To celebrate my participation in Quaker’s campaign for their “The Recital” video, they are letting me give away this amazing prize pack to one lucky reader! This campaign has been really eye opening for me in that it has got me thinking about how easy it is to fall into a routine with our kids. Don’t get me wrong, routines are great and all but I think we still need to step outside the box every now and then to show our kids that it is okay to take risks.
I hope you enjoy this giveaway, picture above, and also take a minute to watch and share The Recital video again. I really love the new trend of emotional marketing, especially when it involves dads! This giveaway is not open to residents of Quebec and I’ll select a winner on September 24th.
https://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Quaker-The-Recital-Giveaway.jpg411600Chris Readhttps://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CD.pngChris Read2015-09-15 12:02:182015-09-15 12:02:18Win A Quaker Prize Pack Including $250 In Gift Cards!
When the doctor informed my wife and I that we were going to be having a daughter, a wave of panic came over me. It wasn’t that I didn’t think I would be a good enough father, it was more the fact that I had spent so much of my life around guys that I wasn’t sure how different life would be with a little girl around. You see, it had been well over 70 years since there had been a girl born on my father’s side of the family. My grandfather had four sons, three of them had two sons each and then two of us had boys as our first children. To say the odds were against us having a daughter would be a giant understatement.
Still, there she was, a beautiful baby girl staring back at me, wrapped in a pink blanket and wearing a pink knitted hat. She has been in my life for just over five years now and I can honestly say that having a little girl has changed the way I think about almost everything. Just when I think I have her figured out she never fails to throw me a curve ball. She fell in love with princesses and ballet so I assumed she was going to be a girlie girl. Next thing I know she’s running Spartan Races, destroying rock walls and bowling kids over at her soccer games.
Just this past weekend we went camping at the KOA in Cardinal and they have a gigantic inflatable water slide. If I’m being completely honest, I’m a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to rides and heights in general so I was hoping my kids wouldn’t be interested in the water slide. I got off the hook with my son because he was preoccupied with the Kids Bingo event but I could tell by the daredevil look in her eyes that there would be no denying her this adventure. Due to her lack of height she needed a parent to go up the ladder with her and, after my wife vanished in a puff of smoke, I ended up drawing the short straw. Here is an example of what we were going up against, although the picture does it no justice.
A funny thing happened on the way up to the top of the slide. My fear of heights vanished and was instead replaced by pride at watching her fearlessly climb her way to the top. As it turns out, her fearlessness helped me conquer one of my fears, which was a lot to process afterward. As we conquered the slide together I was reminded of the new Quaker video, The Recital (shown below), from earlier in the week and have since vowed to do more crazy and goofy things with my kids going forward. Life had gotten a little too serious lately and when that happens it can be easy to lose sight of what’s important. Let your freak flag fly, people, and enjoy the smiles that follow!
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Quaker.
https://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Daughter-Window.jpg450600Chris Readhttps://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CD.pngChris Read2015-09-01 21:01:202015-09-01 21:05:39Oh, The Places She’ll Go
Where does the time go? I’m serious, what just happened here? I blinked and my children were another year older. It leaves me reflecting on whether I’m making the most of this time with them or if I’m letting it slip by too quickly. I had been asked to write something about the new video from Quaker, The Recital, and quickly planned out what I wanted to talk about. That changed instantly after I watched the video, however. There as a line in there that really resonated with me and it’s when the dad in the video says,
“And I hope she doesn’t think I work too much or don’t pay enough attention to her because I really do value the time we spend together”
That’s exactly it, isn’t it? This line just kept ringing in my ears afterward because it is exactly how I feel about my kids. I have a full time job and also freelance on the side so that my wife can stay home to raise the kids. This means that while most parents are chastised for having their phones out around their kids, I occasionally need to have mine out in order to pay the bills. Still, I wonder if the kids remember all the fun events they got to go to or will they only remember that daddy was on his phone (fulfilling social media obligations for that event) during them?
I worry everyday that my children won’t understand this and I do my very best to explain it to them and to keep my work to the times when we are not together, but I’m certainly not perfect. I actually considered leaving blogging earlier this year because I felt like it was taking away too much of my family time. I got to a point where there seemed to be so much going on that I just shut down to avoid it all. As it turns out, I just needed to implement some structure to what I do. Yes, after 4 years of this I am still learning how to manage it. Laugh away.
This is the path we have chosen and I am grateful for every opportunity I have received and for every Harlem Globetrotter who has visited my house to play basketball with my kids… I just hope that my children will look back someday and remember that above all else their daddy loved them and did everything in his power to give them the best life possible. Now, grab some tissues and watch this very cool video from Quaker. PS – I’m already planning something special for my daughter and I to do together after watching this!
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Quaker to showcase their new father/daughter video and hit me harder that I had expected. Do all the things you want to do with your kids before you blink and they have families of their own.
*Photo Credit: The cover photo was taken by David Redding Photography.
https://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Kids-Dad-Video-Games.jpg400600Chris Readhttps://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CD.pngChris Read2015-08-25 12:44:542017-05-01 11:14:01Am I Making The Most Of My Time As A Father?
