Saturday, May 1, 2010

For The Dad-folk Among Us

I had a revelation of sorts recently.

I’ve been reading these ‘mommy blogs’ for the past year or so. It started last summer when I was home with the kids several days a week during the summer and I knew that if I didn’t get some ideas for activities, we’d all sit around watching TV all summer. Harrison, of course, would be completely fine with me letting him watch TV and play Super Paper Mario all summer, but I just couldn’t stand the mush that his brain—and mine—would become if that was all we did.

So I found activities. We did crafts, we went to the library for story time, he helped me cook. We had a very busy but very enjoyable summer. And he did get to watch a little TV in there from time to time because, lets face it, I’m only human and there’s only so many games of Candy Land I can handle.

I found many of our activities on blogs, one blogroll often leading me to another blog and on and on until I was inundated with stuff for us to do. Pages included Amalah, Just Tutes (which became indietutes), Life of a Dairy Queen, Make and Takes, No Time For Flashcards, Simple Mom and The Crafty Crow, to name a few. My feeds list was kind of out of control for a while there…

Anyhoo, the point of this story is that I still read lots of these mommy blogs. I like to see what these women are up to in their day to day life; they’ve become virtual ‘friends’ of sort, even though I mostly just lurk in the shadows of their craftiness and steal their ideas.

Which is where my epiphany comes in .

Robert does not read mommy blogs. He reads Geeks are Sexy, The Drudge Report and Harry Knowles. Not a lot of crafts in his world, which I’m ok with.

But I noticed that darned near every danged one of the mommy blogs I follow has recently had a Mother’s Day craft featured on their pages.

Doesn’t this seem kind of weird? I mean, am I supposed to get my kids to make my own gift?

I’ve seen the same phenomenon in parenting magazines, too—they’ll have totally cute things for kids to make for mom, but neither dads nor children, by and large, read Parenting or Parents or any of the majillion other magazines out there that tell us how to raise our offspring unless the copy of Wired has migrated from the bathroom and even then, they’re just skimming.

So. Say you’re a dad who needs a gift for a mom and you don’t want to spend a lot of money. Say your wife already has a Snuggie and jewelry and you’re scratching your head about what to buy for her.

My suggestion is to make one of the following items with your kid(s) and present it to the mom in your life, along with a cup of coffee and breakfast in bed.

  • These are the things that appealed to me, personally. If none of these blow up your proverbial skirt, then just Google ‘Mother’s Day crafts’ and I guarantee that you will have more good ideas than you can shake a stick at.

    Now, the obvious problem with me posting this is that I’m pretty sure not a whole lot of dads read this blog, outside of my own sweet husband. Ladies, if you’re reading this, go on and forward it on to your significant other. If none of these gifts blow your skirts (proverbial or otherwise) up, go on and Google and find something you do like. Believe me, your husband is going to be grateful for the ideas—anything to help him avoid getting you another knick-knack or a bottle of perfume  or pajamas. The bonus is that he gets to avoid a trip to Wal-Mart or the mall with kids in tow.

    And if there are any fellas out there who are reading me, first up, thanks for stopping by! Secondly, pass the word along. I’m pretty sure the dads out there will be grateful for the help. :)

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