In Response to: We Need to Quit Telling Lies on Facebook

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Have you guys read "We Need to Quit Telling Lies on Facebook" on Raising Kvell yet? If you haven't, get on that right now. It's a 10 minute and read well worth it. The writer, Sarah Emily Tuttle-Singer,  raises some very interesting points and IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME SOMEONE SAID IT! I've considered writing a similar post about 500 times but figured I'd be chastised by the blogosphere so I'm glad someone finally had the gall to do it.



I could not agree with her more. I instagram, Facebook and blog-post about my kid on the regular and every photo is this adorableangelicwhimsical moment eating breakfast at the coffee shop, building a foam-block tower or making a painting together. I never write about chasing her around the coffee shop saying "Stop! No! Don't do that!!" and feeling embarrassed in front of everyone or the times she asks me to play with blocks or paint and I say "Not right now" or "I'm busy working". Like Tuttle-Singer said "Let’s be real: Parenting is ridiculously hard." and by pretending it's this always-amazing perfect thing we're blatantly lying to everyone. I'm not saying we need to post photos of tantruming children on  instagram or say "My kid is a brat" on twitter because jesus who wants to see that but a little brutal honesty wouldn't hurt sometimes. Infact it would do a world of good to other parents reading it knowing they aren't alone in the struggle and difficulties of parenting.


Sometimes when I post a photo of Sierra on Facebook I get a comment along the lines of "WOW! You make me not afraid to have kids!". And to those commenters I say: Be afraid! Be very afraid! Don't get me wrong, having a kid is the best and I truly mean that. It's a special kind of unconditional love but it's also really difficult and trying. Sometimes you lose your temper, sometimes you don't want to play, sometimes you don't want to wake up at 6AM and dress an angry jelly boned tiny human. So don't be fooled by mommy/daddy bloggers' instagram feeds, including mine, it's not all rainbows and unicorns - it's really hard but it's also really rewarding. I wouldn't change my life for the world and I feel lucky every single day but I agree "We Need to Quit Telling Lies on Facebook".


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And with that I feel Inspired by Sarah Emily Tuttle-Singer to give you my "IRL Morning" with Sierra from this morning:

My alarm went off at 6:30 AM and I realized I had Sierra's fist in my face. She has her own room and her own bed but at some point during the night she decided to wake up and come into our room like she does almost every night. I'm all for co-sleeping but sometimes when your child is lying "H is for Hell" style its not so great.

I decided I cared more about sleeping than starting our daily routine on time so we ignored that 6:30 alarm… and the 7:10 one… and finally got up for the 7:30 one. Soon after I woke up I posted these pictures:




Cute right? A sleepy little baby and a cute outfit. This actually happened, my kid is super cute and so are her outfits but what i didn't mention on my Instagram caption was that 2 minutes after this photo was taken I had to try and dress a half asleep 3 year old who was telling me "No!" and going all "no-bones" while trying to swat me away like an annoying fly. She was angry I woke her up and I was annoyed because we were running late and I didn't have time to fight her into a pair of jeans. It wasn't fun or cute but we made it through. I won't bore you with the rest of the morning but you get the point. 

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When discussing the original Kvell blog post with Lauren she said:

 "It's good. However, I'd hate for Sierra to grow up and find posts upon posts about how difficult she was. I'd like to preserve the smiling moments, keep it real that it's tough, but I don't need pictures of her tantruming to remind me." One of the mommy bloggers said the other day "we choose our focus" and I liked that."

And I like that too. So I leave you with this photo & quote from one of my fav parenting bloggers Kelle Hampton:

(Photo / Quote by Kelle Hampton I'm just borrowing / sharing: Follow her here: http://instagram.com/etst)

-Craig

Heartwarming news of the day!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Sierra's 5 year old cousin got the new heart she needed!!

Read the article here and watch the news clip here:





Hipster Dad Approved Valentine's Day Cards

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

We made a Pinterest board of "Hipster Dad Approved Valentine's Day Cards". Will add more throughout the day so check back later too :-)

-Craig


MOMS on DADS: Darlene O of the "Tales of a Young Mamma" blog!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Hi guys I'm Darlene from youngmammatales.blogspot.com I'm honored today to be here today to talk a bit about an awesome dad in my life, my baby daddy, Drew.

Drew and I started dating senior year of high school, after being friends since 5th grade. It became pretty serious and I ended up transferring out to Denver to be with him Soph. year of college. 

When I got pregnant, he was a 19 year old college kid, with no thoughts to being a dad anytime soon. Even though we had been together for 2 years, I still didn't count on him sticking around to be a father. I didn't want to tie him down at 19. I gave him an out, many, many times throughout my pregnancy. And he never took it. From the day he found out he was going to be a father, he 100 percent stepped up. He switched to a full time job to support our son and us, while going to college full time. 



For the first 3 years of Jasper's life, Drew worked 50+ hrs a week, was in class another 18 and still managed to be a great dad. He was up with me for middle of the night feedings, diaper changes, park and playdates, doctors appointments, he was there through it all. 

He found a way to make our dream of studying abroad in Sweden happen, with our son. Countless people told us it wasn't doable with a child, that they wouldn't be able to find proper housing for a child, and he kept pursuing and making it happen. He Never gives up on a dream.  And he is teaching our children to be the same.

He is the dad who gets up with our son and lets me sleep in while he makes us a huge breakfast on a Saturday. He's the dad who knows all of his sons teachers and friends names and goes along to every birthday party. He is the dad who actually plays at the park, not only with our son but somehow gets all the other kids involved as well. He is the dad who hasn't missed a single soccer game in the two years Jasper has been playing. He is the dad who won't stay for happy hour after work with everyone else because that would mean not being home to tuck his kids into bed at night.

Now that we have a daughter as well I can see how much he has changed even more for the better. Having a son, and now a daughter has made him become such a loving, caring person, and they are so lucky to have him in their life.

Thanks for letting me share a little bit about one amazing dad, can't wait to hear all about the other great dads out there!

The best story of entrepreneurship I've heard in a while.

Monday, February 4, 2013


Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with being a Dad but like I mentioned a few months ago I wanted to open the blog up to be about anything and not just daddy-stuff. So here we go…

So as some of you know, I'm a graphic designer at an agency here in Boston. One of the clients I design for is everyone's favorite office supply and printing store: Staples. Well Staples Headquarters is in Framingham, MA and it's massive! Tons of buildings, parking lots and people. One of these people was an intern who wasn't making much money and just going to work every day waiting for a promotion to come along.

At Staples HQ there is a great cafeteria for the employees but the coffee selection is sub par to say the least, just the 'brew and let sit all day' kind of deal. Well the intern I mentioned is big on coffee and saw an opportunity. He applied for a small space near the cafeteria to stick a cart and when he was approved he quit his internship and opened up shop pedaling great coffee, tea and espresso to Staples' hundreds (thousands?) of employees every day.

The cart is super successful and after my first Iced Americano I had there the other day I can tell you it's also super delicious. It's called the "Espresso Minute" and if you ever find yourselves at Staples HQ make sure to swing by and grab a drink.

When one of my coworkers told me the story of the little coffee cart it just made me feel so happy that someone could go from a low paying internship to owning their own succesful business in such a short amount of time. On top of being successful the Espresso Minute has endless opportunities for growth whether it's other offices, a food truck or even retail locations. So just wanted to take a second to say "Hey Espresso Minute guy, Thanks for giving me a happy success story to cheer up my day and thanks for the caffeine! You rule." 

-Craig




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