse. It is a classic dilemma that confronts every couple and one that is inescapable and difficult. It is especially true in second marriages, like mine. I have...
A dad\'s point of view - email etiquette and kids
E-mail is so ubiquitous that we forget that it isn’t talking on the phone or having a conversation in person. Subtlety, facial expressions, or tonality are all lost in an e-mail message. I have found this has gotten me in trouble when I think I...
A Dad\'s Point of View - Who Said Marriage Should be Work
I recently learned some statistics that surprised me, but upon reflection they really made sense. What do you think the rate of divorce is between first, second, and third marriages? Think about it. I didn’t and came to the wrong conclusion. It...
A Dad\'s Point of View - My Son Has a Girlfriend Now What Do I Do
My son has his first girlfriend and I am pleased that he is now old and mature enough to enter the dating stage. I’m excited for him. In a funny way, I’m re-living vicariously my long-forgotten feelings of first love and all the nervousness, anx...
A dad\'s point of view: it\'s a tech world after all
I love technology. I hate technology. I get so frustrated with technology. All of the above. That’s my generation and definitely me. My friend Marty is a tech wizard, while my wife is still using computers primarily for e-mail. I’m somewhat...
A Dad's Point of View: Male and Female Roles in Our Politically Correct Society
I am more and more troubled by how male and female roles in our society have evolved. Clearly, I may just not fully understand and accept these changes, but I want to understand for the sake of my boys. I’m trying to teach them to be men, how to t...
A Dad\'s Point of View: Not Too Old for Rock\'N Roll
I just returned from one of the best three-day trip of my parenting life. My son, Will, not yet 16, and two of his female friends and I drove to San Francisco to attend the Outside Lands Music Festival. It’s an all-day late-into-the-night, music f...
A Dad's Point of View: Not Too Old for Rock'N Roll
I just returned from one of the best three-day trip of my parenting life. My son, Will, not yet 16, and two of his female friends and I drove to San Francisco to attend the Outside Lands Music Festival. It’s an all-day late-into-the-night, music f...
A Dad\'s Point-of-View: In-Laws, Second Marriages, and Baggage
I believe all clichés are generally true. How else could something become a cliché in the first place? Not surprisingly, then, all the clichés about second marriages are true. Indeed, comedy careers have been built around jokes about a second ...
A Dad's Point of View: Persistence - The Only Thing That Works
A recent e-mail from my oldest friend, a college professor, stimulated me to reflect on how we search and find work, as well as in small business how we promote and sell ourselves. On this subject, I’ve observed my teen son’s failed efforts to f...
A Dad's Point of View - Words That Heal, Words That Hurt
Most of us gossip without giving it any thought whatsoever. Yet, its effects can be so damaging and full of impact. Our kids face this sort of thing in high school in ways we couldn’t have imagined long ago. With the advent of instant communicat...
A Dad's Point of View - My kids aren't me
I think the hardest lesson for me in becoming a parent was learning to let go of my expectations for my sons. Okay, I’ll be completely honest; I’ve only been able to partially let go of them. I think it’s impossible not to have some wishes fo...
A Dad's Point of View - Is Envy a Good Thing?
A recent visit to an old friend’s beautiful new home triggered a brief moment of envy for me. While I was extremely happy and proud of his accomplishment in creating such a lovely home, with so much care and detail, I also found myself longing for...
A dad's point of view - the good, the bad and the ugly
No, I'm not writing about the movie or its wonderful music. Instead, this column will contain lists of random things that I think fit those three categories. I was driving to Mammoth, a ski resort we frequent, alone and early in the morning and began...
A dads point of view - father's day
Bruce's story titled "Memories are made of this" at T-6 in our countdown to Father's Day I am quite happy to write this column from the vantage point of some distance from the pain of my own father’s death and the time I was alone, separated, and t...
A Dad’s Point-of-View - Diversity is a Nine Letter Word
Diversity is a nine-letter word; so is parenting. ShortRib (my wife) and I met a wonderful couple on our recent honeymoon that, at first, we thought and they thought represented the most diversity in a couple any of us knew. In fact, they were writ...
A dad's point-of-view - paving the way
Where do our kids get their values? Are you comfortable with the values they learn in public school? How about on MTV, cable or other television? Are reality shows actually reality? Do you think modern music teaches them about love and romance? M...
A dad's point of view - am I a selfish parent?
It’s high time I wrote a column that stirs some reaction, creates some controversy, and isn’t so sweet and nice. No gratitude for surviving what should have been a deadly car crash, no treatises on the values of volunteering, or even about the i...
A Dads Point of View - STEPPIN'
The ‘50s ideal of the nuclear family is clearly a thing of the past as most statistics readily confirm. Divorce is rampant and the definition of family is undergoing constant scrutiny and redefinition. For my family, we’ve been dealing with a ne...
A dad's point of view - lessons of a big brother and mentor
One of the clichés about volunteerism is the fact that you often get more than you give. In my case, it was in ways and means I least expected. I’ve just become a Big Brother, again, to a 7-year-old boy and a Mentor to a 22-year-old young man. ...
IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID, I MEAN, SON
I had naively hoped never to live through tough economic times like my folks did, with The Great Depression. And, while I still believe that we’re far from those dark days, it is clear that we are in the midst of the worst financial crisis of my li...
Introduction to "A Dad's Point of View" article series
I have been writing a dad’s column for several years, recently expanding to many papers and sites across the country. My parenting background seems to have included many of the most common challenges. As an older parent to begin with (having my fi...
