DadTalk

Should Furniture Be Biodegradable?

The few occasions I went shopping with my dad, he emphasized one point: Spend a little more for the best-quality tool or item, and you’ll be rewarded with a better, longer-lasting product.

That was about 37 years ago. My dad, were he alive today, might give me different advice: Son, buy the cheapest thing you can find, then throw it away because something new and better will come along next week.

In recent years, however, there has been a small countermovement to our throwaway culture. The best name for this movement seems to be “sustainability,” since words like Gaia cause Americans to run for their grills and flame a steak.

Despite the change in culture that has occurred over the last 37 years, I have followed my dad’s advice like a stubborn stick in the mud. I hate buying throwaway products, everything from paper plates to cars.

Overheard

“I want a castle party.”

I was kind of shocked to hear Lael say that in response to mom and Seth planning his upcoming train-themed birthday party. I’m not really sure where Lael got the idea of a castle party.

Falling for My Kids II

Last month I wrote a post about how my kids like to fall from a shelving unit onto our bed. I was able to catch them mid-fall with my Canon EOS-20, but my digital SLR does not have a video recorder function.

I’ve tried converting footage from our analog video camera to digital, but the converter I bought a few years ago doesn’t seem to work.

I finally solved our dilemma by getting a new camera for my wife on Mother’s Day. Don’t worry, she’s as happy about getting the Canon A470 as I am.

So now, the whole world can enjoy the spectacle of our rambunctious kids falling from the shelves in our bedroom.

Outing for Kids On Track

As a surprise for our track-obsessed son, we took our kids this weekend to National Train Day, which was sponsored by Amtrak at Chicago’s Union Station.

Success was guaranteed, even though there were some hiccups. The worst moment came when Lael, who had been hanging onto the model train table, disappeared when I glanced at some of the freebies my wife collected. (Note the hats and whistles the kids have on the jump.)

One minute our little girl was there, and the next she was gone. I didn’t take my eyes off her for more than 20 seconds.

Anne and Seth found her in the care of a police officer. The whole incident took less than a few minutes, but it felt like hours. Lael recovered quickly though, as you can see in the picture.

The other hiccup was construction on the Elevated. While we were able to take the train in, repairs meant it was near impossible to take it back home, so we took the bus.

The kids seemed okay with that. All in all, a great day.

Overheard

“Daddy, I want to go under the Jell-O Bean.”

That’s what Lael calls the Cloud Gate, which is part of Millennium Park in Chicago. She’s confusing Jell-O with Jelly Bean.

And the Winner Is…

Both of my kids are huge Cars fans. So it wasn’t much of a surprise when Seth asked for help building the Piston Cup out of Legos.

But Seth was unsure of what the cup looked like. Instead of helping him outright, I found a tiny picture of the cup online and printed it out for him.

An hour later, he came back with not one but TWO Piston Cups and TWO Checkered Flags, which he made from memory. Pretty cool, huh?

Overheard

“I want pee bar.”

That’s the way Lael says peanut butter.

Health Care Expenses Exceed Housing, Food, Times Reports

“ ‘The kid isn’t that sick; her temperature is only 102.’ ”
– Dr. Richard Lander, a pediatrician in Livingston, N.J. explaining how parents are responding to rising health insurance costs.

Rising gas prices are an inconvenience. There are ways around higher food prices, however unpalatable. But how do families cope with rising health care costs when it is too costly for Americans and their children?

It’s hard for me to fathom, but consumers are now spending more money on health care than food or housing, reports The New York Times:

Since the recession of 2001, the employee’s average cost of an annual health care premium for family coverage has nearly doubled – to $3,300, up from $1,800 – while incomes have come nowhere close to keeping up. Factor in other out-of-pocket medical costs, and the portion of the average American household’s income that goes toward health care has risen about 12 percent, according to the consulting and accounting firm Deloitte, and is now approaching one-fifth of the average household’s spending.

Main Street Struggles While Wall Street Seems Oblivious

Hey everybody, did you know America’s economic problems are all over? That’s right, kiddies, after a week of stories revealing a continually worsening housing market, continued job loss, soaring prices and plunging consumer confidence, Wall Street is indicating the worst is over.

Just watch CNBC for a few minutes as pundits take turns pummeling any analyst who says, “But what about those folks struggling on Main Street?”

You see moms and dads, the economy isn’t really about you and me. It’s about oil and commodities and credit. Think I’m kidding? Check out this New York Times story:

Many on Wall Street, the epicenter of the credit mess, seem to think that the worst is over. For the first time in months, analysts and executives sound upbeat again. Many of them see a broad, sustained recovery in both the economy and the financial markets coming in the second half of this year, a prediction some market strategists call hopeful at best.

Why the constant drumbeat of happy news when most of us are trying to find affordable housing or considering whether to give up bread or cheese? Because in America, telling people that they are happy is a proven formula for success. Most of the time, anyway.

And certainly, the bigwigs in government and business don’t want you thinking too much about the monumental problems we face everyday. Problems such as these:

Scenes From Immigration Rally

I brought my camera with me for a work-related project before realizing it was May Day, which means Immigration Rally.

Since 2007, I’ve watched the rallies directly from my place of work. In 2006, I was in Los Angeles. This and last year, the protesters passed in front of my office window.

Since working in the financial sector, I’ve heard a handful of derogatory and distasteful remarks about immigrants, especially Hispanics. But the rally was peaceful, at least, when it passed my vantage point on Jackson Boulevard.

I’ve included more photos on the jump.

More Moms Try Nursing

More American mothers tried breast feeding, though they’re not sticking with it, reports The New York Times on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. The 77 percent rate of moms who attempt nursing is a high point.

By six months, though, most women have given up on nursing despite health organizations urging moms to continue for up to 2 years. (For the record, Seth and Lael were nursed for about 2 years.) Studies have shown that breast feeding can pass numerous health benefits on to children.

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit comes at the end of the article:

Dr. (Barbara) Philipp said that while doctors and nurses were doing a better job of emphasizing the benefits of breast-feeding to patients, most continue to offer new mothers free diaper bags containing infant formula when mothers go home with their newborns.

“That’s a problem because at least five studies have shown that when a doctor or nurse hands the family that bag, even if they take the formula out, that mother will have less success with breast-feeding,” Dr. Philipp said.

A New Swear Word Blooms

Siblings are experts at torturing each other. Seth for example, likes to mutter an unending stream of rhymes.

“Mutter, putter, dutter, futter, jutter,” he says.

I’m not sure Seth voices that exact combination, but something similar.

Eventually, he hits on key words that irritate the heck out of Lael. “Cocka.” “Poopoo.”

We think Seth learned some of the potty words at school. Others are completely made up. But once Seth hits on a sound that makes Lael whine, he tortures his sister by saying it ad nauseam.

Lael then comes running to mom or dad, proclaiming, “Seth is using potty words” or “Seth uses THAT word.”

Several times, THAT word sounds as upsetting as “oona.” I guess it is more tone of voice than anything else.

At some point, my wife Anne came up with an ingenious solution. “Seth, call Lael flower.”

Seth took to the idea pretty quickly and it seemed to work, especially after we showed Lael pretty spring flowers.

But alas, tone of voice seems to be turning flower power into swear smears. “Flower, flower, FLOWER,” Seth calmly says.

“Stop saying THAT word,” Lael shrieks.

In the last three or four days, though, Seth has gone back to nonsense words and potty talk, enraging Lael. I fear her shrieks might crack glass.

But little Lael is learning to defend herself. She often screams back:

“Flower, flower, FLOWER!”

Tom Chapin Video Slams No Child Left Behind

My wife is currently exploring the idea of becoming an urban public school teacher, which I firmly support. But I can’t help wonder why anyone ever goes to the hassle:

• Low pay that starts around $32,000 and never grows much beyond $50,000 except in elite school districts.
• Tough certification rules.
• The cost and time of obtaining a masters.
• Inadequate buildings and learning supplies.

Perhaps the worst thing a teacher must face is No Child Left Behind, which I’ve been calling No Child Gets an Education. It seems to me that teaching elementary school students to a “test” would be the final straw for those men and women who already put up with so many career negatives.

But forget anything I write. Watch this Tom Chapin video, which I discovered via Thingamababy, a great blog on parenting. And here’s Chapin’s website against NCLB.

Additional
A review of a Tom Chapin album.

Are You an Economic Optimist or Realist?

Why are some humans optimists and others pessimists? I was discussing this question with an acquaintance on my bus to work last week.

My theory: optimists often don’t see or simply ignore the downside to trying out a new restaurant, athletic fete or business.  A pessimist – though I substitute the word realist – viscerally sees the downside to new and old ideas.

Without optimists, we’d still be riding horse and buggies (or walking), the moon might never have been explored and supercolliders never built. Without realists, planes would fall from the sky and even worse politicians would be elected to office.

No place is the tug of war between optimists and realists more evident than the economy and the housing market. Here’s the historical smack down:

Breakfast Loses to Trains

For more than a year, Seth has been asking for an electric train set. We’ve been putting him off for a simple reason: space.

In fact, my boy’s Thomas train tracks tend to sit unused much of the time because they can never stay set up for more than a day or two. After that, mom and dad are silently swearing after jamming toes and tripping over train bridges.

A few weeks ago, I got the bright idea of using our dining room table instead of the floor for the Thomas trains. It worked out surprisingly well when you consider the round table top – we almost ran out of curves.

We only left the tracks set up for a day, but the kids loved it.

Trial Run at Being Stay-at-Home Dad

What a crazy week. Last Thursday, we drove out to Connecticut with the kids. After a two-day stay, we were driving back. Yup, we traveled four days for a two-visit, redefining the word “Passover.”

But flying wasn’t really an option. It’s easy to do the math when you compare $1,000 in airline tickets and $250 on rental cars versus $300 in gas and $150 in hotels.

My kids are turning into fantastic travelers, by the way. Plus, we were fortunate that we could literally watch trees leaf out during our drive.

After working for two days back in Illinois, my wife flew out to Arizona to visit with my mom and for some other business. So here I am, one day into being a stay-at-home dad. I’ve done this a couple times before, but if feels different for some reason this time.

I’m a much better parent, it seems, when the taint of work is not intruding on my thought processes and mood. It is very refreshing to approach a day with the kids  not feeling exhausted physically and mentally. I like it.

Passover Time Off

Sorry about the lack of posts. I drove the family to Connecticut and back over the last week. I hope to return to a more normal posting schedule soon.

Falling for My Kids

Lael invented this game of free fall from the shelves. Well, I guess I’m partly to blame.

For months now, I have held Lael up in my arms while standing on the floor. Then I cry “timber” as we fall onto the bed. It’s not a long fall, but it’s enough to thrill a little girl.

But apparently, it wasn’t a big enough thrill for Lael, who quickly dumped dad for the shelving unit. It’s pretty wild to see how perfectly straight she holds her body.

Seth, who tends to be a lot more cautious, finally decided it was safe and started falling from the shelves more recently.

And that my friends, is what happens when your kids are locked in a small apartment all winter long. (sorry about the bad lighting.)

Trout Fishing and Indian Spices

Can two men sound like an entire band? Sure, when they’ve been playing together for almost 30 years.

Can two men keep 100 children – and 100 parents – occupied and even dancing during kiddy witching hours of 3-5 p.m?

Sure, if they’re Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet, who form the Arkansas duo Trout Fishing in America. If you never heard of these guys, or listened to them, now is a good time as any. Click on this link, and then click on “Launch Trout Radio” for a sample.

Trout Fishing is one of those bands I never would have heard of if it wasn’t for a publicist – I’m not even sure which one – sending me a CD. I’m pretty awful that way: someone sends me a CD and I get around to listening to it weeks or months later.

Canada May Declare BPA Dangerous to Human Health

Canada may fire a great big salvo at the plastics industry by declaring Bisphenol-A a toxic chemical, reports The New York Times. BPA, as the chemical is known, is commonly “used in plastics for baby bottles, beverage and food containers as well as linings in food cans.”

Health Canada is expected to make a decision whether to declare the chemical a threat to human health sometime between now and late May. Canada would be the first nation to rule again BPA.

Some parents in the United States already have tossed suspect bottles in favor of aluminum or stainless steel versions. (We’re working on it.) Experts don’t seem to debate whether the chemical gets into our bodies. Writes the National Geographic Green Guide: