The Magic of Mistakes - what is a big deal to you?
My son dropped three glasses this week. Maybe that isn’t a lot but it was two too many for me. It didn’t yell but man I wanted to, instead I got the broom and tried to keep the baby out of the glass. Mistakes and messes can be a good thing if we let them. Lessons like a hot stove or a sharp knife teach themselves but how are we using things that don’t go just right to show something small that we value to our kids? First of all not everything is a big deal, keep the main thing the main thing and dropping stuff ain’t the main thing. Always remember they are watching what you do closely and listening very little to what you say. Let’s let our kids make as many mistakes while they are with us and help them to use each of them as opportunity to learn.
Act how you want your kids to act when things go wrong, say sorry, and be open with them about your mistake and what you learned.
Help them to come up with ideas of what to do next time - let them come up with the answers.
Wait until your kid is calm to try to talk about any lessons from a mistake, anything in the moment is blah blah blah when they are upset
Check out Good Inside by Dr Becky Kennedy - She will put the right words in your head that will hopefully come out of your mouth when you need them.
Try this: Start your day on the floor
You are sitting too much. It is the new smoking. Start your day while your hot water kettle is brewing or your K Cup is kcupping and stretch. You don’t need to do it for an hour, fitness snacking is a thing now so I heard.
Cook This: Make Cinnamon Rolls out of biscuits this weekend- Use this recipe
Your kids will love these easy to make cinnamon rolls and they take under 20 minutes to put together. Also please make your kids do the whole process they will be so proud of themselves.
You can also make pizza with this stuff
Dad Fun - Snow Ice Cream
It’s still snowing in Michigan. It makes sense, it’s winter. But this week we made use of the white stuff by turning it into ice cream. Check out the recipe below and make sure your kids do most of it (or as much as they can).
Dad Magic: Bad Jokes
Every good dad worth his salts has one good/bad joke to break out on a moments notice. For example:
Q: Why can’t a leopard hide?
A: It’s always spotted
Q: What did the ocean say to the beach?
A: Nothing it just waved
Q: What do you call a fake noodle?
A: Impasta
Thats enough. The point is fun and humor in the process of parenting. A great book called Weird Parenting Wins focuses on the idea that unconventional approaches actually might help you connect with your kids better. How can you inject some FUN in everything you are doing with kids? It is a good challenge for us all.
This newsletter is not professional in nature but intended to be real things to try. They won’t all work but this is a process and I’d love for you to join me on the way. Thanks for reading and we hope to see you next week.
Send this to a dad that needs to get his Sh&# together. We love you dad, see you next week!
Send me a note or your best dad joke @ [email protected]