Saying Goodbye To The Ones We Love

The first time I met my maternal grandfather I was eleven years old, on a trip to visit the homes and places where my parents grew up and lived before moving to Canada. Sadly, it also turned out to be the only time I got to be with him as two months after our return home, he died from a brain aneurysm. While the news hit me hard, what I remember most from that fateful morning was the sounds of my mother’s mournful and inconsolable weeping, of a daughter crying out to her father who just mere weeks earlier had held her in his arms to say what turned out to be his last good-bye. Although that trip was the first and only time I ever got to be with my grandfather, as is the case with life, his passing was to be the first of many times where I’d be reminded of the inevitable truth that no one lives forever.   Click to continue reading the rest of this entry

Of Fathers and Daughters

Over this past long weekend, there were two events that had me thinking about the impact being a father has had on my life. The first was the news of a good friend of mine welcoming the birth of his baby daughter while the second was my family celebrating our oldest daughter’s birthday. Although they’re disparate events, they serve to highlight what I’ve experienced so far being a dad and what I expect will come around the corner in the years ahead.

Near the end of last week, my good friend Matt and his wife gave birth to a baby girl. Talking to him mere hours after the birth of his daughter and hearing him struggle for words, I couldn’t help but smile and remember how the birth of my daughters had had the same impact on me, of how seeing my newborn daughter for the very first time brought to light the reality that our family had now grown by one. You see for men, the idea of there now being this new little person sharing our life doesn’t really sink in until  Click to continue reading the rest of this entry

And Yet Another Summer Comes To An End

The last long weekend of summer is before me and with it comes the sad realization that yet another summer season is coming to an end. Already, the nights feel noticeably cooler and the sun sets earlier every day; on the other hand, the days are now warm and we actually have been graced with sunshine for days before any rainfall returns. And yet, while the arrival of the Labour Day weekend harkens the approaching end for weekend barbecues and the winding down of festivals and special events around the city, what I’m really dreading is the return of school.

Sure, it’s been quite some time since I grumbled at the blaring of my alarm clock how I didn’t want to go to school. But even when I left the shelter of school life for the freedom of joining that magical group – the workforce – whenever Labour Day weekend came round, it brought back fond memories of summer as a kid and the tinge of sadness that those days where the possibilities of doing everything and nothing were now coming to an end. Since I became a father of school-age children, there’s now something else that makes me melancholy when this time of the year arrives. You see, unlike those commercials for “Back To School” sales that show the mom and dad celebrating that finally, their kids will be gone to school, their free time filled with homework assignments and extracurricular activities, I’m actually a little sad that I won’t have my kids around all the time and free to do whatever the day inspires. That’s not to say that there weren’t days during the summer break where I wished for some peace and quiet, free from those sibling arguments over who was going to role-play what part in their latest adventure or who had first dibs on the prized toy of the day. On those days, school couldn’t come soon enough. However, those moments were more the exception than the rule. Click to continue reading the rest of this entry

Absurd Names For Children – Should We Intervene?

There was an interesting news report from New Zealand regarding a judge who placed a 9-year old girl in the custody of the court so that her name could be changed. So what was the name that fueled this bold move on the part of this family court judge?

Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii

Seriously, that’s the girl’s name. In the judge’s ruling over this custody case, Click to continue reading the rest of this entry

The Face Slap – Our Unspoken Tolerance Of Violence and Sexism

Yesterday, I read the sad news report about the mother in Chile who in a fit of rage killed her daughter because she refused to do homework her teachers assigned her for the summer break. And while my reaction was probably pretty similar to everyone else’s upon reading this news, this story also got me thinking about an unrelated issue that we as a society continue to tolerate or at least see no harm in. As the title of this entry implies, I’m referring here to the face slap.

It’s a scene most of us have witnessed numerous times in both films and TV shows, and probably for some even in real life. A man and woman are talking about something and then we see the woman’s face contort into a look of anger, hurt or a combination of both. This is soon followed by the woman giving the man a hard slap across the face, often causing the man’s head to turn off to one side that demonstrates the power behind the hit.

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Comic Book Action Flicks And The Father-Son Relationship

So my wife and I decided to go check out one of those action films that normally populate the summer blockbuster scene. While sitting in the darkened hall eating my priced-for-a-king popcorn, I couldn’t help but feel like we were just supposed to be amazed by the wild car chases and blood-drenching fight sequences and ignore the absurd, slap in your face character moments. Granted, I normally enjoy watching these kinds of films since sometimes I just “like watching things go boom” (my tried-and-true explanation to my wife whenever I pick up one of these films from the film rental shop). However, I’d still like to see characters whose motivations are paid more attention than one would give to a commercial selling toilet paper. Click to continue reading the rest of this entry

Father’s Day – Best Day of The Year

So today was Father’s Day – that one day in the year where fathers can lounge around the house doing nothing . . . and no one’s going to get on their case about it.

For this year’s festivities, my kids decided that they wanted the whole family to go bowling – sounds fairly innocent enough. However, once we got there, all of them, including my wife, were having the most fun seeing how much I stunk compared to them in playing this game (note to self – in bowling, the object is not to toss the ball like one would in shot put). Ah, yes, there’s no better way to better way to celebrate fatherhood than to have your kids cheering their whooping your permanent vertical smile in a game of bowling. Click to continue reading the rest of this entry