My Journey Being a Dad (2015 – A to Z Challenge)

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by in A-to-Z, Advice, Busy Dad, Challenge, Dad, Family, Kids, Parenting

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

If you told me 16 years ago that I would have four kids, I would have laughed and tell you that was a funny statement.  I would have never thought of having four kids or twin girls or how they were even born.  I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that it has been a perfect journey up to this point because it hasn’t.  Not even close.  But I would not trade it for anything in the world.  It is a hard but fun journey for me and it is the most rewarding journey so far I have ever done.

It started 12 years ago when my oldest son was born.  I was wanting a boy so I could teach him sports and how to be a man.  His entry into this world was a hard one.  The day he supposed to be born turned into the most frightening day of my life up to that point.  When my wife’s water broke, his heartbeat dropped and they went into emergency mode at the hospital.

My wife end up having a C-section and found out he had his cord wrapped around his neck three times.  It was a rare sight the doctor had seen.  I thought it was a joke to lighten up the mode when they told me for the first time.  After a week in the hospital he was released to us and my journey being a dad is on its way.

We decided to have another child so my oldest one would have a sibling.  Throughout the pregnancy everything was good as we expected.  The doctor decided to do another C-section and it end up being the best decision.  After he was born his blood sugar level bottomed out like most new born babies and then they bounce back up.  But his stayed at zero and after several attempts to bring it up the hospital decided the transfer him to the children’s hospital at the University.

He had a brain bleed as well as a few other issues and he stayed in the NICU for 38 days in total.  Mostly in Bay 1 which is the critical bay.  He is still having some issues from that even today but he is a very lucky little boy.

After that we decided it might be a good idea to stop there, but we were surprised again.  Not with one but with twins.  We decided to have them at the University since what happen with my second child.  This one ended a lot better with the shortest stay at the hospital.  But my youngest daughter has a club-foot that is being fixed.

So the start of my journey as a dad was a rocky start.  So far everything has calmed down.

Do you remember when your first child was born?  What is the best or worst memory of this event?  Feel free to leave your answer in the comments and I will respond to the questions you have.

A to Z Challenge Letter J

A to Z Challenge Letter J

 

Independence (2015 – A to Z Challenge)

13 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by in A-to-Z, Advice, Busy Dad, Challenge, Dad, Family, Kids, Parenting

≈ Comments Off on Independence (2015 – A to Z Challenge)

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This is what I’m experiencing right now with my two daughters.  They are both very independent with everything and it has to be a five year old thing.  Both of my boys when through this around the age of five.  The girls are being very stubborn about this as well.

They are wanting to get dressed and put on their shoes by themselves even if they are having trouble doing it.  They really want to pick out their own clothes as well as help around the house.

The other day my girls were competing against each other in helping me do the dishes.  That turned into a longer and harder job then it should have been.  I like the idea of them being independent but sometimes it is easier for them not to be that way.  Sometimes they get so competitive with each other that the losing one starts crying.

They are still learning that there is a time for being independent and a time they should not be independent.

Do you remember when your kids start being independent for you?  What are your ways to handle this situation?  Feel free to leave your answer in the comments and I will respond to the questions you have.

A to Z Challenge Letter I

A to Z Challenge Letter I

Helping Out (2015 – A to Z Challenge)

10 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by in A-to-Z, Advice, Busy Dad, Challenge, Dad, Family, Kids, Parenting

≈ Comments Off on Helping Out (2015 – A to Z Challenge)

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This is another good trait my kids are learning from me.  I am a very helping person by choice.  I like helping people and organizations due to the experience it brings me as well as the happiness it brings to others.

My oldest son likes helping out around the house as well as helping his friends out when they need help.  He had a kid in his class last year that didn’t really have any friends.  He went up to him and started talking to him at a recess one day.  They are best friends and now since my son did this, the other kid has more friends now.  This is the type of helping out he learned from my wife and I.

My other kids are starting to show this trait as well.  They are seeing us doing this trait and they are following in our footprints.  This makes me proud and happy to see this.  We need more helpful and kind people in the world.

Have you ever seen your kids do a helpful thing for another person without asking them?  What was the last helping thing you have done?  Feel free to leave your answer in the comments and I will respond to the questions you have.

A to Z Challenge Letter H

A to Z Challenge Letter H

Gaming Around (2015 – A to Z Challenge)

10 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by in A-to-Z, Advice, Busy Dad, Challenge, Dad, Family, Kids, Parenting

≈ Comments Off on Gaming Around (2015 – A to Z Challenge)

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post will be a little different then my previous ones.  This was a harder one to write as well.  This will still deal with my kids as well as advice or prevention for others that has to deal with this issue.  I apologize now for the title being misleading, but would you even read this post if it was named Game Addiction.

Game addiction is no different than any other addiction out there except it doesn’t cause death to you unless you are playing games on your phone or even text while driving which I hope you don’t do.

This is a real addiction for kids since they can go hide inside of a virtual reality and ignore the real world around them.  But virtual worlds have real world problems in them.  I have seen this on my Xbox Live account. But that is another post I can write on a later day.

The game companies are trying and they are being successful addicting kids to play their games.  A lot of the games are free to download and play but cost money inside of them.  Buying fake coins with real money to upgrade their buildings or armies or even paying for a game like Call of Duty and then get charged for additional characters or new maps throughout the year.  This can cause someone to pay a lot of money into something that has no value in the real life world.

I big reason kids do this is because they are not liked in the real world or being picked on and they think by going into a game that they can be liked and forget about the real world.  This is not the case.  You lose time of what is happening in the real world and missing a lot of good things.

I know this first hand.  I used to play games every night from the time I got home from work to the time I go to bed as well as on the weekends.  I missed some good points of being a father during this time as well as put strain on my marriage.  At the time I didn’t see this and that is what addiction does to a person.  I was doing this because I thought I had friends in the game and the game was hard to stop playing due to the completion in it.

It took me almost losing everything before I realized what was really was happening. And now I still play games but it is very limited to once a week.  There has been times were there are several weeks that go by before I play on it.  The one thing I learned from this experience is that the virtual world is worse than the real world and the virtual world is full of broken promises and dreams.

Real life is full of adventures and journeys that out-numbered any virtual world ever created.

Did you ever have to deal with game addiction or anything similar to it?  Do you know how much time your kids play online or you play online?  Feel free to leave your answer in the comments and I will respond to the questions you have.

A to Z Challenge Letter G

A to Z Challenge Letter G