Fatherhood² | Henry's Blog

Archive for the ‘Fatherhood’ Category

I guess it’s probably a sign of how little coverage dads get on TV, but this is the first time I’ve really had call to do a “review” of a dad-related TV show – and may well be the last for a while. So make the most of it… :D

If you didn’t catch the BBC’s ‘Wonderland’ episode last week – “When a Dad is Born”, I urge you to download and watch it. I just did, and it was certainly worth a watch. It will infuritate, amuse and probably perplex you, but I’m glad I took the time to watch it – on several people’s recommendation.
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Back in November, I made quite an ambitious plan – one which I still have today, though possibly with slightly more realistic timelines… I’m hoping that in 2012 I can finally get something published, and the current plan is for my first release to be related to parenting. You can read all about the original plan here: Fatherhood²: Won’t You Help Me Write My Book? and here: Fatherhood²: Contributors – Choose Your Weapons! but here’s the update of where I am today…

After I laid out my stall with the original post, I had a number of friends and acquaintances come forward offering to write chapters for the book. A few of them have even sent me their chapters already – special thanks to Filipe Cardeira, Oren Miller of “A Blogger and a Father” and Russ Jones, aka “The Stay at Homer“. As for the rest of you, I shall shortly start to pester you – slowly but surely…
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As a blogger, I’ve tended to stray away from politics so far. I’m not especially knowledge about matters of law or politics, and when it comes to the “rights” of fathers in situations like divorce, I don’t pretend to have a solution or an especially strong opinion either way…

However, what I DO firmly believe is that children benefit from having both parents present in their lives – at least assuming both parents are sensible human beings, of course. But defining whether any parents is “fit” to have children is a different issue entirely, so I won’t stray there for now.

As with most people nowadays, I know plenty of people who are either the product of parents who are no longer together, or divorced parents themselves. Luckily, most of them seem to either have coped fine with the childhood experience or are parents who seem to be dealing with the situation reasonably maturely.
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UPDATED TO ADD: Check out the AMAZING photo at the bottom of the post, which I added after this post went up – it was too good not to miss!!

As anybody who knows me will attest, I’ve always been a massive Lego fan. Now that I’m a father, my love for the world’s most creative toy has been rekindled, and I’m spending a slightly worrying amount of my time either playing Lego “with” (i.e. long past the time he gets bored!) Robert, or lusting over very expensive models that I can’t afford.

One thing I HAVE discovered – which every Lego-loving dad will appreciate – is that you can now download instructions for thousands of new and old models at the official Lego website. Brilliant news if you, like me, have the pieces for lots of models but not the crucial instructions. Also, and slightly worryingly for me, I’ve discovered that you can order individual pieces from the “Lego brick shop“. I’m now giving serious consideration to downloading instructions for models that I have almost all the pieces for, sorting them out and ordering the leftovers – then having the fun of building the whole thing with Robert. It’s creativity on a budget! Well, sort of anyway…
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A couple of weeks ago, I found myself in the fun situation of having the two things I write most about (parenting and online marketing), converging. Over on the Tamar blog, I wrote a post about how great the BBC were when dealing with the negative feedback they received on their social media profiles (“BBC / Cbeebies in social customer services WIN“) – and now I’m turning the table the other way, as I want to cover some of things we bloggers get asked to do by marketers (like me).

If you’ve ever blogged yourself (so to speak), or even if you’re just a regular reader, you’ll know that there are a number of ways that the corporate world like to get involved with bloggers. Naturally, as a blogger (particularly the popular ones), marketers know that you have a ready-made audience that they’d love to tap in to. So sooner or later, you’re going to be approached by either a savvy PR person, a social media marketer or possibly even a brand themselves, asking you to do something in partnership with them.
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Here’s a sentence I never imagined I’d say five years ago: I’ve recently been giving quite a bit of thought to the fundamental differences between Thomas the Tank Engine and Chuggington…

Before you start worrying for my sanity, I should clarify – I’m not a train spotter, and haven’t been putting any (okay, much) thought in to the logistics of a train with a face. No, I’m talking about the main differences between the two shows – which might explain why I find one much more preferable than the other.
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This is a sponsored post on behalf of British Gas

I was recently contacted by British Gas asking if I’d like help spread the message about smart meters via my blog – slightly different to the usual feedback I get from my blog, I must admit. But one that certainly intrigued me. As a big fan of British Gas (provided you ask me before my bill arrives, ha ha) and an even bigger fan of energy saving, I was more than happy to help out.
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As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader of my blog, The Octonauts are extremely popular in our household. With the US launch of the show happening this week on the Disney Channel, I thought now was a good time to celebrate our favourite kids TV show with a bit of a fun quiz.

So without further ado, here are 40 questions – some easy, some a little more difficult, some only for the die-hard Octo-fans amongst us…
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I still remember the first time my father discussed the subject of sex with me. I was fourteen years old and it was clear that my father had no idea of what I was going through.

I had returned home from a summer vacation camp. Together with fifty teenagers I had been locked into a house to discuss drugs, sex, love, friendship and so forth with a group of professionals. We had not been allowed to leave the premises but we could do pretty much what we wanted inside, and most importantly, we could speak about what concerned us at the time.
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I know the festive season is now drawing to a close, so I should probably save this post for next year, but hey – I’m far too impatient for that. So instead, consider this the germ of an idea that I might well turn in to reality by next Christmas…

As is probably traditional in a lot of family households, the lead-up to the festive season included a couple of attempts at taking Robert to “meet” Father Chrismtas at one of his local hide-outs.

Our first attempt was what we assumed would be a sure-fire bet for a good Santa – John Lewis in Reading. We’d seen it advertised in a number of places, and I don’t mind admitting my first thought was “John Lewis is a classy-enough store – they’re bound to have a good Santa’s Grotto”. Read the rest of this entry »