Responsible Father

. . . and by ‘tragedy’ I mean ‘Minor Inconvenience’.

Question: What do a Mcdonalds french fry container, a frisbee and a empty yogurt cup have in common?

Explanation: Last night we were at Indian Mounds Park, at a nice little spot overlooking the Mighty Mississippi and the kids had already cheered when they heard that Debbie had made Tuna Noodle Casserole, one of their favorites.  But then we realized that we had forgotten the paper bowls that Debbie had taken out for the picnic, which was what we were going to serve the casserole with. We had one paper plate and a tupperware container, but that wasn’t enough. What can we do?

So JamDad went back to the van and looked around.

Answer: All of these objects can be used to serve tuna noodle casserole on. I had the pleasure of using the Mcdonalds french fry container.

Sometimes little tragedies can be turned into family funny stories.

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Jamfam Picnic Update –

Question: On our way to 100 picnics in 2010, how far are we at this point?

Answer: 75 on August 15

So I hope this helps further explain why our family likes this spot so much.

Click on the image to see full size.

Here’s a Poem I made about this spot.

3 Lists –

Reasons To Encourage Your Child To Help Out
1. It teaches them skills they will need to learn eventually
2. It teaches them to be non-lazy
3. It shows the value of working together
4. It helps them feel useful
5. Your family will be more productive
6. Your wife will have less work to do

Good Reasons For Not Encouraging Your Child To Help
1. They aren’t skilled enough to do this job right now.
2. They have school work to do. / It’s time for bed.
3. They’ve worked more hours than you today.

Bad Reasons For Not Encouraging Your Child To Help
1. I don’t feel like teaching them this skill.
They have to learn it someday, why not now?
2. They won’t do it as well as me.
Does that really matter?
3. They’ll take longer to do it than I would.
If it frees you to do other work, this is not an issue
4. I don’t want to be a slave driver.
Is the time your child spends doing schoolwork or household
less than a half of the time you spend working? If not,
this is not an issue.
5. The child really doesn’t want to.
This is a good time to teach them that sometimes you have
to do things you don’t want to do.
6. They’re being so good and quiet watching TV/playing a video game.
It’s not worth the quiet.

End well.

A few things here:

1. Make sure you leaves some fun things for the very end of the trip. Our yearly trips to the North Shore always end at Canal Park in Duluth, where we often get to see very large ships entering or leaving port and sometimes we eat at Grandma’s. Trips that start great and end boring are anticlimactic.

2. Consider getting home hours or even a day early, so you can unpack and relax a bit.

3. Upon arriving home, Thank God as a family for safety, for joy, and for creating all you’ve seen on your vacation.

See the whole “Dads and Vacations” list of tips here.

Make Note Of Notables And Get Closure

When we’re on the road and we cross over to another state, I say “Bye Minnesota!”

And my kids all say “Bye Minnesota!”

And then, Me: “Hello Wisconsin!”

And them: “Hello Wisconsin!”

This has a few benefits:

1. It gets everyone on the same page.
2. It aurally marks when you’re entering or leaving something. Sometimes these things shouldn’t go unnoticed.
3. It’s always good for a family to cheer something together.
4. It may help the kids learn geography.
5. It builds excitement.

I also do this to help myself more peacefully leave a place I love. I think, at least we can acknowlege that we’re leaving and not like we’re shaking the dust off our feet as we go:

“Bye Black Hills!”
“Bye Black Hills!”
“You Were a great place to visit!”
“You Were a great place to visit!”
“We Hope to be back in a few years!”
“We Hope to be back in a few years!”

See the whole “Dads and Vacations” list of tips here