Month: December 2014

Technology vs The parent – 4 reasons why you’re losing

/ thefatherheart / Leave a comment

parenting technologySo here’s the thing, I LOVE tech! The buttons, the lights, the whizzbangery, the apps, the ability to do everything and nothing all at once, the way it connects people, places, memories, hopes and dreams. The very fact that I can write on a keyboard and express my love of writing is a testament to the coolness that is technology.

But there is another side to the speed, the power, the life altering versatility of technology that has become somewhat of a frustration of mine over the past years, especially when dealing with young people. Parents, with all the love and respect that I can muster, I implore you, stop using tech as a surrogate parent, cheaper version of outsourced parenting, shiny carrot or some other harmless extension to your child rearing bag of tricks. My take on what is happening with many kids nowadays, is that their parents are becoming less and less in touch with the reality of technology but have increased their reliance on it when it comes to their children. Again, with much love and honesty, I put to you 4 reasons why this happens:

  1. You’re Lazy
  2. You’re irresponsible
  3. You underestimate the enemy
  4. You’re ignorant

Continue reading →

Did you know – Technology may be winning

/ thefatherheart / Leave a comment

So as a forerunner to my next article, technology vs the parent – 4 reasons why you are losing, here’s a video that wets the appetite. It is from 2009, so all stats will be somewhere north of the numbers shown, which at least gives good cause for a little thought anyway.

Christmas actually

/ thefatherheart / 4 Comments

keep-calm-its-nearly-christmas-101Sitting staring at the warm glow from my plastic Christmas tree frosted with twinkly lights, I’m reminded of my Christmas’s as a young boy, all of which seem like a life time ago. The distant memories of my childhood festivities still linger in my mind like a sweet flavour that refuses to release its grip from your taste buds long after the treat has gone, such wonderful memories! My experiences as a child are quite different to the ones I look forward to now, yet at the same time a gentle theme connects the two.

I remember growing up, we didn’t have a silly plastic tree, oh no sir! We had the real McCoy, well at least as real as I’ve experienced in the warm climates of Africa, but it was real! Every spiky prickly leaf is unmistakably etched into my mind and the various scars that adorn my arms. We never had fir trees we had hypodermic needle trees! We’d need to move the thing indoors which if you’re wondering was similar to hugging a cactus and moving it from room to room. But when the starship prickles finally landed in our family room and after band aids and anti itch cream were applied, it was a moment of sheer jubilation.

Continue reading →

5 signs you may have replaced your spouse with your child.

/ thefatherheart / Leave a comment

IMG_2530Disclaimer 1: Offence is taken not given, so if after reading you feel a great desire to start a long life altering journey up the miff tree, remember, I pose topics to think about not absolute truths to believe in.

Disclaimer 2: Generally speaking, men don’t step up to the plate in many families, leaving mom’s to handle the fast balls life catapults at them with the greatest poise they can muster. If you identify with one/many/all it doesn’t mean your parenting skills are more Charles Manson than Nanny Mcphee.

OK, so here it goes!

Continue reading →

10 Reasons why I love my imperfect wife

/ thefatherheart / 2 Comments

puzzle-piecesYup, I said it, and no it’s not a typo. My wife is imperfect!

Granted her list of imperfections is dwarfed by my own impressive expose of not so lovable traits, and yes I did get her ok to throw this list into the cybersphere, but she is imperfect nonetheless and I love her!

This week marks a decade of marriage for the two of us, and on Christmas eve we will have been together for 16 years. Not a small feat considering we have only been alive for twice that time. In hollywood years I believe we are looking at the equivalent of a cool century. So at this mile stone and in celebration of our love, our family and our future adventures, I felt it important to share with the world, or at least the few hundred people who read my blog, that she is imperfect and we still have a cracker of a marriage.

There seems to be a belief rolling through the fields of singleness that to be truly happy, to build a marriage that shouts to the hilltops that perfection has been achieved, to have a relationship that can withstand the storms of life, two perfect people need to find each other, fall in love, get married and without any touch ups, repair work, renovations or upgrades, they will live happily ever after. No doubt will ever enter these people’s minds or hearts, they will never fight and at no time will anger, annoyance or frustration enter the equation. Doubt and uncertainty have no place in the marriage of these two!

Continue reading →