It's been over a year, and Jay and I are celebrating our second Father's day. Yahoo! It's been a wild ride of smiles, laughter, blood, sweat, and tears...and some of that came from the kids. So we have learned a few things over the past year and felt that Father's Day would be a great opportunity to share the lessons learned.

Hair Hair Hair.

How do you get someone to do their own hair?!? I don't have any insights into this, it would be great to know. For some reason, I assumed that all little girls and boys with long hair knew and enjoyed doing their own hair. Be warned, this is NOT the case. The struggle over the hair is real. What's the logical thing to do when it's tangled up after a full day of play...the rational person would say, wash it and comb it...but the kid thinks..."NO, i don't want to sit and have my hair combed AND I don't want to do it myself AND I'm hungry!"

Negotiations with a 3 year old.

I have a theory that if everyone that was buying a car had the determination of a 3 year old...everyone would walk away with the best deal possible. Talking with a 3 year old often turns into a negotiation. Not sure how that happens, but it seems to happen regularly. Negotiations remind me of trying to convince your drunk friend that it's time to leave the bar. After talking doesn't work, you resort to negotiations, "one more dance, then can we leave?" When that doesn't work, negotiations have to step up with them usually ending in "if we leave now, we can stop at Del Taco for 10 tacos." Just as a side note, this example works with both a 3 year old toddler and a 30 year old drunk bar friend. 

Where the good cereal at?

What is going on with cereal! I had no idea how much sugar was in "the most important meal of the day" until I started looking at it for my kids. What are the best kids cereals? The cereals that i grew up with and had regularly are not kid friendly. I've resorted to storing my Frosted Flakes, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Fruity Pebbles in my office at work out of sight of the kids. So the kids get a lot of Cheerio's and Kix! But I am looking for more options. 

Movies

Apparently I watch a lot of movies NOT appropriate for little kids. Even the ones I thought were kid friendly...NOPE. I'm eager to get them watching the Marvel movies. Avengers is amazing, but wow...it's a violent movie. Airplane is one of my favorite movies...but the jokes are way over the kids heads and the random nudity, although funny, it's not appropriate. I have to admit, I did sneak in Harry Potter, with a few of the scenes skipped for the youngest. 

Grandparents

One lesson learned over the past year is the parents I grew up with, the parents that told me no more candy and it's time for bed are not the same grandparents to my kids. They are better. They are more understanding. They are more willing. Maybe they just miss their little kids, but at some point while growing up, my parents transformed from a parent into a friend also. So even though my job is to be a parent to my kids and not their friend, it's nice to know that someday, I can get to be their friends and stop parenting.

To all the dads on dad day...HAVE A HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!