This Week in Fatherhood #3: Messy Spoons and Angry Birds Posted by Unknown on 10/18/2013 2 comments

Here's the 3rd edition of the This Week in Fatherhood newsletter/blog post. I'm having a good time collecting these stories, and I hope you do too. As usual, please let me know if I missed anything or if you like/dislike this newsletter by emailing me. Also, if you want to receive this newsletter in your email once a week, subscribe here!

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On BloggerFather.com

I often protest the way brands depict dads in ads. This time, since I thought this ad was funny and since it was for Durex, I couldn't pretend it made me angry or that it was evil in any way. Someone called this ad, "an insult to fatherhood." I disagreed. Watch the ad here.

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Evil

There's no other word to describe people who use pictures of sick babies for greed. Since Facebook calculates fans' interaction to determine the reach of a Facebook page, marketers use an anything-goes approach, where a dying baby becomes nothing more than a hook for interaction. Read more about it on Fatherhood²'s Facebook Content Farming – Look Before You Like.

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News

This is an amazing story. A 56-year-old man, dying from cancer, has fulfilled his promise to walk his daughter down the aisle, with the help of University Hospital volunteers. This is one picture, and you can get the whole story and more pictures on the original site: UH nurses help a dying dad to his daughter's wedding walk down the aisle

Photo by John Kuntz / The Plain Dealer

In other news, Dennis Baxley, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, has apologized on Friday for comments he had made, comparing gay parents to abusive and alcoholic parents. Here are his comments, followed by a video:

"It's easy to say parents need to get involved, but half these kids are raising themselves. They don't have any parents that are functional. How can we address that? I know its scope and I know it's hard, but you're probably their only hope. I mean I sat an hour-and- a- half with a teacher telling me, well this child has got serial men coming through the house, this one has two mommies, this one has an abusive father who's home, this one has alcoholism, this one has drug abuse. It was a casualty warfare event to hear - just her classroom. How many dysfunctional, atypical - to me - uh, structures are in the way of a kid having a chance to learn."

Comments like the ones Baxley makes in the video are depressing, to say the least, but the fact that a conservative Republican feels the need to apologize for these remarks shows how far the US has come.

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Personal Blog Posts

I can't be happier to see my kids, 3 and 5, play with each other. They're becoming more and more independent, and I'm (almost) at the point where I can relax every now and then. Still, posts like 7 Things I Will Miss When the Boys Grow Up can bring out the baby-bug in anyone. MUST... BE... STRONG...

Meanwhile, at The Rookie Dad, a dad is "breaking up" with his son. He's going back to work, hoping that between the extra income and the extra mental and physical energy (being a stay-at-home dad is not always easy, I know), this will be a good move for the whole family, including his son. (It’s Not You, It’s Me – A Break Up Letter To My Son.)

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Pictures

This one is from the Dashing Dad Facebook page

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Giveaways

This one is not from my blog, but from Fandads.com -- There are not a lot of entries, so far, which means you have a good chance to win this Angry Birds Star Wars Telepods game, which looks really cool. Good luck, and may the force be with you!

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Videos

Here's a nice (but nameless) fatherhood video by Mike Raye:

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Previously on BloggerFather.com

Here's a post from 2012, where I try to sum up what I try to pass on to my kids. I'm not sure "10 Fatherhood Influences" was the right title, but I hope you still give it a quick read, and comment on your own "fatherhood influences."

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