Seven fewer Father's Days.

I thought I had read every lets-find-a-new-angle-on-Father's-Day-so-we-can-justify-another-news-blurb article there was on the internet, then I read this story on stuff.co.nz (which apparently has nothing to do with Stuff Magazine even the typeface is pretty similar). According to them, Dads in New Zealand will have seven fewer Father's Days than "Mums," mostly because Dads have kids older than women and don't live as long as women. It's kind of interesting, and I'd bet probably equally true here in the US.

And apparently in New Zealand Father's Day is this Sunday (September 2), so Happy Father's Day you Kiwi freaks.

Dads loose out on Father's Day [stuff.co.nz]

More Mattel toy recalls.

Hot on the heels of one of the Chinese executives in charge of the lead paint debacle killing himself, Mattel has announced even more toy recalls. This time it's not just for lead paint, but also for some magnetized toys. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mattel could be seriously damaged over this, and I for one am glad.

Check out the video message from Mattel's CEO Robert Eckert on their "Voluntary Safety Recall Facts" page (by the way, "Voluntary"? I hate these euphemisms. Some marketing d-bag must have decided "Mandatory" sounded too negative). It's a video of a guy doing everything he can to save his (and his company's) ass. Oh, and he's got kids himself, which is supposed to make me feel like he really knows what it's like when you have to explain to a two year old why he can't play with the favorite toy he got for his birthday last month.

As a parent of four children myself, I know that absolutely nothing is more important than the safety and well being of children.

(Well, that is not if you count cutting corners in China to help the profit margin of the company I run. But besides that nothing is more important. Seriously.)

See the video for yourself here. "Voluntary Safety Recall Facts: because your children are our children too" (Thank god that's not true.) [Mattel.com]

Mattel CEO Announces He's A Dad! Also, That They're Recalling 10 Million More Unsafe Toys [daddytypes.com]

Mattel Does Damage Control After New Recall [WSJ]

Fisher Price lead paint recall.

Fisher Price, like pretty much every other company, manufactures their stuff in China. This time however someone decides a little lead in the paint might be a good idea. It's a wonder this stuff doesn't happen more often.

But you know what I'm even more pissed about? Information about the recall ISN'T ON THE TOP PAGE OF FISHER-PRICE.COM. Don't you think inadvertently poisoning kids might be reason enough to put information about the recall in the easiest place you can think of online?

Check out this web page to see if you've got any stuff you've got to send back. I've got a few things actually (sorry Chef Dora, your days are numbered).

Here's the link again for official info about the recall.

At Toy Stores, Recall Casts Doubt On Trusted Friends [Washington Post]

First-born get the brains.

Don't tell my younger sister (because I'm going to the second I post this), but according to a new study, the first-born in a family has, on average, a 2.3 point  higher IQ than their younger sibling. 2.3 points supposedly amounts to a 30% increase in the chances of getting into an Ivy League university.

Do they do these studies just for people like me to blog about?

To the First-Born Go the Smarts [HealthDay.com via NPR]

Send old toys to Iraq.

Keeping a handle on reducing the clutter of toys was tough enough with one kid, but with two it's twice as hard. And now that my smallest is outgrowing some toys, I've got to find something to do with them. I could try to garage-sell them, but the other day on Parent Hacks I found a better solution: donate them to kids in Iraq.

A member of the Army Corps of Engineers is over there giving away stuffed toys to children who have literally nothing, With all the devastation, I can't think of a better thing to do with some of the stuffed animals we have that are no longer played with.

Check out the post about it at Parent Hacks, and mail your stuffed animals, toys and school supplies (now through November 2007) to:

Edmay Mayers
USACE - GRS
APO AE 09331

UPDATE (OCTOBER 2008): Edmay is no longer serving in this capacity. The new person/address to send the items to is:

Tonya Myrick - TOYS
USACE-GRS
Building 511
APO AE 09331

Unfortunately you'll now have to fill out a customs form, which will require a trip to the Post Office, but this address should work for the forseeable future. -mdd

Damon's a douche.

1. Free agent and Red Sox Nation favorite Johnny Damon accepts a contract with the New York Yankees. Red Sox fans everywhere feel betrayed.
2. Stay-at-home mom from Massachusetts creates "Damon Sucks" bibs (pictured) and sells them on eBay.
3. Damon's agent Scott Boras has eBay remove the auction and threatens the stay-at-home mom's eBay status unless she stops selling the bibs.
4. Stay-at-home mom gets lawyers and stands up for herself, garnering a lot of publicity in the process. And she's still allowed to sell her bibs.
5. "Asked about the dispute at Yankee Stadium this week, Damon said he was unaware of it and referred questions to Boras."
6. [paraphrase] When the multi-millionaire was asked if he was aware he looked like a complete douche bag all over the AP news wire trying to prevent a stay-at-home mom from making a couple of bucks on eBay selling baby's bibs that criticized him, Damon claimed ignorance, skillfully passing the buck and blaming his agent. [/paraphrase]

Internet baby gear-seller hits nerve with Damon's people [AP via good friend and Yankee fan Dan]
Get a Damon Sucks bib here for $10 at owenandmama.com
Or for some reason you could pay over $89 at eBay

Dads who blog are the best.

Father's Day has come and gone, and in its wake are plenty of articles in newspapers around the country about dads. But this year it's all about the dad blog articles (some of which even mention this humble blog). All of them take a slightly different perspective and are all worth checking out.

21st-century dads turn to blogs for help [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
I'm offering a "virtual road map to the challenges of modern fatherhood". Kick ass! Plus it's here that Greg from Daddytypes reveals he gets 30K hits/day. Goddamn that's some good traffic.

Hey dude are you there? It's me, daddyblogger. [Austin American Statesman]
The article where I reveal that blogging helps with the isolation I've felt being a stay at home dad. Whahhh.

Rise of the Daddy Blog. [NY Daily News]
Who says K-Fed and Jack Black don't read dad blogs?
OK. They probably don't. But they're always welcome here.

Preschool of Rock

A friend of mine sent this article to me a week or so ago, and I have to admit it hit home with me. Getting your child to like the music you like (or maybe the music you think is worth listening to, or really the music you want them to like) is no easy task. The author's scheme is a daily "music hour" with his kid to introduce him to decent kid's music, and slowly incorporate the music he likes - which sounds like a pretty good idea.

And his description of Dan Zanes is right on the money.

Preschool of Rock [NY Times Sunday Magazine re-posted at Doug Henwood Talks - thanks Brian.]

Even expectant monkey dads get fat.

Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to announce to my blog world that the modern day mom is expecting again, and we'll have another little one around the house at the end of July. We're pretty excited, even though the idea of having an infant again hasn't really set in for me. It was difficult enough the first time without a two-year-old to deal with. But I've done it all before right? So I'm hoping those two things will offset each other and it will be about as challenging as it was before. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

(Oh. And if any friends or - hopefully not - family haven't heard yet, then I'm sorry you had to read about it on my blog. But thanks for reading the blog by the way).

So anyway, it wasn't any surprise that this news story I read tonight struck a particular chord with me. I've heard about the dads get fat when the moms-to-be are pregnant thing before, but to be honest I've gained the most weight since Madame was 9 months. More weight gain isn't something I need. Actually, I've started getting back to the gym recently, but I'm thinking my days at the gym are going to take a severe dip in August. I wonder how fat two-time monkey dads get.

(And for the record, I don't believe in "sympathy weight", unless "sympathy weight" is just another way to describe the phenomena of "Oh, you're getting a double-double? Well then what the hell. Make it a double-double animal style and a fry well-done for me too.")

Like human dads, monkeys gain weight when mate is pregnant. [Scripps Howard News Service]

Also on MDD: Oh. That's why I'm turning into a fatty.

Welcome Bloomberg readers.

I had a quote in this article in Bloomberg News yesterday (it's towards the end), so there's a chance that some of you are visiting for the first time. If you are, welcome. There's lots of dad and kid related stuff on my site which you are more than welcome to check out, just use the search box on the left or browse through my categories. And if you've got a suggestion or a comment, please leave one in this post. I'm always happy to hear from new people.

KKR, Wal-Mart Bet on Moms' Love of Status Strollers (Bloomberg.com)

Looking for single dads in NYC.

I got an email the other day from a single mom who has recently started a social/support group for single parents in Manhattan. She said they had a couple of dads but they would like more (not for "any dating subplot" she promises), and she wondered if I had any ideas where she could let other single dads know about it. I wasn't sure where the single dads hang out in Manhattan, but I said I'd post about it here.

So single dads in NYC, here it is. They meet every other Saturday (the next meeting is December 3rd) in Soho for lunch and babysitters are provided. The only qualification is they're looking for parents who are raising their kids alone, or mostly alone (so joint-custody dads are out of luck). You can contact the organizer at slk@cbsnews.com.

No shirt, no shoes, kids, no service.

A good friend of mine who lives in the Andersonville section of Chicago sent me this article (reprinted from the NY Times) about a restaurant in his neighborhood that recently posted this sign:

Children of all ages have to behave and use their indoor voices when coming to A Taste of Heaven

Well, apparently a lot of parents in the area got pissed off and started a big brouhaha. Which isn't surprising, when the owner of "A Taste of Heaven" had this to say about his (former) clientele:

McCauley, 44, said the protesting parents are "former cheerleaders and beauty queens" who "have a very strong sense of entitlement." In an open letter to the community, he warned of an "epidemic" of anti-social behavior.

"Part of parenting skills is teaching kids they behave differently in a restaurant than they do on the playground," McCauley said. "If you send out positive energy, positive energy returns to you. If you send out energy that says I'm the only one that matters, it's going to be a pretty chaotic world."

Ignoring the "positive energy," hippy nonsense, it seems to me that insulting the people that buy your flapjacks isn't quite sound business sense. Anyway, what we're left with is another article in the NY Times about parents vs. the child-free. I got a taste of this from some of the more hardcore child-free a few months ago, and I'm still puzzled by it.

The fact is, I've got no problem with this guy posting a sign about wanting kids to "behave" in his place. It's his business, and he should be able to say what he wants, just like people will be able to stop spending money in his restaurant if they are offended or bothered. But if you ask me, posting a sign asking people to get their kids to behave is just a gutless way of saying you don't want kids in your restaurant. Young children are unpredictable and don't always behave or use their indoor voices, even under the best circumstances. Expecting them to have the same social skills as adults is unreasonable. Also, not every parent is going to discipline their child in the way that you may want them to. If you've got an issue with a particular patron, can't you just ask them to leave instead of alienating a whole group of people?

Say what you mean, and those of us trying to go out to eat with our kids will gladly go somewhere else - no hard feelings.

War on Brats [The Detroit News (reprinted from the NY Times) via Matt]

This one wasn't adopted by Ma & Pa Kent.

Yesterday morning I saw this on the AP wire:

LOS ANGELES - Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage is a dad - again.

Alice Kim Cage gave birth Monday to a boy, Kal-el Coppola Cage, in New York City, said the actor's Los Angeles-based publicist, Annett Wolf...

Now, of course congratulations to the both of them, but what struck me funny about this was the baby boy's name, "Kal-el." For those of you who may not know, Kal-el is the "real" name of comic book hero Superman (here's the Super Family family tree). I've heard that Nicolas Cage is a big Superman fan (he sold his comic collection in 2002 for millions), so I'm not surprised. But I guess I am a little disappointed.

I'm not one to worry so much for the kid - kids are resilient and there certainly isn't a shortage of kids with different names out there. But can't Nicolas Cage get outside of himself for one second and think of a name that doesn't have anything to do with his own personal obsession? I didn't name my kid Le Corbusier or The Great Mazinga, not just because my wife would never agree, but because my kid has to live with the name long after I'm dead.

Then again, the more I think about it, what the hell. Everyone's gotta have a name, it's not that bad, and at least it's unique. According to the Baby Name Voyager, over 60 out of every million babies born in the US in 2004 were named Elvis, which, if we're worried about naming kids after personal obsessions, would have been way worse.

Actor Nicholas Cage and wife Alice parents of boy [San Jose Mercury News]

Intelligent nonsense.

With so many important things out there for open and honest debate, why are we (Americans) wasting time on proven scientific theory? As I'm sure you've heard, parents in a school district in Pennsylvania have mandated that a four paragraph statement be read by science teachers in biology class, saying that "intelligent design" is a legitimate alternative theory for the origin and evolution of life. Now there's a big court battle and it seems like all of America is debating something that isn't even worthy of debate (even The Daily Show did a whole week-long series of shows called "Evolution, Schmevolution").

It isn't worthy of debate because of one fact. "Intelligent design" isn't science, it's a belief. If you introduce the supernatural, or anything that can't be tested or proved into a theory, it isn't science. It's a belief that is perfectly OK for anyone to believe, but only science should be taught in public schools. The other thing that burns my ass about arguments for "intelligent design" is that people (purposefully or not) misunderstand and misuse the term "scientific theory" as meaning a "scientific guess." Kenneth R. Miller, the Brown University biology professor quoted in the article, has a more pithy explanation than I could give:

"Scientific theories are not hunches," he added. "When we say 'theory,' we mean a strong, overarching explanation that ties together many facts and enables us to make testable predictions."

Why are we wasting time on this? It almost feels like a distraction from more important stuff America should be arguing about - like why it is or isn't a good idea to buy a Bugaboo stroller? Where's The Daily Show expose about that!!

OK. I'm done. Sorry for the (kind of off topic) rant.

Pa. Case Is Newest Round in Evolution Debate [Washington Post]
15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense (A great .pdf file that's definitely worth a read.) [Scientific American via Boing Boing]

MDD in the NY Times.

Earlier this week I gave a comment to a reporter from the NY Times for an article about strollers that came out this morning, so if you're visiting MDD for the first time, welcome.

As for the article, I make no apologies for loving my stroller. And like I told the reporter, I haven't personally come into contact with anyone who was annoyed by it (at least anyone who would come up and tell me).  If anything my experience is the exact opposite. At least a few times a month a stranger will come up to me and ask me about the stroller, where did I get it, etc. I can't help the intentions other people project on me when I'm using the stroller, nor can I be responsible for careless or thoughtless people who are using them.

Anyway, I'm always happy to have new people checking out my site, so please stay and look around for a while. I've included a couple of links on stroller-related stuff, or you can search the site for keywords like "bugaboo" or "stroller".

Supersize Strollers Ignite Sidewalk Drama [NY Times]

Also on MDD:
Bugaboo cup holder. Round one., and, Round one results. (my most popular search referral)
Expensive stroller saves baby, "spendthrift" dads vindicated.

Babytalk magazine poll reveals absolutely nothing.

If you ask me, parenting magazines are primarily the province of moms. I've never read one that wasn't mom-centric and that treated dads in any way equally. When I first had a baby I used to get worked up about this kind of stuff, but quite frankly now that my baby is a toddler I don't have time for that kind of indulgence. And I get it - men don't buy parenting magazines, so advertisers target women reading parenting magazines, and you aren't going to get one that caters to men too. We've got blogs if we want to get a male parenting perspective (and they've been doing the job pretty well for me for the past year and a half).

So today I saw this news blurb about a poll of new parents that Babytalk magazine recently ran. (Babytalk, for those of us that weren't aware, has apparently recently debuted "Unique New Positioning" and a new tagline, "Straight talk for new moms." "Straight talk" as opposed to the confusing "Babytalk" they were previously getting.) Anyway, the news article said that the poll revealed a "mom-dad-baby love triangle." Here are the conclusions:

• More than two-thirds of the men said their wives don't pay as much attention to them as they did before the baby.
• The majority of women feel more connected to their babies than to their husbands.
• Half of the men feel sexually neglected by their wives; 19 percent feel emotionally neglected.

I am so sick of reading these "polls" that purport to reveal some hidden truth, but really just try to stir up some contrived publicity for a magazine (usually through a catchy headline like "mom-dad-baby love triangle"). Why is this particular poll idiotic?

• Of course the mother of your child won't pay as much attention to you as she did before she had the baby. YOU JUST HAD A FREAKING BABY. There's a lot to do. You probably aren't paying as much attention to your wife either.
• I'm a dude, but even I understand that it's probably impossible to feel more connected to anyone other than the human being that recently came out of your vagina. I'm not bothered by this at all. It doesn't mean your wife doesn't love you or still feel connected to you too.
• Sexually neglected? I'm not sure how the poll was worded, but again, YOU JUST HAD A FREAKING BABY. If you thought you'd have just as much sex as you did before you had a newborn, then you should have rethought the unprotected sex in the first place. There is no way any "new parent" is as sexually active as they were before the baby arrived - which is completely normal. And some dudes might interpret that as "neglect" because, well, dudes are always horny.

New moms, dads polled [Knight Ridder via News-Leader.com]

News links for a Thursday.

Meet the Modern Mr. Mom [The Daily Californian via RebelDad]
This is a humor/essay piece by a college student in Berkeley about how he aspires to be a stay-at-home dad. It's interesting, because while he's not exactly right about some of it, his insights are pretty good. To wit: "When you're a nine-to-five dad, your job is to provide for the quality of life for your family. When you're a stay-at-home dad, your job is to define the quality of life for your family. What would you rather be doing?"

Science’s Hope of Two Genetic Dads [Gay City News (Where exactly is Gay City? It sounds like it might be a fun place to visit sometime.)]
Here's something to freak out right-wing anti-gay-marriage super-Christian Republicans. Scientists are looking into the possibilities of using stem cells to give children of gay dads some of the genetic material of each. I'm all for it, but isn't this just another distraction for the opponents of stem cell research to use to convince small-minded people about how "evil" it is? Which is not to say they shouldn't do it.

Grandmother fired for Katrina absences [Boston Globe]
A grandma from Kansas City decides to look after her granddaughter (who's parents had been stranded in New Orleans) instead of going to her job on an assembly line, which gets her fired. It's despicable no doubt, but it's interesting to me how many news outlets picked up this story. I'm guessing she's not the only victim of insensitive a-holes in the wake of Katrina.

Katrina.

I wasn't sure if I should blog about this or not, but really it's all I'm thinking about this morning. And now I read that some people are calling today Hurricane Katrina Blog Relief Day, so I guess this is appropriate. I don't have anything to add personally, other than try to send some money if you can. This is what I've been reading this morning:

Coverage on CNN.com. As if all of this wasn't unthinkable enough, I'm reading about looters and criminals taking advantage of this disaster (one even shot a cop in the head). I want to believe that horrible situations bring out the best in people, but the sad reality is the reverse is also true..

Survival of New Orleans blog. [via Boing Boing] This is crazy. A guy is holed up on the 10th floor of a high-rise in a data center live-blogging what's going on (from his perspective). There's even a camera he's set up, though I haven't been able to get it working yet.

Wikipedia entry on Hurricane Katrina.

Donate to the Red Cross via Amazon.com. The Red Cross' web site is bogged down, so this might be the best place to get your donation in. Or by phone here:
American Red Cross
1-800-HELP NOW (435-7669) English, or 1-800-257-7575 Spanish

News links for a Thursday.

Motorola phones let parents monitor kids [Business Week]
Motorola is putting out a new line of cellphones for kids with tracking and "censorship software." I'm imagining a v-chip for phones. It was bound to happen I guess.

Sperm donor reality show? [Reuters]
I have to admit. I'm a fan of Big Brother. It's my biggest guilty pleasure. It seems the evil genius behind it, John de Mol, is going to start a new show where a "woman searches for a potential sperm donor to conceive a child."  I'm surprised Fox hasn't done it yet.

Health Watch: Stay At Home Dads [KFOX TV, El Paso, Texas]
Another on-line article created from a TV news piece about stay at home dads. Nothing new here, except they seem to suggest that the reason that it's OK for dads to stay at home is, well, I'll just re-post it here:

The biggest job for moms seems to be nurturing, so are 6 year-old Lauren and 1 year old twins Connor and Sofi getting as much from dad as they would get from mom? Studies say yes, before baby is born, dads experience a surge in nurturing hormones like estrogen and prolactin, which is the hormone coursing through you when you're in love. The essentially male hormone testosterone dips by a third once baby is born, a dip that lasts a few months into baby's life.

Even if this hormone dipping and surging is true, it has nothing to do with a SAHD's ability to nurture their kid. I guess people in Texas need some sort of medical excuse for why men can take care of their kids just as good as women.

Parents beat principal who made schoolgirls strip [Reuters, India]
A principal in India made some of his female students take off their clothes so he could take pictures of them and post them on the Internet. So their parents beat his ass and then handed him over to the police. Good for them.

The Bullshit Job Title Generator
OK. This isn't a news article, but it had me laughing last night. Click on the "Generate Bullshit Title" button and get a great new job title. Before my SAHD life, I had to deal with a lot of people with job titles like these. My favorites so far: "Dynamic Operations Assistant," "Senior Interactions Architect," and "Legacy Response Facilitator."

News links for a Friday.

AOL: Dads Outspending Moms for Back to School [DMNews]
Apparently some direct marketing researchers have found that dads have budgeted more money for back to school stuff than moms. Surprise! They've figured out maybe they should be marketing to the dads too.

1 in 25 Dads May Not Be Child's Biological Father [LA Times]
This one is, I must admit, a little shocking to me. A study from Liverpool shows that 4% of men worldwide are not the biological fathers of children they believe are theirs. And (obviously) most of it is attributed to infidelity. Damn.

Parents Council slams sale of Playboy logo stationery [Ireland On-Line]
Parents in Ireland are pissed that their kids are buying spiral notebooks with the Playboy bunny. But when does a brand just become a brand and not really have much to do with what it signifies? In other words, isn't sometimes a bunny just a bunny?

'60 Minutes' Focuses on Parents Hosting Alcohol Parties for Minors [PR Newswire]
How come none of my friends had parents like this when I was growing up? But now as a dad, I realized the parents of my friends were just SANE.

Parents Accuse Snoop Dogg Of Pee Wee Football Sabotage [MTV.com]
Football dad Snoop Dogg decided to start his own pee wee football league in southern California, effectively destroying the existing league. Snoop Dogg Pee Wee sabotage? Sabotage you say??