SuburbanDaddy

I read an interesting article that suggests parents are less likely to report being happy than the childless.
In Daniel Gilbert’s 2006 book “Stumbling on Happiness,” the Harvard professor of psychology looks at several studies and concludes that marital satisfaction decreases dramatically after the birth of the first child—and increases only when the last child has [...]

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When I was a kid, we didn’t wear bike helmets. No one did. I don’t even remember seeing bike helmets sold in stores. We also didn’t wear seat belts in cars. We were idiots.
Today I wear a seat belt and use a bike helmet. It never would occur to my [...]

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Dads are used to being the Rodney Dangerfield of parents. We don’t get no respect. Our culture is filled with reminders like Parenting Magazine’s tagline: “What matters to moms”.
Father’s Day provides the ultimate salt in the wound. BusinessWeek reports that in 2005, consumers spent $11 billion on Mother’s Day vs [...]

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I was surprised to learn that many child development experts agree that linking an allowance to the completion of chores is not the best approach. I would have thought the opposite, but it kind of makes sense.
Giving money for bigger chores is ok. But regular, everyday chores, like taking out the garbage or [...]

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Last week I went to Red Robin for lunch. Sitting in the booth next to us was a toddler girl, maybe 2 or 3 years, with her mom. The girl kept standing up and turning around to our table, like toddlers do, but it wasn’t what I would call particularly bad behavior. [...]

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I have played many, many games with Thing 1 this week. I’ve discovered that he is highly competitive and doesn’t like to lose very much. He’s not really a sore loser, and he doesn’t usually get upset when he loses. But whenever I win, he insists on playing again. And again. [...]

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We all have episodes from our past that we may not be proud of. Many are the exact behaviors we tell our kids not to do. Don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t have sex, don’t pierce, don’t get a tattoo.
Luckily for us parents, MySpace, YouTube, and digital cameras weren’t around when we young, so [...]

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Given the ruckus we had here this week, the choice for this week’s poll seemed obvious. Let’s put it to a vote!
And a reminder, if you have an idea for a future parenting poll, please leave a comment.

Should parenting community CafeMom allow dads to join?

Yes - dads are parents, too

No - moms [...]

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