Increasingly, our conversations have become more candid. Though her questions and experiences are still very nascent, one can sense the impending breakthrough of her inquisitiveness. Expect everything to be challenged and expect your own beliefs to be rocked! As usual, these conversations are grouped according to the following 7 themes.

Dad’s toolkit

1. The Four Horsemen of job loss
2. Cougars will hunt; protect your cubs
3. Move along men, there’s nothing to fix (in relationships)
4. You know you are headed for divorce when…
5. Raising your only child as though she wasn’t
6. Would I parent differently if she was an only child? Yes, by taking better care of myself!
7. “If you let people treat you like shit, you probably deserve to be treated like shit”
8. Pandemic changes everything. That’s actually not a bad thing
9. “Daddy, are you lonely?”
10. Why are men often portrayed as dimwitted? And how does it help us?
11. Taking care of business: your daughter’s finances

Behavior & boundaries

12. Don’t call your daughter by nicknames her friends use
13. The elephant and the rope
14. Should you tell parents their kid is an absolute monster?
15. Motivating your unmotivated child
16. When lava meets the sea
17. Dealing with other parents’ appalling kids

Learning

18. Why you should teach her to play chess
19. When your daughter doesn’t make the cut
20. …But the book is always better than the movie
21. “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
22. Privilege is not wealth; therefore it can be taught
23. Discretion may be the better part of valor, but candor is the better part of courage
24. Good to great doesn’t make you better
25. Keep your word so she can keep hers
26. Screen time: why good intentions can achieve bad results
27. Repeating yourself? Stop, drop and roll
28. Raise a child to seek questions, not answers
29. Stressing about her academics? Look beyond the letter grade
30. Life is not like a box of chocolates…it’s more like a carton of eggs

Social

31. Why Sunday dinners are important to me
32. Mindfulness: leave the world better than how you found it
33. Nurture your daughter’s charity
34. “Daddy, I want to change schools; my friends are all bitches!”
35. Embracing conflict makes for better teams and better outcomes
36. “No, you may not play ‘spin the bottle!’”
37. Why she may be outgrowing some friends

Emotional

38. How to mess with your kid: throw her shit out
39. She stayed at home all by herself!
40. Praise is nice, but recognition is more appropriate for older kids
41. Forgive is something you do for others. Forget is something you do for yourself
42. Leaps of faith begin with baby steps

Physical

43. The longest night (Part 5 of 5)
44. My daughter tried being a vegetarian for a day
45. The birds and the bees (Part 5): Parthenogenesis
46. Explaining death (Part 4): Suicide

The ex-wife

47. Co-parenting with a narcissist
48. Your daughter is not a mule
49. Kids often have a favorite parent
50. Last minute changes in custody? Roll with it!
51. Co-parenting in a time of pandemic
52. What we wished our ex-wives knew about us