The other evening at dinner, my youngest son put down his fork and looked at me. “Daddy,” he said. “What was it like before there were cars?” “Hey! I’m not that old!” Unfortunately, he looked surprised. “You’re not?” “No, I’m not. If you really want to know, you should ask your mo-” “Don’t even think […]

Today’s tale is in the Chronicle. Click here to read it. Terms for Searchers: Wii Fit, Christmas, wife, frying pan

Over the past month or so, I’ve been teaching the boys how to take showers by themselves. For the 6-year old, of course, this is no big deal. For the 4-year old, it’s a bit more challenging. It also would have been easier if I’d told my wife. It’s not that I was hiding it […]

Although he’s much better than he was, we continue to struggle to get our youngest to eat enough at mealtimes. You would think that a contest that has two adults on one side and one 4-year old on the other would be a bit one-sided. Unfortunately, the little guy has a surprisingly deep arsenal of distractions and […]

Both my boys were thumb suckers. We had a terrible time getting my oldest to stop, and now we’re fighting the battle with my youngest (who is four years old). He’s trying, but it seems to be a very difficult habit to break. This morning, I thought I’d take a quick look through my notes […]

Interested in making long distance connections with your kids? Check this out!

With the rest of the family off in Texas this week, I don’t have anything current to use as a DaddyTale. Instead, here’s a tale about something that happened to us several months ago, when we were in St. Augustine. More specifically we were at the merry-go-round at Davenport Park. Normally we all enjoy riding, […]

We have two manger scenes in our house – one for the kids and one that they are not allowed to play with. Their manger scene is kid-friendly plastic. I think it’s made by Fisher-Price. It has little figures for all the characters, including sheep and and an angel. The barn features a little flat spot […]

We have a strict rule in our house: no one gets up before 6:30am. Our two boys sleep in the same room. It’s the oldest’s job to make sure that no one leaves that bedroom before 6:30am. Though he hates the restriction, he likes the responsibility of being the clock reader. Yesterday morning, however, was […]

[This tale is running in the print edition of the Chronicle, but they don’t have it online yet. Enjoy!] DaddyTales:  Christmas SurprisesBy Patrick Matthews I love Christmas.  I love the traditions, the presents, the sense of anticipation, the whole thing.  Most of all, though, I love the surprises. Every year, Christmas brings us new surprises. […]