Brass Check Each of us, no matter how old or successful, has things we wish we knew how to do. We wish we could speak another language, or change the oil in our own car, or play the guitar. It’s not that we aren’t up for learning these things now—more so even than when we were young—but…
Sometimes it’s good to acknowledge our biases. And one of the biggest biases in our lives is our kids. Not just a bias in the sense that we prefer them, but a bias like one of those ones that cognitive behavioral scientists point out that prove we’re totally and utterly irrational. We love our kids…
Imagine that you’re gone and able to look down now and see your kids from above. Or imagine that somehow you had magical powers and could see inside their heads and read their thoughts. What is it that you would never want them to witness? What is it that you would never want them to…
If you’re in your 30s, then your parents raised you through the global financial crisis, SARS, the bursting of the tech bubble, and 9/11. They saw two wars in Iraq, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Black Monday. If you’re in your 40s, they experienced that and the crack epidemic, the AIDS epidemic, stagflation,…
You are at the beach with your kids. You have your ice chest that’s got speakers in it. You have the phone Bluetoothing the newest music from Spotify. You’re watching beautiful women walk by in the trendiest swimsuit of the moment. Airplanes fly overhead. The lifeguard drives by on a four-wheeler. It’s easy in the…
As fathers, especially dads with young kids, most of the reading we do is to our kids. Reading for ourselves? Who has the time? We get it, fatherhood itself can get exhausting and it can feel difficult to justify spending a few hours of our time on a book that may not even deliver on…
Very few of us are lucky enough to go into fatherhood thinking, “I’m going to do everything exactly like my parents did.” Looking back on our childhoods, almost all of us can find things we wish our own folks had done better. Maybe we felt ignored. Or maybe we felt pressured too much. Maybe Mom’s…
Your job today as a father is to do one thing. It’s to read this poem, which dates back to 1895, and then to think about how to incorporate its lessons into how you raise your kids. Ignore the gendered language (it was written as advice to the poet’s son) because it doesn’t matter. There…
These are strange times to be a father. Fathers have never been expected to do more—around the house, in their children’s lives. This is wonderful. It’s also challenging and confusing because societal expectations and the actual process for preparing new dads for doing these things are not quite in alignment. At the same time, the…
Seeing your own parents now, as an adult, is stressful. There’s a great Ram Dass line that the comedian Pete Holmes has used in relation to his own parents: You think you’re enlightened—go spend a week with your family. The point is, having Mom and Dad come stay with you is few people’s idea of…
We’re going to tackle all the big themes of our time and of all time: Grit. Resilience. Curiosity. Compassion. Character. Unconditional love. Finding purpose. Dealing with stress. Masculinity. Female empowerment. Loss. Stillness. Truthfulness. Initiative. Creativity. Passion. Family. Fun.
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