As a Father, if you’re going to disappoint some of them, you might as well disappoint all of them…

I wanted to post this last week when it happened but did not get a chance but since that night this scenario has come up over and over again, just not to the same extent.

The night it first happened, was a special night in the Urban Daddy household.  Determined to get back into some semblance of an exercise routine, I made up my mind early in the day that I would run on the treadmill that evening, by hook or by crook.

Since I’m still within my 3 month window of a new job with much greater responsibility, and the stress / excitement of meeting new people, learning new systems, figuring out acronyms and being on my toes all the time, I have found myself quite exhausted by about 10pm, which means that is around the time I tend to fall asleep on the couch when trying to; watch TV, read, blog, play Cityville, or… exercise.  Very unusual for me as I’m used to 1-2am sleeps with 6am wake-ups.

This night was exercise night and the beginning of a new schedule for me.

New Routine – Thursday night.:

Eat dinner with the kids (not unusual at all)

Stewie piano lessons

Give Berry a bath

Linus annoy mummy during math lesson

Then switch…

Linus piano.

Berry and Stewie before bed snack.

All kids in bed by 8:15 and I’m going to treadmill for 1/2 hour before I have a shower, then run out to grab milk.  I really want to begin getting to bed at a reasonable hour – it is currently 12:33am so that is not happening.

Then it all fell apart.

Urban Mummy wanted to talk to me.  We didn’t talk much the previous night and she barely saw me today and she wanted to chat but I patted my flabs and said, “Sorry hun!  I have to treadmill”.  She was disappointed.

I went to check on the kids and here is what happened;

Walked into Stewie’s room, and surprisingly he was still awake.

“Stay with me, Daddy”, he said.

“Sorry kiddo.  I have to treadmill right now so I can shower, get milk and talk to your mother before she falls asleep or kills me”.

He was disappointed.

I went from there to Linus’ room where he was sitting up in his bed too.

“Lay with me, Daddy and tell me a story, please”.

“Can’t buddy.  Have to go treadmill before mummy goes to sleep.

He gave me his pouty disappointed face.

Out I marched and right into Berry’s room where surprisingly she was up too.

“Rub my back and stay with me Daddy”, she said.

“Sorry, sweetie, I have to treadmill.  Sing for me and I will tuck you in when I’m done.”

She was not happy either because she didn’t sing for me and she usually does.  “Bla Bla Blacksheet”

Out I walked.

4 people wanted me to stay with them and 4 people got nothing.

Like I said in the title.  Go big or go home.  If you’re going to disappoint someone you might as well disappoint all of them.

Dads…  You turn.  What would you have done?

Related articles

• Ah, those kids and the things they say… Was I this clever / funny as a kid? I doubt it. (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• Should I be concerned that my kids are smarter than me? (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• Are you hungrier than a 5-year-old? (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)

 

And the Academy Award for the Largest Ego for a Spoiled Athlete(s) goes to… The Miami Heat.

I just realized the Academy Awards were on the same night as the NBA all-star game.  Oops.  Different genres of people, I guess.

I watched the 2nd half of the NBA All-Star game because at the end of the first half the score was something insane like 109-88 for the Western Conference which meant the Miami Heat threesome of LeBron (I am the King) James, Dwayne (I can win on my own and don’t need these clowns) Wade and… oh yeah that third wheel and former Raptor Chris (Can I please ride on your coat-tails) Bosh, were losing.  Yay.  so I continued watching hoping for the Eastern conference to lose even though my Raptors play in the East.

But to my utter enjoyment, the East made a game of it, LBJ was putting up 3-pointer after 3-pointer.  It was incredible.  Sure they were down by 20 points, but that is when LBJ is at his best, right? because when push came to shove, it was LBJ who missed a key 3, and then Wade dropped a long-bomb pass which would have been an easy lay-up and probable East win.  Even on the last shot of the game, LBJ didn’t want to take it, he passed it off. 

They choked. He choked.

History repeats itself.

And when the camera panned to LBJ, he was laughing and shrugging his shoulders like it was nothing.  Then while being interviewed he played it off even more along the lines of it doesn’t really matter, the game is over.

It does matter.  LBJ knows he is not the most popular player in the league and that he is slowly developing a reputation of being a bit of a choke artist.  It’s getting to him, and it’s clearly obvious.  He wants to win but doesn’t want that last shot.  Wade will take it.  Kobe will take it.  Even Bosh is used to taking it since he was forced to in Toronto. 

This is the same LBJ who was so popular in high school that either an agent or the school bought his mother a Hummer and when it was made public they denied it.  He’s not cut from a moral cloth to be a role model and to be honest, he’s drinking the cool-aid about how great he is (or thinks he is). 

Now having said all this, the Heat will probably win the championship this year… UGH.

—————————————————

On Sunday, I took Linus with me to a volunteer event – we, at the urban daddy household volunteer at least once a month with the kids to give back to the community – and we took part in an hour of yoga while at this event.  Let me tell you this… Dads… It was hard.  I’m sure the moms have done it numerous times and we all know woman are more flexible anyways, but for me it was tough, but as the program went on, I could really feel the stretch.  I was sore after, a little bit sweaty – not like playing ball hockey – but I knew I was in a workout.  So then after all the cobra’s, downward dogs, sunset’s, etc., the instructor informed me this was a “beginner” class.  OY.   

By Monday morning, I realized that my back was not sore when I woke up which told me need to do more yoga!

What do you have to say?

And don’t forget to like me on Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/pages/Urban-Daddy/109554365740659 

And follow me on Twitter @urbandaddyblog

Related articles

• Nicki Minaj disses NBA star (bazaardaily.com)
• LeBron easy target, even in All-Star Game (foxsportsflorida.com)

 

Why I ate a warm banana tonight…

Tonight I ate a warm banana.

Why you ask?

Because my stubborn daughter, Berry would not go to sleep tonight.  She had a 1 1/2 hour nap with her nanny this afternoon and that meant she was not happy to be in bed at 8pm.  She cried, she yelled, she screamed… She wanted to “eat” which meant STALLING! 

Before bed she wants to eat or poo, both opportunities for her to not have to go to sleep even if she is exhausted as I suspected she was tonight.

The Leafs were playing the Penguins and I had the TV on.

I gave her a banana and she took one bite then she leaned her head on the side of the couch while I cleaned up.  I asked her if she was ready for bed but she said no and she took the world’s smallest nibble of this banana. 

I continued cleaning, checking on her every couple of minutes.

I left the room and came back in to find this;

 

Here is what this urban daddy is reading

Here are the 3 books I am reading right now;

1. Honey I Wrecked the Kids – Alyson Schafer
2. Corporate Trust Program – The Trust Institute / The Institute of Canadian Bankers
3. The Follow Through Factor – Gene Hayden

At the completion of these books I will better be able to…

1. Raise my kids
2. Do my job
3. Do what I say I will do

Oh, and last night I read my son 9 chapters of Captain Underpants. He is… and interesting character, that underpants guy… I don’t remember reading silly books when I was a kid – well, I didn’t really read at all until I was 6 or 7.  I do remember reading tons of Archie comics and the sports section of every newspaper I could get my hands on. From there I graduated to the Choose Your Own Adventure series, while my sister raved about Judy Blume.

Now kids read about Professor Poppy P. Poopypants…

Cool, eh?

I’ll let you know how this works out. 

 

We’re all adults (or parents) here: A post about… Semen, Vulva and Penis.

I wasn’t sure whether or not to post this blog – it as been sitting in my draft folder for ages, but due partially to lack of creativity and my boys swimming – I am pressing send and holding my breath.

As the father to 3 children - 2 boys and a girl - the conversations around body parts have been common place in my household for just over a year now and do not seem to be going away.

It all started when my daughter, Berry, was born.  I caught both boys staring at her, puzzled why she had no penis.  My wife and I found it quite funny, and we had to explain that girls don’t have a penis - to be anatomically correct, instead of telling them about her vagina, we’ve been calling it a vulva. 

I recall at one point my son questioned the use of that word as “mummy drives a volvo”. Yes she does, and she also has a vulva… All girls do.

I’ve caught the boys looking for their sister’s penis in case she really does have one and it is just hiding in her diaper or sleeper.  It took my middle child, Stewie, the better part of six months before he was satisfied that she did not have one.

We encourage the kids to be open and honest about their bodies and ask questions if they really want to know. 

So I was not surprised when last week at swimming my oldest boy was looking at the penis of another boy. I caught him and when we left the change room, I casually asked him what he was looking at on that boy. Defensively, he said, “nothing”.  I told him it was okay to look and I further enquired if he was looking at the boys un-circumcised penis, since all the men and boys he knows are circumcised.  He had never seen one before.

“Yes”, he admitted.  But then he wanted to know why.  So I explained to him that Jewish babies (but not just Jewish babies) have the skin that covers the head of their penis removed by a doctor called a moyel so that it is healthier. He totally bought that and we left.

I don’t want the kids to have the hangups with their bodies that I did growing up as a fat, awkward child. I wouldn’t shower in gym glass, and was very unsure of myself growing up.

I have two defining moments for me which helped contribute to my awkwardness and I do want to see those situation occur for my kids and cause them the same stress and frustration that it caused me, plus no one likes the stinky boys. 

I remember in grade 6 trying to be one of the boys and wanted to show that I could talk like the cool kids. The song “Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight runner was playing on my Sony Walkman (tape!) and I said to my friends, “Hey this song says there is cum on Eileen”. I was very proud of myself.

My friend turned to me and said, “Hey! Dude! My mom’s name is Eileen” and off he stormed.

I felt terrible.

I tried apologizing the next day at work but he wouldn’t talk to me. I explained to my other friends I didn’t know but they seemed amused by my stress rather than concerned, and it wasn’t until 2 months later when this friend told me he was pulling my leg and his mom was not Eileen. He liked that I was stressed over it.

Geez.

From that point on I promised not to talk like a potty mouth to my friends.  I held on to my inner-perv.

Next situation:

Sue Johanson – The legendary sex therapist came to my high-school for her annual talk.  In anticipation, we were asked to write questions for her and to drop them into a hat on the way into the forum, so that at some point she would be able to answer them.  For some odd reason my friend and I decided it would be a good idea to write a funny question for her to answer.  I don’t recall the questions being bantied about but boy do I remember the one I chose to write down;

“What does cum taste like?”

For some reason being a 13-year-old boy, this was funny.  Like REALLY funny.

So throughout the whole 2 hour session my friend and I sat near the back of the room, under a boardroom table, waiting for that moment when she would read the questions.  When it came time for questions we sat there, eagerly listening to the really smart questions, and some dumb ones, waiting for our moment.

Not thinking for a moment what a dumb-ass I was in school – unable to control my laughter at the best of times and getting tossed out of many classes for it – I failed to think this through.  The moment she picked up my question – the last question of the session, and she read it, I burst out in uncontrollable laughter along with my friend.  It took seconds before the entire grade – teachers included – were looking at us, clearly knowing who wrote this idiotic question.

But Sue… Professional Sue… Took it all in stride and answered the question;  “salty” was her response.

I felt like a fool.

My friend did too.

We spent the rest of the week denying that we were behind the question, instead stating there was a joke that was told that was super-funny.  That joke was not able to be repeated.  I’m sure everyone knew.

You live and you learn.

These two incidents definitely set the tone for my comfort around talking about sex, and it took me quite a few years to re-adjust.  I don’t want my kids to have to go through that, which is why I want to be open about it and let them know that we will answer any questions they may have on the topic.

How are you handling these types of questions around your kids?  How will that differ from the way your folks discussed it with you.

 

It is that time of year… Tax time!

For those of you who are new to this site, or who drop in occasionally, you may not know that in my real life, I play a tax manager.  I post tax information that I find interesting, or that I have to dig up and research on at www.intaxicating.wordpress.com, soon to be at www.intaxicating.ca once I find the password and username that I misplaced.

So what that means is that this time of year – actually beginning in August -is super-hectic.  Beginning December 1st, my walk hurried into a jog, and now in mid-January I am already in full sprint.  I’m not sure ho long this pace can keep up with 2 1/2 months to go…

I had an idea how this day was going to shape up, when the first song I heard on my iPad was ”Under Pressure” by Queen.  I spent most of the day pushing ahead tasks and projects where there was room to move them, while trying to get other projects completed ahead of schedule, while putting out fires that happened throughout the day.  Nothing new for me, and to be honest, since I really like doing this a lot, it makes for a fun time.  I’m just reminded as I get more and more tired that I need to get to the gym as that got me through 2 previous tax seasons.

I also realized today that taking care of my kids on Saturday, while awesome, really set me back a bit, when on Sunday I took the boys tobogganing for a couple of hours in -25 degree celcius (with windchill) weather and boy did that fresh air mess with us all.

Both kids were exhausted at night and I was a disaster on Monday. I actually went right to sleep at 8pm after all the kids were asleep and slept right through until 7am the next morning.  I would say that was the most uninterrupted sleep I have had in 6 years.

It was also today when I realized how much I appreciate my wife, and that she does what I did on Saturday each and every day.  Sure we have a nanny to help her out but she still works, feeds us, pays the bills, programs the entire family and keeps the house running smoothly…  Zowie.  I feel like such a wuss now.

I often ask her opinion on how to manage a situation because while she has not managed people per se, she manages the household, the kids, the nanny, and in her former life as a high-school teacher, she managed to stay sane.

I think the task of managing kids is very similar to managing adults as in both cases you are looking to make sure both groups do what is right for themselves and for the rest of the team / family, while at the same time you want to make sure there is no conflict and you have to work together to get the job done. 

For both kids and adults, working towards a goal is key.  IT’s easier to track progress that way and having a prize at the end of the maze makes the race more worthwhile.

In reading “Honey, I wrecked the kids” by Alyson Schafer, I am learning new less physical ways to interact with the kids and get them to do what my wife and I expect from them.  I am finding success.  Instead of asking Linus to remove his plate from the table night in and night out, Alyson suggests that since kids know their responsibilities, a simple one word reminder should suffice, so this morning when Linus got up and walked away from the table, I said; “Linus.  Plate.”  He turned around, walked back to the table and removed his plate.

Another tool is the re-direct.  Linus was making a spitting noise that I cannot stand and instead of asking him to stop and give him all that attention for the wrong reasons, I merely asked him different questions until he forgot what he was doing and started chatting with me.

Good one Alyson!

The last technique that I am finding to be a great help (I’m halfway through the book) is the introducing of consequences.

You don’t have to clean your room if you don’t want to put I will not read a book to anyone is a messy room, worked wonders the other day.  As does the line, you can stay downstairs and play if you want.  You will miss snack before bed and if that is your choice, that is okay with me.

Can’t wait to get through the book… One night parenting, next night taxation, following night parenting…

As an aside, I’m looking for a beginner yoga class in the Toronto area that begins after our kids are in bed, so around 8pm.  Anyone?

 

Being Daddy for a Day (and surviving without any visible scars)

Saturday was a great day in the urban daddy household.  Urban Mummy was at the Ontario Science Centre all day for a nutrition seminar, and that meant I got to play full-time Daddy to my own kids for the day.

Originally the plan was a trip to karate for the boys, then meeting my mother and sister for brunch, then to visit my grandmother with the kids, and take them home so the baby could nap… The rest was up in the air.

Unfortunately someone forgot to tell the City of Toronto that it was going to snow so it was near impossible to drive this morning on the slippery unplowed roads, so I told my mothersister to stay home and the plans changed.

Firstly, karate was great!

Stewie got his green advanced belt.

…and Linus got another stripe for his yellow belt.

Special thanks to Elliott @ Supernova for the pics.

After karate we came home and the boys earned 2 cookies by shovaling the neighbours sidewalk and driveway.  They worked SO hard.

Then we came inside and while the baby slept for 3 awesome hours, the boys and I played, cleaned, watched some TV, read and had a great time.

At 5pm it was bath time for everyone, I put up the last of the mezuzahs in the upstairs, and UM came home just before 6pm.

Upon seeing her, Berry said, “Mama meh” (Mummy-milk) and in the process of getting her dressed in her PJ’s she fell off the bed backwards on her back / bum.  She barely cried, but fell asleep feeding – an exhauting day for her.  She was is in her crib for the night by 6:30pm. 

The boys ate dinner, then snack and were off to bed by 7:30pm, as UM and I had dinner plans with some friends later tonight – no kids.  I can’t wait!

Oddly enough neither boys wanted my wife to leave (not me) and one developed a tummy ache and the other was having nightmares (without having been asleep yet).  We managed to get both settled and we left.

Dinner was fantastic as was the company.  We had a great time and returned home around 1:30am with a new found understanding as to why you do not google things when playing the game “Headbandz”.

The kids of course we up well before 7 this morning… Oh well…

So there!  I not only survived the day with 3 kids – my three kids – but I had a blast.

 

A post about my father on his birthday…

Today, December 11th would have been my father’s 72nd birthday.  He passed away 8 years ago.

I often think about him while interacting with my kids – wondering how much he would have loved spending time with them, and recently my boys have been asking me if I will take them to the cemetery to visit his headstone…  Not sure how this all came up, but I do not think they are ready yet.  Today my middle child asked me if my father was still alive.  I asked him if he had met him.  A couple seconds later upon realizing that he had not, he concluded that my Dad must have died before he was born.  “Oh” was his reply.

The other day I was reminded of him while in the car when I heard one of his favourite songs, and that brought it all back for me in a good, nostalgic way.

That song was Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron by The Royal Guardsmen, recorded in 1966.

You see my Dad loved Snoopy from Peanuts fame (look it up kids).

This particular song is a novelty song about the imaginary World War I antics of Charlie Brown’s pet beagle Snoopy, in the comic strip Peanuts.

“Snoopy Vs The Red Baron” was inspired by the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz, which featured a recurring storyline of Snoopy imagining himself in the role of a World War I airman fighting the Red Baron.

“Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” was released only four weeks after the first Sunday Peanuts comic strip featuring Snoopy fighting the Red Baron appeared. Schulz and United Features Syndicate sued the Royal Guardsmen for using the name Snoopy without permission or an advertising license. UFS won the suit; the penalty was that all of the publishing revenues from the song would go to them. Schulz did allow the group to write more Snoopy songs.

The song features the sounds of German gibberish, heard at the beginning of the song, stating that the song will sing of the “pig headed dog and the beloved Red Baron,” as well as the German and American sounds of the Sergeant counting off in 4s.

The song features the sound effects of a fighter airplane, as well as the sounds of shooting and a tailspin sound of a plane at the end of the last verse.

This song also quotes the instrumental chords from The McCoys’ version of “Hang On Sloopy.” In the original recording, the lyrics “Hang on Snoopy, Snoopy hang on” were sung at this point. This led to some initial speculation that the Guardsmen were the McCoys under a different name. Prior to release, these lyrics were changed from Snoopy to Sloopy to prevent copyright issues.

You can hear it here;  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxzg_iM-T4E&feature=related

Then just a couple of days ago I heard another one of his favourite songs, this one called; In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly.  It was from 1968 and the darn song is over 17 minutes long.  I found the full song on YouTube but it was so big that it had to be broken in 2.  Both parts are below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvs8tdddn2o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks8WPOCj_jo

 Have a listen and let me know what you think of 2 unique songs from the 60′s.

 

Why Do I Blog? Why Do You Blog?

I often wonder why it is that I blog.  I wonder, during the day, if I’m wasting my time with this whole blog thing, and at night, I wonder the same thing, as I’m typing up my posts for the week. Is anyone going to read them? and if someone does, why, and in the end does it really matter? 

I’ve said this before, that I don’t write posts for others… usually… although I have been known to in the past – I won’t make that mistake again.

I try to write my posts with the view that this online journal is going to help me remember key points in my family’s life as we move from day-to-day, kid-by-kid, and event-to-event.  It’s nice to be able to look back and see what we did, for example, for my 1st child’s 2nd birthday, and use that in preparation for my middle child’s 2nd birthday, and still have that online when it comes time for my daughter’s second birthday.

I used to post about events that happened to me at my old job – but that turned out to be a colossal error of judgement as it revealed WAY too much about me and my family and opened up my life for judgement and criticism from those who knew that I blogged.

Going forward I share events and stories with like-minded individuals and use my blog as a forum to talk about me, the father of 3 kids, the husband, the manager, volunteer and human being.

I was content doing this for the people who came to my blog with regularity and maintaining a respectable number of daily readers.

All of this changed last Wednesday – for those of you who read my comments, you would already know – when I was reached out to from a local TV station regarding my interest in participating in a talk show on blogging as a Daddy-blogger.

Initially, I was dead set against the idea but after talking to some friends in the media, I met with the executive producer of this show and we chatted about what it is that I do and why. 

During this 15-20 minute chat, we talked about how I got started blogging, what my challenges are as  a Dad and why I like to blog stuff.  I answered the questions as best as I could and the more we talked the more it came back to me why it is that I do this in the end of the day. 

It’s because I love being a Dad! 

I started because my wife blogged and I loved reading her posts.  She is such a great writer (I miss her posts) and I wanted to have my take on family events too – we see things so differently.  Eventually, I added other topics to my blog, like work, the TTC, municipal events – like the condition of the streets – volunteer activities and my search for a new job.

I found my blog became the repository for everything that happened to me during the day – good and bad – and if you look back at some of my oldest posts, they have little rhyme or reason, as I used this blog for a dumping ground of my emotions. 

Doing that allowed me time to grow emotionally, and as a writer as I would go back and read comments and those comments helped me realize whether I was writing something interesting of something crappy.  The more I wrote my posts to those readers the less I became myself, but the more I wanted comments.  I wanted to be noticed.  I think deep down inside I wanted what some other bloggers I knew about had, like Cheaty Monkey and Redneck Mummy, I wanted to be able to write a post worthy of 30 comments or 200 hits… I wanted to be known.

Then somewhere along the line I realized that being the Dad of 3 kids, with a new job which I love(d), I had been blogging for over 4 years and with little in the way of hits or comments I just enjoyed using this forum to talk about what it’s like being an involved father. 

I was fortunate to have been in a position to have taken off 9 months to be with my first son, 4 months with my second, and yes, one day with my third, but on the weekends, they are mine and in the evenings I take care of their bedtime routine and I would not pass that up for anything in the world.

Sure I find there are times during the day when I wonder why I’m working (obvious reasons – to pay bills) because I just want to be home with my kids.  Yes, we do programs in the evenings and on the weekends, and sure every now and then I am able to walk them to school, be the class parent, or take them for a walk to run errands… I want them to be as involved as possible so when they get older they won’t be afraid to ask for what they want or settle for a job they do not like because they are too hesitant to make a move.

And while I do not have the burden of having to make the big decisions – schools, meals, camps, lunches, or stuff like that as my wife does all of that too much success, I am involved in the conversation regarding these decisions as much as I can.  My wife and I attended 5 or six schools before we chose the one my oldest goes to know and I went with my wife to speak to the principal of the new school that my middle child attends.  We visited camps, arranged sports events and we plan vacations that would be fun for everyone.  I like to be in control but where I cannot, I know my wife will have already done the legwork and spoken to people and will come to me when we’re close so we can seal the deal together and be comfortable that it is the right decision for us and our kids.

I try not to miss parent teacher interviews, I look at homework and often find myself asking my kids how their day was and what they did.  I worry about how they are socializing with their classmates, and between each other.  I worry about how they are to their teachers and try to get them to treat their nanny with the most respect possible.  I worry about how they are going to cope as they grow older. 

My oldest boy is so much like me that I want to watch his development and remind him that to be successful in school and in life he needs to be a little less goofy and a little more serious.  I remember about 6 months ago when he told me that he didn’t know; “When is the right time to be serious and when it’s okay to be goofy”.  I try to teach him.  My middle boy, on the other hand is all my wife and I want him to be a little less intense and a little more outgoing so that he can use his natural smarts to be the best he can be.

So getting back to why it is that I blog… I told this TV station about why I love being a Dad and why I didn’t really want to be on TV because I’m not the worlds’ most articulate guy all the time and at times I wonder if any of these posts even make sense on the screen after I type my garbled mess.  But the more I talked about myself and my enjoyment of fatherhood, I realized I could do this, and if they decided after meeting me that they wanted to give me a shot and have me on, I would do it.  Not for the potential for more hits, or more comments, but hit the opportunity to pass along to anyone that wants to listen why it’s great being a parent and to share some of the things we have encountered as a family and how we moved past them.

Trust me… If it’s going to happen, I’ll let you know…

… Maybe. 

 

A re-introduction to the Urban Daddy

Well, this is finally it. My 500th post. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has taken time to read any of my posts, and especially those of you who took the time to comment.

For my new reader and as a refresher for some older ones, I wanted to (re) introduce myself.

Hello!

Welcome to my blog.

I am an Urban Daddy, born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

I have 3 children under 5 years old, I’ve been married almost 9 years and I’ve been blogging under this name for almost 6 years. 

I tweet under realurbandaddy as there is a company out of New York called urbandaddy.com who do something nowhere near related to me.

My family and I are community activists.  When the City of Toronto placed a temporary dump site in the middle of my kids’ summer day camp with short notice on a Friday night, my family and I went there to protest and advise all the dumpers keep their garbage a little longer.  In 3 hours we managed to turn away 3 cars – one was a porshe, one was a benz and one a beemer.  We live in a nice part of the City which means we pay a ton of property tax and expect a lot from the elected officials of this city.  They must be fiscally responsible and someone has to hold them accountable… Why not you and me.

I’ve been involved in resident’s organizations, I have re-started one which was inactive and I have been on working groups relating to developments within this city, such as the Minto Towers and Rio Can development at 1717 Avenue Road.

I have been a volunteer for as long as I can remember.  When I was young my family were the northern depot for the MS Carnation Day.  In my teens I became an ice hockey coach in Richmond Hill and North Toronto, which I did for 8 years.  I have been a volunteer for the Canadian Cancer Society daffodil day (must be something about flowers, eh?) and my wife and I have been volunteering with a big brothers program for about 7 years.

I’m the guy who sees the broken stop sign, massive pot hole, or broken manhole and flips that information on to the City for repairs.  I’m the Dad who knows the City Councillor by name and she knows me.  I’m the Dad who cut the grass in the park with a push mower last summer when the inside and outside workers went on strike so my kids and about 300 others could continue playing Sportball soccer.

As a green family, the CBC was going to do a story on us during the Copenhagen summit – by showing us how to be greener but they could not find substantial areas for us to improve in.

So follow me.  Leave comments.  Ask questions.  If I can help, I will.  As I continue to explore, find, locate and enjoy this city, I will post about it. Also, if you have had an opportunity to do something good for the community, post it here and tell me all about it. Feel good. Be proud.

Thanks for coming by!

The Real Urban Daddy.