We’re starting a new feature on the blog to showcase some of the funniest parents from around the internet! Each week we’ll share what we deem to be the funniest tweets about parenting, so you can spend you Monday mornings laughing out loud for strangers on the bus!
https://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Canadian-Dad-Funniest-Parenting-Tweets-3-3.jpg435829Chris Readhttps://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CD.pngChris Read2019-03-18 04:00:592019-03-17 23:30:59Funniest Parenting Tweets of the Week!
We’re starting a new feature on the blog to showcase some of the funniest parents from around the internet! Each week we’ll share what we deem to be the funniest tweets about parenting, so you can spend you Monday mornings laughing out loud for strangers on the bus!
https://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Canadian-Dad-Funniest-Parenting-Tweets-1-1.jpg385700Chris Readhttps://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CD.pngChris Read2019-03-04 10:56:282019-03-04 14:14:17Funniest Parenting Tweets of the Week!
Something people may not know about me is that before I became a blogger, I went through a pretty hard core phase as a contester. I’m not talking about entering a couple contests here and there either. I mean full blown, spreadsheet creating, madness! I have probably entered about five contests in my first year as a blogger and this past weekend I was lucky enough to win a weekend stay at a hotel right in my own town, the Ottawa Marriott.
After breaking the good news to my wife, we decided to spend one night in the hotel with the kids and one night with just the two of us. A huge thanks to my Mom for watching the kids on the second night to allow us to have our first night away in almost two years! We got there and immediately headed down to the kids play room. I had heard about this from a few friends and couldn’t wait to check it out for myself. As expected, the kids had a blast and negotiated their way to an extra 15 minutes of play time. They probably could have scored an extra 30 minutes, but don’t tell them that.
The kids love staying in hotels and we decided to get a king sized bed so we could all sleep together. I knew that meant we would get a little less sleep and I even took a few shots to the face from the boy, but it was totally worth it to see their smiling faces. And just in case anyone from the Marriott reads this, I promised that the kids would jump on the bed and I always keep my promises. I even threw in a little extra…
Daddy jumps on beds too!
As much fun as night one had been, I was definitely looking forward to some husband and wife time. It had been so long since we could just go out to enjoy a dinner without worrying about how late it was. We enjoyed a nice dinner at the Hard Rock and headed back to the hotel to watch a movie. Unfortunately the movie channel was broken, so we were left without many options on TV on a Saturday night.
Fortunately, if I taught my wife anything about social media, it is that excellent brands always come through in the clutch! She had just started to discover the world of twitter and expressed her disappointment over not being able to watch a movie together. Two minutes later, the phone rang and it was the manager of the hotel, who mentioned they saw her tweet and wanted to make it right. They offered to bring up a DVD player and some movies for us, which I appreciated but declined. That would have been enough for me but they decided to go the extra mile and offered us breakfast in bed for two the next morning. JOY!
I took so much away from this weekend and have felt extremely energized ever since. It’s so important to take the time to unwind, both as a family and as a couple. To be able to do it right in our own backyard was icing on the cake. This is not a sponsored post in any way but I want to say a huge thank you to the Ottawa Marriott for your hospitality and amazing service. Also, thank you for having a Starbucks in the lobby!
https://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CD.png00Chris Readhttps://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CD.pngChris Read2013-03-21 22:07:402013-03-21 22:07:40A Vacation In Our Own Backyard
Welcome back to Dad Bogs Exposed! Every week I will be introducing you to a new Dad blogger and today, I’m happy to introduce you to Andy Hinds, who runs the popular blog Beta Dad!
Andy was one of the first people to really make me feel like I was a part of the online Dad blog community. All he did was have a Twitter conversation with me but for most new bloggers, that’s all we really looking for. You spend a lot of time staring at your empty interactions page when you start up and it was cool of him to fill mine up a bit!
Andy is father to twin 3 year old girls, who go by the pseudonym’s of Butterbean and Cobra on the blog. At least I hope that’s their pseudonym’s….His writing has slowed down a bit since he’s rejoined the workforce but I’m guessing it’s tough to find a balance between it all, especially with twins.
You can add to that, the fact that he can also be found writing at the collaborative Dad blog DadCentric and also over at the popular blog, Aiming Low, and you can see where life would start to get a little busy.
Now, let’s get into the awesomeness that is Beta Dad! First things first, Check out this header from his website, which features his girls stomping through downtown Toyko. I knew from that moment that this was a site I was going to enjoy!
Andy is not your prototypical Dad blogger. On top of posting about his kids and family life in a sincere way, he is also not afraid to take on bigger topics, such as his thoughts on kids using the word Hate and his take on people (and brands) who think Parenting is a Job.
It’s refreshing to read someone who isn’t afraid to just tell it like it is, or at least how he sees it. I’ve dabbled in this format but I’m still trying to find my voice so I can respect how hard it is to put yourself out there like that. It’s not easy to take criticism for things you’ve written but Andy always answers the call when it happens.
Much like every other Dad blogger I talk to on the internet, I’ve never met Andy, but my interactions with him so far have been nothing but great. He seems like a nice guy and I’m happy to have stumbled upon his work. The one thing he’ll never be accused of is being a fake, that’s for sure.
He made a joke a while back that I was out to steal all the Dad bloggers jobs. Probably because Canada has a small Dad blog market, so I tend to get a lot of calls from the media. Funny how things work out that just over a month later I was trolling on Twitter and noticed his most recent work…This interview and post on HLN TV!!
Way to go Andy, you’re raising the bar for the rest of us and I, for one, accept your challenge! I look forward to fighting the good fight with you for more years to come!
If you guys are so inclined, I urge you to catch up with Andy on his home site Beta Dad. You can also find him on Twitter @BetaDad and also on Facebook.
As always, don’t forget to leave some love for our guest in the comments section. I can’t even guarantee that he’ll read this post but I’ll spam him until he does and I’m sure he’ll appreciate the kind words (or hate mail) 😀
Cheers!!
https://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CD.png00Chris Readhttps://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CD.pngChris Read2012-07-14 22:01:422019-02-22 13:36:26Dad Blogs Exposed! – Beta Dad
As another month of blogging on Canadian Dad sails by, I have decided to unleash yet another feature that I hope will catch on and stick around. I have been so fortunate to have met so many great bloggers, who are all so willing to help out with anything, that I thought it would be fun to give a little back by featuring some of them on a weekly basis.
Seeing as how the Mom to Dad blog ratio is so lopsided, I thought it would be cool to highlight a few of the great Dad blogs out there so you could get to know some of us a little better. We’re really not that bad, I promise!
What better way to kick it off, than to feature a Canadian on Canada Day! I’d like to introduce you to James from the blog EduDad!
I first met James on Twitter, as I do with most of my blogging friends, where he goes by the handle @SaskaDad. He gets his Twitter name because he grew up in Nipawin, a little town in Northeastern Saskatchewan.
I guess the best way to cover all the ways James is the man, is to use his Twitter bio, where he describes himself as a Dad. Husband. Teacher. Minivan. Some hair. Some gut. Strong coffee. Guitars. Songwriter. Blogger.
One thing that really sticks out about James’ blog is the fact that he is a very talented musician. You can check out his About Me page for more info about his music career, but I’m talking about a cool feature he does, where he writes Theme Songs for other Dad Blogs that he likes. He’s done about 7 of them so far, including this one about the guys over at How To Be A Dad
Awesome right!? My favorite part about that one is his kid playing in the background.
James is a really cool Dad and is someone I consider to be a down to earth person. He has some tragedy in his life and isn’t afraid to write about it in a very open manner. He’s a super nice guy, a great writer and an amazing Dad. Oh yeah, and he’s Canadian!
I hope you’ll give his blog a read and I’ve even picked out a post for you to start at! He recently wrote a very touching piece about his daughter, who they were told would never have normal vision. The post is entitled “She Makes the Ordinary Extraordinary” and it’s well worth the read!
James, you’re an amazing Canadian, Dad, Musician and Teacher and even though we may never meet, I’m happy to know you and appreciate what you’re all about!
I started to write this post last night. I took a break to hang out on Twitter for a bit, when one tweet changed the entire direction of the story.
I’m not much of a thoughtful gift giver. I mean well, I really do. It just seems that I always come up a bit short.
Today is my wife’s birthday. I used to ask her what she wanted as a gift but she’d always give me the “Oh, I don’t need anything” line. Every man knows this is simply code for “You should know what I like by now, figure it out!”
I spent hours agonizing over what to get her and think I actually did pretty well this year. Here is what the kids and I had planned for her presents:
Yep, shelled out for some nice jewelry and put together a frame with the kids. I was all done, yet something still felt incomplete.
I’ve been increasingly fascinated with this website called Twitter. You may have heard of it. Anyway, I like to go there to flex my funny bone.
It was about 2AM and I thought it would be fun to send a tweet to one of my wife’s favorite musician’s, Jann Arden. She is a notorious tweeter but I wasn’t expecting any reply. Celebrities are busy and I respect that.
Here’s a look at what happened:
That simple reply of “Maybe I should call her” set off a slew of emotions for me. Was she serious? Or was it just a joke? I replied back with a joke comment and then something weird and amazing happened.
Other totally selfless people started tweeting to Jann, saying that she should do it because it would be amazing. I agreed and before I could jump on board, Jann had already messaged me to say that we were on!
I have to admit; at this point I was a wreck. Shaking a bit with excitement. A little skeptical about what was happening (Was this even Jann?). A little hungry. You know, the usual stuff that happens when you are organizing a celebrity phone call for your wife’s birthday at 2 in the morning….
I spent the rest of the night glued to my iPhone, chatting on Twitter and Facebook with other excited fans. I still had no idea what had happened. I lost focus so much that I didn’t fill out my birthday card and almost left the other gifts at work.
Let’s cut to the next morning, we’ll call that day yesterday for the purposes of this story. I still didn’t know how this whole thing was going down. I took my son to the park to play for a bit and then I got a call from my wife.
Her birthday was the next day so I wasn’t expecting anything to happen then, but she had an exciting story for me.
“Jann Arden just called me at the house to say Happy Birthday! And said that you did that!” She didn’t pick up the phone right away so we are lucky enough to have this proof forever:
I literally couldn’t believe it; she had come through and made me look like a superhero husband. The truth is that I really don’t deserve much credit at all. It’s not like it was my idea after all. Chalk it up to right place at the right time.
The one thing I did know is that my wife had loved it and that was the most important thing to me. She is a wonderfully amazing woman and deserves every good thing that comes her way.
She runs a day care, puts up with my shift work (and Bull Sh*t) and basically makes sure that my children get all the love they need and deserve! She is amazing, I am lucky to have her and I am so glad that I was able to have a hand in making her smile for her birthday.
We both showered Jann with big Thank You’s on Twitter and hope that she understands how amazing her act truly was. In case she is reading my lowly blog right now, Thank You again Jann Arden, You Rock!!!
I guess the only problem I have now is that my wife will be expecting something big out of me every year from now on….
No worries, I’ve got my buddy Madonna on speed dial!
Happy Birthday Honey!
Cheers!
https://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CD.png00Chris Readhttps://canadiandad.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CD.pngChris Read2012-04-17 11:00:222016-05-03 01:40:37And Then Jann Arden Called My House