Modern Dad

A few years back I was on a health kick. I was in the middle of a high-intensity spin class, sweating up a storm. The music was blaring, pedal stroke after pedal stroke, as our instructor Haley, yelled out, “GET THERE! Come on, GET THERE!”. After about ten of these orders, I asked myself - what the heck does she mean by “get there”? Get where? And how will I know when I’ve reached this place? 

Eventually I realized that “getting there” meant something different to every rider, and I’ve since adopted her inspirational chant as a solid parenting philosophy. Get to your happy place, or finish as strong as you can! Do your very best at whatever speed works for you. But get the very best out of your ride, and keep pushing yourself to the max, so you can be the best parent you can be. Yeah...maybe it’s a stretch, but I’ll take it!

When I first started writing about fatherhood nearly a decade ago, I didn’t have quite as much parenting experience. Now I have young independent daughters with their own lives. Drawing from my own experiences as a father, I would like to give back to the parenting community. Raising kids is hard no matter what, and younger parents may feel they’d like to reach out for guidance from those who have been there. 

We’ve all heard troubling stories of fathers not wanting to be a part of their children’s lives. I’m not here to try and explain or solve any of these issues. I simply enjoy featuring parents - particularly dads - who thrive in the role of raising their kids, and who take an active role in their kids’ lives. This is my chance to continue learning from and helping other parents by showing the good work of dads from all walks of life. So, I’m getting back on the “dad blogging” bike to give it another ride!

I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to end up, but in this series of vlogs, I hope to inform, entertain, inspire and learn from others’ experience and lifestyles. I hope I have a lot of riding buddies along the way, so in the end we can all “GET THERE” together!