Why Self-Esteem Shouldn’t Come From A Bottle

A few weeks ago, I watched a movie on TV with my family that got me thinking about the issues of self-esteem that young girls and women face. Interestingly enough, this train of thought wasn’t brought about by the movie; instead, it had more to do with the main sponsor of the film – Dove, the personal care products brand. Instead of simply airing commercials, Dove presented short segments at each commercial break that featured mothers and daughters talking about ideas or activities they do to feel good about who they are and how they look.

As a man, I have to admit I found these conversations reasserted the notion of men and women being from different planets, the ideas and concepts verging almost on being alien in nature. But as a father of young girls, I found the mere idea that such measures were useful or even necessary for improving self-esteem in girls, as well as women, troubling to say the least.   Click to continue reading 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

What Is The Value Of Homework?

One of the things I remember about high school was having all these hardcover textbooks that I would trudge home with in my school bag. And more often than not, when I would drop my bag on the hallway floor with this loud reverberating thump, my mom would ask me why on earth was my bag so heavy. My answer to her query was always the same – I needed those heavy books to finish all the homework assignments handed out to me that day.

I’m sure this is a memory most of you have as well from the rites of passage through the hallowed halls of the high school education system and beyond. And yet, looking back on it now, I can’t help but wonder if our parents worried or obsessed over homework to the degree that parents do these days.  Click to continue reading the rest of this entry

Our Children’s Education – It’s About Time

This past Monday night, I experienced a strange sensation – I left one of my education board meetings feeling optimistic that things were finally turning around. To put this in its proper context, I should point out that I currently serve on two education board committees – the Governing Board for our school where we discuss and plan out the school’s operations (school budget, criteria for the principal, school allocation time for various subjects, etc) and the other as the school representative on one of the regional school board committees. I serve on these committees not because I’m hoping to one day enter the political arena, but because I’d rather be a player on the field trying to make a difference instead of just standing on the sidelines complaining about poor game plays. Sure, it can be frustrating at times to see how much inertia has to be overcome for progress to be made, but as I witnessed at Monday night’s meeting for the school board committee, it can happen and when it does, it’s quite elating.

I’m sure my fellow parents feel the same resignation over how our society seems to be continually disregarding the current state of our education system – from the limited resources provided to teachers to attend workshops/conferences to improve and build on their knowledge of teaching to the very building infrastructures wherein which our children are expected to learn. Although my kids are fortunate to attend a school that was recently rebuilt (they had an issue with mold several years ago that resulted in the school basically being torn down and rebuilt from scratch), several other schools in our system are in very poor shape and I can only imagine how that affects the school’s staff morale and subsequently the teaching environment for the children.

During our meeting last Monday, one of the school board Directors informed us about a new plan that our provincial government has implemented, which can be basically construed as a mea culpa in regards Click to continue reading the rest of this entry

Yet Another Breastfeeding Controversy – Here We Go Again

Well, it’s the start of the new year and I can’t think of a better way to dive back in here than to tackle that heated, controversial topic . . . breastfeeding. It seems every couple of months, we hear of a news item about a nursing mom who was asked to leave a store, shopping mall or restaurant because she had the nerve (insert sarcastic tone here) to breastfeed her child in public. Oh, the horror! Of course, this being the 21st century, we now don’t have to settle for such infantile behaviour occurring in the real world; now we see it being brought onto the internet, thanks to social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook deeming pictures of nursing mothers as “pornographic” and “obscene”. Excuse me a minute while I pick my jaw up from the floor.

Well, thankfully, breastfeeding moms are not taking this lying down. Kelli Roman is one of several women who have had pictures they posted of themselves breastfeeding their child removed from their Facebook page and being given the cursory explanation that the site doesn’t allow images that are “obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit” in nature. Roman’s response to this censorship was to start a new Facebook group called “Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!“, a group that today has a membership of over 97 000 Facebook users.

Now, I’ve read how some of these pictures were removed by Facebook and MySpace on account of other members citing them as violating the site’s Terms of Service in regards to the posting of inappropriate images. So after some digging around the Net, I was able to find an example of one of these pictures that ended up being banned by Facebook just this past week on December 28, 2008 because it was deemed “pornographic” and/or “offensive”. Click to continue reading the rest of this entry

The Magic of Halloween

Last night, my children joined in that annual tradition where ordinary boys and girls transform themselves into witches, pirates, princesses, Spidermans and various ghouls in the pursuit of collecting confectionery from nearby neighbourhood houses. Of course, I’m talking about Halloween, which is without question my favourite secular holiday that our society celebrates for the simple fact that for one day of the year, kids everywhere get to revel in the simple pleasures that come with childhood.

Without question, the world our children live in today is far different from the one my generation grew up in with new dangers like cyber-bullying and even identity theft in addition to those threats that we had to deal with as children. There’s also a greater pressure on children these days to  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

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