Breakfast for Dinner

Parenthood Magazine is running a series on divorced parents working together to raise their children that turns out to be a pretty good read. It’s nice to see a parenting magazine not aimed exclusively to 1950s families from the Hamptons or just moms and not ignoring the needs of divorced people. I especially like their rule number 2 in the opening article:

Respect each other as parents. You’re likely to have a lot of bad feelings toward your former partner, but you need to separate your parenting from those feelings. Your goal is to create a good life for your children, and you can best do that by parenting together in a respectful, cooperative manner.

As much hurt feelings as there may be in a divorce, and there always is, you have to set that aside when dealing with your children. It’s not easy I know, but believe me, it’s worth the struggle.

The girls and I spent about three hours walking around in the blistering sun eating fried crap on a stick and petting camels. That’s right, The Great State Fair of Texas. I had never been to the State Fair before, so I decided it was about high time I made it, and the girls deserved a treat for adjusting to their new schedules.

We got to the parking lot for the fair around 12:20, and managed to meander our way to the ticket booth by 1 p.m. We had to park about three miles away, and the line for the shuttle would have taken longer than the walk, so we opted to hoof it. I hoisted Wu Tang onto my shoulders, and she proceeded to pet my beard like a puppy as she always does when I let her ride. It was a brutal walk, but we got lucky when we got in line to buy tickets. A nice Japanese woman had extra tickets from her school district and slipped them to me as we got in line, so I only had to pay for my admission, a cool $14. (more…)

It’s been a long while since I updated, so it’s time to get back to it. It’s been an insane month between work and family issues, so it was nice to dedicate last weekend to really doing things with my kids. Our swimming trip Saturday got sidelined by a kid pooping in the pool, but we had a nice barbecue with friends and neighbors that night.

Sunday we found my daughters’ version of heaven. Bounce World in Flower Mound is three big air conditioned rooms full of bounce houses, inflatable slides, and obstacles. We spent about two hours letting the kids run around like little maniacs to their heart’s content. And afterwards, they fell asleep by 8 p.m., so I was able to relax and watch normal television that didn’t involve a talking sponge and enjoy a beer.

Labor Day, the girls were with their mom, so I helped a friend and had some lunch at Chopsticks. Then was treated to a very nice dinner of Cashew Chicken and chocolate chip cookies. It was the kind of impromptu dinner party I could use more of.

This was a very good week. I finally worked up the courage to ask my boss for a new schedule at work to allow me to work from home one day a week. The compromise we came up with was that I will work nine hour days Tuesday-Friday, and in return, will work a four-hour Monday at home, allowing me to spend the afternoon with the kids, cut one day of babysitting from my budget and the $6 or so worth of gas I would spend commuting that day. I’m very excited.

Wednesday night we decided to put some peaches left over from the potluck to good use by making our first ever peach pie. It turned out pretty well considering we needed more peaches and had to resort to some individual snack-sized cans of peaches in the pantry for filler. It was a little oversweet, but no one complained.

Then, tonight we had a fun movie night. We interviewed another applicant for the babysitter position, then headed for McDonald’s for Happy Meals (it’s a rare treat when I let them eat Happy Meals). After dinner, I drug my mattress out of my bedroom and onto the living room floor. Then we popped in Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and snuggled under a blanket. The girls liked it despite the sad portion in the middle, and they both made it all the way through, though Finley fell asleep pretty much the second it was over.

It was a pretty special week. This weekend we have one more interview planned before we make a decision on a new babysitter, and we may head to the waterpark if we can handle the 102 degree heat until we get there.

Let me preface this by saying, “I love moms as much as anyone.” Hell, I don’t ever want to date anyone but a mother ever again. Moms are great. They’re compassionate, loving, sexy, and have no room in their life for bullshit.

That being said, I want my due from the magazines and marketers of the world. (more…)

Maddie informed me that she missed school already and was bored with Summer, so we started a weekly lesson plan. This week we started with just spelling. Fourteen words which she had to study everyday, followed by a spelling quiz tonight. I read the words and she typed them on the computer, capitalizing the first letter of each word, so she learns how to use the “Shift” key while she’s learning typing. She got 100%. My genius daughter.

Next week, she’ll have a new spelling list plus some math problems. She’s pretty nervous about second grade math, so we’re gonna get a head start. It’s really nice to have another thing structured we can do together in the evening. It makes it easier to entertain her, and she’s learning good skills. I think I’m going to try starting to teach her some basic formatting, like bulleted lists in a couple weeks.

Who knows? By the end of the summer she might have some basic HTML skills.

I loved Ms. Single Momma’s post Screw You, Disney so much that I just had to contribute a spin-off.

My daughters are at that age where their make believe lives revolve around princesses and princes. I have seen so many movies with happy endings I should work in a less than legitimate massage parlor. How do I compete with Prince Phillip, Eric, and the aptly named Charming? (more…)

Many of my married friends are keen to tell me how lucky I am to be a single dad. I could argue and tell them how much work it is getting the kids ready in the morning and down to bed every night. I could say how hard it is to make ends meet on one income. I could talk about how it’s hard to date because my girlfriend has a kid too and it’s hard to schedule time. I could show them the backseat of my station wagon (affectionately named Yoshimi by my Flaming Lips-loving seven year old) where the box of crayons melted in the 100 degree Texas heat. But, to be honest, they’re right. Life is pretty sweet. (more…)