Adult Boys – perhaps that’s an oxymoron or contradiction in terms? But, in my mind, it’s an apt description of many young adults today; many so-called “millennials,” of which I have two. My two are now out of the house and we are empty nesters. In many ways, I am quite happy and, to my surprise, adjusted very quickly to their absence. In other ways, I’m alarmed or concerned or just mystified (by their generation).
WE know that money does NOT grow on trees – do our kids?
They say that the biggest three issues that couples argue about are money, sex, and kids. Perhaps we should take on all three this coming Thursday, August 6 at #DadChat at 6:00 p.m. PT/7:00 p.m. MT/9:00 p.m. ET? For now, let’s concentrate on how money affects us and our kids. How do we teach our kids about money, saving, checking accounts, budgeting, investing, planning for the future, etc.?
As many of you know, #DadChat and I were “hit” by haters earlier this year. It made me re-evaluate my thoughts about Social Media as a whole and my place in this ever-changing landscape. #DadChat was “my baby” and I loved the good we were doing by discussing topics as tough as Sexual Abuse, Religion, and Race. We also had many lighter topics, often music-related.
There are so many clichés around parenting that I could literally fill a book. I like “no one said it would be easy” for parenting and many things. In fact, most of the best things in life aren’t “easy.” They may be fun, but they are often not easy. Dennis Prager has often talked about this very fact when he speaks on happiness and differentiates between what makes us happy and what is simply fun.
No one likes to lose but the irony is that losing is often better for us. I love Bruce Springsteen’s music (hate his politics) and I think he covered this idea so well in “Glory Days” where he sings about the high school baseball star who reflects on those days in high school where he probably “peaked,” along with the cute cheerleader who is now divorced and taking care of her kids, alone.
#DadChat is going on two years old and I estimate that we garnered over 500,000,000 “impressions” in 2012. That estimate is likely lower than the reality since #DadChat has become more than a once-a-week hourly get together. Our hashtag is synonymous with parents and added to parent-centric tweets all the time, plus the community is always interacting. It’s a beautiful thing. NOTE: I just did an actual count, using each week’s transcript numbers from Hashtracking.com and the actual number for all of 2012 is 682,000,000 .
I often say that “I don’t do politics,” though I’ve occasionally violated that assertion. I figure by touching politics I risk “losing” half my audience. I’d rather be myself and risk losing all my audience. But sometimes, it’s hard to avoid these taboo topics. We actually had a VERY civil discussion on politics at #DadChat recently.
