Alan Thicke, best known for his role as Jason Seaver on the sitcom “Growing Pains,” passed away on Dec. 13, reportedly while playing hockey with his youngest son.
Thicke was known for both his “classic American dad” role as well as his real life fathering legacy – his role as dad to Robin, Brennan and Carter Thicke. Through multiple interviews and two hilarious books on fatherhood, Thicke has shown that through it all, love for your children is what matters. And maybe a little bit of humor along the way.
Coincidentally, I host a weekly podcast called “Dudes To Dads“. In doing research for a future show, I wanted to get some advice tips from famous people who are dads. Alan Thicke was really the first person that came to mind. I sent him a tweet from my @DadUniv account on Monday, December 12 and he replied that evening.
In a last bit of fathering advice, Alan Thicke tweeted to me at @DadUniv, “Love… then love some more,” answering my ask for his single best piece of dad advice.
Simple isn’t it? Love them with all you have. Love them over and over again. I think this simple piece of last fathering advice from America’s favorite dad is the most important piece of advice you need to be a successful dad. What a beautiful legacy to leave to the world.
He will be greatly missed. Our hearts and prayers are with his family.…
Posted by Jason Kreidman on June 15, 2016 in Advice, Dads, Money with 1 comment
One of the main reasons I started Dudes To Dads was to help other dads understand that what they are feeling is very common and that they are not alone in their journey. In the Dudes to Dads Podcast Episode 67 I brought some specific topics up that not only did I have difficulty dealing with, I often see dads struggling with the issues as well.
A lot of people struggle, including myself, with trying to figure life out. The crazy thing is that it seems the more you care about things, the more difficult your life “seems”. The time when your kids are young, from newborn to 3-4 is the hardest.
Of course it is always easy to compare yourself to others and what you see around you. This guy has more money, that guy seems to have a great marriage, that other guy always seems happy.
Remember, it’s not about what level of anything you achieved, but your self acceptance of that level. If you are always trying to attain perfection or even lofty goals, you may never achieve acceptance of where you are.
This doesn’t mean you can’t improve things but what if you took a different approach. What if you looked at the various components of your life and evaluated where you were in the past and where you are now.
I’ll give you an example for myself: with this Dudes To Dads podcast. If I never think of it as successful until we accomplish X (number of downloads, episodes, or whatever), I’m never going to be happy with it. Instead if I looked at where we were a year ago. We have created 52 podcasts over the course of a year, created a tremendous amount of content to help dads, and insanely increased our listener …
Posted by Jason Kreidman on March 10, 2016 in Advice, Dads, Moms, Templates with no comments
On many of our Dudes To Dads podcast episodes we have discussed tips and ways to improve the morning routine of getting the kids off to school. If you have young children, you probably deal with this on a regular basis. I have created a Kids-Morning-Schedule-Template that you can download and modify as needed. I have done this with my kids and it does help. I laminated a few copies and posted one in each of their rooms and then one downstairs in the kitchen which is the center of the morning routine. Let me know how it goes with yours.…
Posted by Jason Kreidman on October 28, 2015 in Meetup, News with no comments
Last night we had our regular meetup in Encinitas and welcomed back some familiar faces that we hadn’t seen in a while. The participation was excellent as we had 9 dads join in the discussion. We started off at 5:45pm as usual by going around the room and introducing ourselves, our childr’s names and ages, and something significant that has happened since the last meetup. It was great to hear from some of the guys that we haven’t seen in a while and get updates on how they are doing.
There were some common themes throughout the discussion which included self-acceptance (allowing ourselves to appreciate who we currently are) as well as being mindful of how our communication style greatly effects the way we get along with our significant others. All members did a great job in helping other gets clarity on their issues and provided good feedback. We then closed out the meetup at 7:15pm.
If you are in the area and would like to join our meetup group, signup up at Meetup.com. Our next meetup is Tuesday, November 17th @ 5:45pm in Encinitas.…
Jason was recently interviewed by the podcast The Ultimate Sports Parent to discuss both the positives and negatives of having your kids in youth sports. What is your goal of having your child in sports? How much time are you willing to dedicate to your child’s activities? The questions and and other tips are discussed on this podcast. You can preview some of the podcast but to get full access you must be a member of the site.…
Posted by Jason Kreidman on July 28, 2015 in Advice with 1 comment
We all try to be the best parents we can be. Sometimes we slip and say the wrong things. When we get mad or upset, there is even more likelihood that we will say something we shouldn’t. While we don’t always have bad intentions, our words we say to our kids can have long term, devastating effects. This list was compiled as a fun exercise for our podcast. We really do need to be mindful of the words that come out of our mouth. Some of these are horrible while others are just not appropriate. In most cases, the words should have never have left our mouth. If you want to hear more detail about these, listen to our Dudes To Dads Episode 21 which covers this list and our 27 Things New Dads Should Never Say To New Moms.
Here are: 25 Things You Should Never Say To Your Kids:
1. I hope someday you end up with a kid just like you.
2. Your mom/dad is an idiot.
3. You’re the _____ one, and your sibling is the ______ one.
4. Shut up!
5. Why can’t you be more like your brother/sister?
6. Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about!
7. Why can’t you do anything right?
8. There’s no reason to be scared. Just do it
9. That’s what you get for not listening
10. You’re a bad girl/boy!
11. I hate my body
12. I was bad at math too. You take after me!
13. Just let me do it for you
14. You look so much better when you…
15. Children should be seen not heard
16. Is that the best you can do?
17. The police are going to come and get you if you do that
18. Wait until …
Posted by Jason Kreidman on July 27, 2015 in Advice, Moms with no comments
Congratulations, you are a dad! You just had your baby and are filled with love, fear, and every other emotion possible. While all of the excitement (and lack of sleep) is going on, you’ll want to remember to think before you speak. Of course you wouldn’t intentionally say anything to bother or hurt your wife. However just because you didn’t intend evil, doesn’t mean it’s ok to say. Here at Dudes To Dads we wanted to provided a little advice on what you shouldn’t say to a new mom. If you need further explanation of these, listen to the Dudes To Dads Podcast Episode 21 which covers these. We also have created the list of 25 Things You Should Never Say To Your Kids
Here are 27 Things New Dads Should Never Say to New Moms:
1. Can I get a little privacy here?
2. That’s a mom’s job
3. What did you do all day?
4. Are we eating this for dinner again?
5. Stop Worrying!
6. Why is this house so messy?
7. Where is the/my ________?
8. Why didn’t you _____?
9. Can’t you stop the baby from crying?
10. It’s your turn to change the diaper
11. Honey, you go out, I’m happy to babysit
12. I think I’m too tired to help with the baby tonight
13. Must be nice hanging out with the baby all day
14. You Look tired
15. Why don’t we start formula feeding
16. I can’t remember the last time we had sex
17. The kid will be fine
18. Are you going to take a shower?
19. When are you going to lose that baby weight?
20. I’m a bit busy today, can you run some errands for me?
21. Can you believe your mom said ______
22. …
Dudes To Dads was featured on the local news in San Diego on KGTV Channel 10 (ABC). They did a brief interview with Jason and mention both the local meetup as well as the podcast. It was a great opportunity to share what Dudes To Dads is doing and why it exists.
Posted by Jason Kreidman on May 13, 2015 in Meetup with no comments
We had a great meetup last night. We had 3 new dads attend for the first time with a total of 10 dads attending. As we usually do, we started out with going over the rules of the group and then did introductions. Our introductions include our name, the name of our children, and something significant that happened in the last 3 weeks (since the last meetup). It’s always great to catch up with the other dads.
I introduced a new book called: Love is Letting Go of Fear. I was really drawn to this book and it’s philosophy. I read it within 1 day as the book has some incredible advice that can be applied to all of our daily lives. I look forward to doing some more of the practices in the book.
One of the dads brought up the topic of needing to always do activities when not working. It was strange for him to have a weekend day in which there was not multiple events or appointment. A lot of the dads brought up their own views on it. While some dads agree that being busy feels like “living” other dads like the idea of staying home sometimes and doing “nothing”or just spending quality time with the kids at home.
It was a great meetup filled with discussion. If you are in the San Diego area and interested in joining our next meetup on June 2, visit Meetup.com and signup.…
