Category: Of Being Dad

Fatherly posts.

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It’s hard being an adult

I just yelled at the 4 year old because he was ignoring my pleas to go upstairs and leave me alone. To him, it’s just a beautiful Saturday and he’d like me to be playing Mouse Trap with him. I sure wish I could. I’d like nothing more than to be spending time with my children. My wife wants progress made on the house and yard. I’d love to be cleaning out the garage, landscaping, plumbing, and getting the ants and the squirrels out of the house.

But I can’t. Today is terribly important. Programming must take priority above all else. It’s a beautiful, sunny Saturday. The birds are chirping. And I’m locked in the basement with heavy guilt.

A child arrived just the other day.. Came to the world in the usual way..

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Drowning Out the Decibels with Noise

My house is noisier than yours. I know this because I think OSHA would require hearing protection in this place.

Our house it has a crowd
There’s always something happening
And it’s usually quite loud
[Source]

I have some wonderful noise canceling headphones but they don’t completely isolate me from the noise. That is, until I decided to pump some white noise through them! http://simplynoise.com/ has some downloadable white noise clips. You can down 30 seconds of white, pink and brown noise that you play in a continuous loop. You can also download a one hour thunderstorm! This works so well I thought I was home alone!

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DeadRising Wii Feedback Needed

dead-rising-wiiNoah just upgraded from 12 years old to 13 years old. He went into Target with his birthday money and came out with a Wii game called "Deadrising – Chop Till You Drop" The kids play first person shooters but Tommy brought one home from a friend’s house once that had so much foul language that I had to ban it from the house. I like to keep violence in check with the children. I am realistic about it. Play acting or gaming violence is part of being a kid. Today’s games do have the opportunity to be far too graphic. This one is rated M for mature and says 17+. The element are "blood and gore," "intense violence," and "language." I have more hesitation on this one because the Wii is in the common area, it is likely to be seen by the 4 and 7 year olds.

So, my gaming friends, do I let the 13 year old keep this game or force him to return it and buy something less violent and graphic? Having the Wii spewing out profanities is probably my biggest concern.