Category archive: advice

May 17, 2013

DT Friday Freakout: Rollercoaster Edition

As a public service, Daddy Types holds back on publishing all the incendiary, headscratching, anxiety-inducing, clickbaiting WTFparenting stories during the week, to offer them up all at once in a little weekend-ruining feature we call the Friday Freakout. Here it...
[read the full post...]

May 16, 2013

#firstworldproblems

Ogilvy Brasil is bringing the cutting edge of first world diapering technology home with this Huggies concept whereby a robotic urine sensor sends an alert to your iPhone when your kid needs a change. It's called Tweet Pee, which...
[read the full post...]

May 15, 2013

'Head In Mini-Bar'

Come for the photo that accompanies this caption: "Pictured, clockwise: Whit Honea (head in mini-bar), Andy Hinds, Charlie Capen and Doug French." Stay for Betadad's very mature takedown of the Wall Street Journal's nonsensically sexist story about "Mommy Business Trips"...
[read the full post...]

April 24, 2013

This Is Not A Drill. Should I Teach The Kids The McCrew Dance?

Alright, so we know that McDonald's Japan has made this McCrew Dance video to virally recruit the Kids Of Today to work there. This is not my concern. But there is also a McCrew Dance instructional video. Which makes...
[read the full post...]

April 10, 2013

'The Private School Has No Connection To The Disney-owned Network'

Way back in the day I used to work on an education-related startup at Disney, and I think that their focus grouping Sofia The First at pre-schools is as hilarious as it is appalling.The children are students at ABC...
[read the full post...]

April 8, 2013

The 40 Top Reasons This Guy's Son Is Crying

"No matter how puzzling or frustrating your baby's crying may seem at first, you will soon learn to understand the reason(s) for the tears and how best to respond, [like, for example, by starting a Tumblr.]" - Baby's Best...
[read the full post...]

February 28, 2013

Scandinavian Babies All Sleepin' Outside All The Time FTW

We all know that Scandinavian kids sleep outside in their prams all winter long, wrapped in wool Onesies and down comforters, and that they're the healthiest, happiest, best-sleeping babies in any hemisphere. All that fresh air. We also know that...
[read the full post...]

February 27, 2013

Hey FB Dads, What Did You Do With Your 'Baby Cash'?

In the most cursory of roundups of parental leave policies at various [three large] technology firms, the NY Times mentions that Facebook not only provides 16 weeks paid leave for all full-time employees who become parents. The company also gives...
[read the full post...]

Now That's A Fire

via:9 years ago, your mother and I started a little fire and you have burned my forest down. I don't remember being a man who wasn't your daddy. Alone, by myself, left to my own devices, I am not a...
[read the full post...]

February 25, 2013

How I Met Your Mohel

If you only read one thing in deciding whether to circumcise your son, then for G-d's sake, DON'T DO IT. You really ought to give more thought, consideration, and research to the matter: it's another man's penis being sliced up,...
[read the full post...]

February 23, 2013

I Heartily Endorse This Event Or Product

The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC) is a resource of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families' (ACF) Office of Family Assistance (OFA). The NRFC's goals are to "provide, facilitate, and disseminate current research,...
[read the full post...]

February 20, 2013

DTQ: Should You Go In The Family Security Line At The Airport?

Dulles Airport, by Eero Saarinen, photo: Ezra Stoller, 1964 Dulles, I love you, but you're bringin' me down. Let's just start by agreeing that after 25 years of construction and $190 billion, the new underground security screening & train...
[read the full post...]

February 6, 2013

Dad 2.013 Summit Roundup Roundup

It's been a bit quiet around these parts the last few days, partly because I've been swamped with some offline work deadlines, and partly because--duh, wasn't everyone at Dad 2.0 Summit anyway? Congratulations to Doug and the many folks who...
[read the full post...]

January 31, 2013

Star Trek Viewing Order, Or The Trouble With Tribbles

It's taken a while, but I think the debate has been won for the optimum viewing order of Star Wars: it's Rod Hilton's "Machete Order", IV, V, II, III [as flashback, explaining Darth's reveal, but also leaving it hanging as...
[read the full post...]

January 28, 2013

Attachment Parenting Ryan Gosling

Did not realize this "Hey, Girl" thing is still going. And going strong. Attachment Parenting Ryan Gosling [via dt ryan gosling correspondent rolf]...
[read the full post...]

January 18, 2013

Seriously, What The Hell Is Up With The Captcha??

UPDATE OK, MAYBE IT'S FIXED NOW, GET IT ALL OFF YOUR CHESTS. Special thanks to DT reader and dev wiz Chris who got all CSI:PNG with his suggestion to check gamma conversion settings, and BAM. I swear, I can't figure...
[read the full post...]

January 12, 2013

DT Protip: Avoid The Shortest Baby Spoons

For someone whose job involves a fair amount of typing, I end up sticking my hand in our disposall way too frequently. So don't get baby forks and spoons that are so short, you can't see them. You want the...
[read the full post...]

January 9, 2013

DT's Top One Tips For Kids & Jet Lag

A kid's first big accomplishment after being born is learning the difference between day and night--and that night is for sleeping. And then you bundle'em up on a plane to visit Omma and Papa in Zurich or wherever, and the...
[read the full post...]

December 19, 2012

I Would Steal From Your Parked-On-The-Street Stroller Just On Principle

Oh hi, Park Slope mom who left your stroller parked, unattended--and laden with $700 worth of tote bags, iPhones, wallets, keys, and bougies--on the street outside your home daycare for half an hour. Did you just have a baby? If...
[read the full post...]

December 16, 2012

'With A Gun In My Face'

Tech designer, entrepreneur, and dad Ryan Freitas' firsthand experience with gun violence feels really powerful. It's direct, reasonable, and, hopefully, persuasive for those who might feel that there is nothing to do or nothing to be done about gun regulation...
[read the full post...]

December 14, 2012

How Do You Tell Your Kids About Mr. Hankey?

I figure now while we're still in the middle of Hannukah is a good time to ask. In our house, we've just made Philip Glass a holiday tradition from the start. The real problem, though, unless you own the...
[read the full post...]

November 12, 2012

Nathan Heller On Andrew Solomon On Difference, Disability, Identity, Parents, Kids

Nathan Heller will get your attention in his review of Far From the Tree, Andrew Solomon's amazing-sounding new book on parents, kids and difference grappling what he terms, "horizontal identity": wherThe secret history of sex is not a story of...
[read the full post...]

'I Refuse To Lie To Children.'

The whole time I was reading Emma Brockes' 2011 interview with Maurice Sendak this weekend in The Believer, I kept thinking how rare it is to hear the word schnooks these days. And how awesome it would be if he...
[read the full post...]

October 8, 2012

Manners Can Be Fun (1938) By Munro Leaf

If the only thing you know about Munro Leaf is that he wrote Ferdinand The Bull, oh brother, are you missing out. Over at Stopping Off Place Michael posted some spreads from one of the amazing books Leaf wrote...
[read the full post...]

October 5, 2012

Parenting Is Hard, Let's Go DNA Shopping!

Scientific American has a post warning about the potentially disastrous unforeseen consequences for humanity posed by pre-natal genetic testing and the increase in abortions and "abuse" that will "inevitably" follow:The 1% prevalence of schizophrenia makes it an apt target for...
[read the full post...]

October 1, 2012

Pappa The Rapper: Hatarake ECD

I don't read Japanese, but I smell DadWagon's influence... — Dadwagon (@dadwagon) October 1, 2012 Smells like Dadwagon spirit? Right generation, wrong genre. ECD is Yoshinori Ishida, one of the pioneers of underground Japanese-language rap. That's him up top...
[read the full post...]

September 26, 2012

That Is A Button Well-Pushed, Free Range Kids Lady

Ancient Playground, Central Park, by Richard Dattner You remember Lenore Skenazy; she wrote that book, Free Range Kids, the one you kind of guilt yourself for not reading every time you drive your kid to a foam-lined playdate. Well,...
[read the full post...]

September 21, 2012

DT Friday Freakout: BPA Again Edition

Just in time for what looks to be a gorgeous weekend here on the East Coast, the Daddy Types Friday Freakout: a week's worth of wtf headlines from the worlds of health, politics, education and parenting, all rolled up into...
[read the full post...]

September 8, 2012

Daddy's Special Brownies

And all this time I thought it was just a plant. San Francisco art dealer and father of three Mark Wolfe has an awesome and hilarious op-ed in the NY Times about how his medical marijuana prescription has transformed his...
[read the full post...]

August 28, 2012

But Enough About Me.

What a mean-spirited and unhelpful debate about living in public with children.— Alexandra Lange (@LangeAlexandra) August 28, 2012 "Are modern parents being rude when they impose on other people on sidewalks, planes and bar stools?" "As the owner of a...
[read the full post...]

August 24, 2012

Jake Dobkin & Amy Sohn: The Remodeled Eat-In-Kitchen Debate

Oh man, fresh off of selling his gently used Bugaboo, Gothamist's dad in chief and OG Park Slope proletariat Jake Dobkin sat down for a Q&A with Amy Sohn, who wanted to promote her new book about the Whoremoms of...
[read the full post...]

August 16, 2012

EBB: Everything But Breastfeeding

People really do get worked up over breastfeeding and bottlefeeding. But whether you go the formula route, or the pump, dads giving the kid a bottle, especially in the middle of the night, provides a real and concrete benefit to...
[read the full post...]

July 31, 2012

DON'T LEAVE YOUR KID IN THE BACK SEAT [WITH ONE OF THOSE KID-IN-THE-BACK-SEAT DETECTORS]

What with global warming and drought and derechos and whatnot, we're all pretty much doomed anyway, but SERIOUSLY, ESPECIALLY DURING THE SUMMER, PLEASE GET IN THE HABIT OF CHECKING THE BACK SEAT EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU GET OUT OF THE...
[read the full post...]

July 29, 2012

Not Simply Oblivious But Actually Damaging

Judith Warner's NYT review of Teach Your Children Well, Marin County family therapist Madeline Levine's nuclear takedown of hyper-competitive Boomer parenting, is a thing of depressing beauty. The end of this sentence:Other kids cheat, take drugs, drink, shut down or,...
[read the full post...]

July 27, 2012

Baby Mama Courtroom Drama

Judging from the cluster of dumbass Amazon reviews in April 2012, Cathy Middleton, Esq.'s 2006 book,Girl, Get that Child Support has taken a while to reach the LOLZ section of the internet. But RAWSISTAZ.COM gave it a generally solid...
[read the full post...]

July 25, 2012

DTQ: How Do You Handle Puking?

So on this installment of our annual family tradition of gathering the cousins at the Outer Banks, a sudden stomach flu outbreak in one family has turned our cottage into one of those crazy plague cruise ships. The sick...
[read the full post...]

July 10, 2012

Everyone's A Winner

The important thing, dad, is that you tried. To get a couple of good shots in before the cameras showed up. And also that you didn't get cited for disorderly conduct. Nice hustle [via boingboing]...
[read the full post...]

July 6, 2012

WWMD?

Greg McKeown has a nice piece on the Harvard Business Review blog about how, contra the example and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, he totally went to some random Very Important Client Meeting the day after his kid was born.To my...
[read the full post...]

June 18, 2012

'You Need To Find Your Own Line.'

I was happily reading along with dealer Kenny Schachter's gossipy recap of the Art Basel fair, when he dropped this poignant little bomb: At a lunch before things kicked off, I was going in and out of consciousness during a...
[read the full post...]

May 31, 2012

DT Friday Freakout

So hear are some headlines and such pulled from the media and designed to freak you out all week, compiled into one list, so you can freakout and ruin just your weekend: JennyMcCarthyBodyCount.com keeps a running tally of all the...
[read the full post...]

May 28, 2012

Roland Barthes On French Playthings

There's a new, complete translation of Roland Barthes' 1957 Mythologies out. Haven't seen it yet--the Times review is awesome in itself-- but Barthes' brief smackdown of French toys was in the earlier editions:French toys always mean something, and this something...
[read the full post...]

May 26, 2012

DT Friday Freakout

A roundup of freakout headlines and news from the worlds of science, health, and parenting, to ruin your long weekend: Just because they're bite-size, kids should not eat the Tide laundry detergent nuggets. [slate] Haha, it's all fun and games...
[read the full post...]

May 23, 2012

Mommy War's Over (If You Want It)

You know, it's in the media's and advice book writers' interest to draw the anxiety out as long as possible, but as Mom-101's clear-eyed post explains, the Mommy War is inside you, and it could end right now if you...
[read the full post...]

May 20, 2012

What Do You Expect?

Fine, here's a quote from AO Scott's review of What To Expect When You're Expecting:Food trucks, by the way, seem to have replaced yoga classes as an easy, quasi-hip contemporary reference to be exploited in romantic comedies. Enough already. On...
[read the full post...]

May 18, 2012

DTQ: Is There A Potty Training Season? If So, Is It Summer?

So I got this product pitch yesterday:Hi Greg, Summer is around the corner and so begins the season for potty training! More than any other time of year, parents tackle potty training during the summer months- when kids are out...
[read the full post...]

TGI WTF Friday Socks

You know what'll seem really cute at the time, and may help the kid learn the days of the week, and maybe even start to learn letters and reading? Socks and underwear with the days of the week printed...
[read the full post...]

May 16, 2012

Quick, To The Dadcave

I meant to link to Choire's concerned post about the coming real estatepocalypse in Brooklyn when all the adorably involved dads get divorced, but won't move out of the hard-fought good school boundaries, but I got behind. And a good...
[read the full post...]

May 14, 2012

Avocado + iPhone

Bkln hipster parents with a (lovely) 6mo old baby on my Paris-JFK flight fed her fresh avocado scooped out w/tiny spoon— Rich Mintz (@richmintz) May 15, 2012 Also when the baby cried they gave her an iPhone to hold and...
[read the full post...]

May 10, 2012

Detachment Fathering

Tear your eyes away from the WTF attachment parenting cover of Time for a minute to read DadWagoneer Nathan Thornburgh's awesome token dad sanity check on the topic:Advocates of attachment parenting might claim that their approach places demands on both...
[read the full post...]

These Things We Pray

I know that two days before Mother's Day is arguably an even worse time to bring this up than when I thought about it--in the middle of church, staring at the kids a couple of rows ahead of us--but...
[read the full post...]