tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56407222009-10-09T10:40:39.074-02:00American DadWhere father knows less.Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-36301023549936389242007-10-22T00:31:00.000-02:002007-10-22T00:37:41.652-02:00That's bogus!Sometimes, if you listen with your non-parental ears, you catch your kids saying some insightful and important, if not downright, profound things. In this case, it’s 14-year-old Logan’s new favorite phrase, retort, complaint, commentary, epithet, challenge and insult: “That’s bogus!”To my dad ears, that’s lazy diction at best and sass at worst. I hear it more than I figure is my Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-74287013116006449192007-07-05T19:46:00.000-02:002007-07-05T19:49:40.779-02:00Raising responsible citizens -- patriotsWe celebrated the 4th, yesterday, in our traditional way: Rhonda organized the neighborhood parade – this year with both a firetruck and a squad car! -- and picnic, complete with goody bags, games, prizes and pinatas for the little ones and great food and great conversation for us older ones. The kids decorated their bikes and rode in the parade, then Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-13888846387448816262007-05-22T17:38:00.000-02:002007-05-23T10:52:19.070-02:00A glimpse into the mind of a 6-year-oldAt 6 years old, Maya isn’t just fascinating to watch, as she figures out how to navigate the world around her, she’s also a source of prime entertainment and unexpected wisdom.In a written report on what she did in kindergarten the preceding week, Maya wrote: Wednesday “We had ches pesu and aplles and pars and vechtbls. It was dlishish.” (Translation: We Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-76184190872387985552007-04-16T13:55:00.000-02:002007-04-16T13:57:27.520-02:00A new project I'm working on....http://letterstoourfathers.20m.com I'm hoping you'll submit something about your father! Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-10298516187931804642007-01-11T10:37:00.000-03:002007-01-11T10:40:38.821-03:00A son reminds a father about life's prioritiesThe following post is by Rev. Randy Woodley, posted at www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics/I picked up my 11-year-old son from school the other day. The conversation was business as usual, until he shared how he was bored in class and wrote a letter to the president of the United States. Flabbergasted, I asked him if he would read it to me.He was Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-78365264954941642172006-12-11T00:11:00.000-03:002006-12-11T00:20:48.855-03:00Why do we do what we do?This is a season of traditions. The trees, lights, music, gifts, meals, gatherings: they’re all part of the cultural picture for most of us, and this family is no different. Except, this family is very different.We piled the kids into the car, and drove out to the country to harvest our family Christmas tree. The sun, hanging low in the sky, bathed the hillsides in a Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-62350893464189945972006-11-13T17:56:00.000-03:002006-11-13T18:02:31.011-03:00The more things change....Here's Grandpa (my dad) teaching Derek (my nephew) how to tie a necktie. No more whining now about how all the good things about how "it used to be" are all gone. Love is still love and family is still family, if you want them to be. And a boy still has to learn from their Grandpa.Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-35259633583241186062006-11-12T20:35:00.002-03:002006-11-12T22:25:50.463-03:00Glimpsing your children as grownupsBy Russell KingThe point – even if it seems a long way off – of much of what we do as American dads is to help our boys and girls grow into good men and women. Sure, sometimes you intervene to prevent bloodshed or to get just one blessed moment of peace and quiet, but most of the time your parenting is designed to give them their best shot at turning out to be Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1158021536718293002006-09-11T22:36:00.000-02:002006-11-12T20:31:15.629-03:00Watching the first one go The first one is gone. Dan, 18, is out there on his own, facing the great big world. It’s not exactly time for the empty nest syndrom, because I still have five more at home and it’ll be at least another 13 years before the youngest can leave, but it’s still a moment that releases a flood of strange emotions.I adopted Danny when he was just a little more than five monthsRussell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1157561741790214062006-09-06T13:38:00.000-02:002006-11-12T20:31:15.195-03:00It's love that makes a dadYesterday, the great political writer Josh Marshall wrote in his blog about the death of his father. Not only was it a beautiful tribute to a wonderful man, and a moving expression of a son’s love for his father, but it was a touching affirmation for this particular American dad. What follows is excerpted from Josh’s loving essay.In the two weeks since my dad died I’ve Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1152067219525859552006-07-05T00:36:00.000-02:002006-11-12T20:31:07.779-03:00Color us patriotic By Russell King Yesterday, Maya was coloring in her pre-kindergarten workbook. The design was a group of "puzzle" pieces, each with a letter inside it. The task was to identify the uppercase and lowercase versions of the letter "I" and color them blue. Having completed the task, Maya picked up another crayon and asked rhetorically: "I can color all the other ones yellow, right?Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1152066389145155722006-07-05T00:09:00.000-02:002006-11-12T20:31:07.449-03:00Color us patriotic continuedA couple of our presidents have agreed. George Washington: "If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." Harry Truman: "Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1151858856807817342006-07-02T14:43:00.000-02:002006-11-12T20:31:07.089-03:00The poetry of RyleeBy Russell KingRemember Bill Cosby’s TV show "Kids Say the Darndest Things"? Here’s the Rylee King version. These are lines taken from her 5th grade spelling journal, in which she was required to compose sentences using that week’s spelling words. The results aren’t just amusing, they’re pure Rylee:Is it difficult to eat? How many blankets does it take to cover your tail? Does Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1150582307041299792006-06-17T20:10:00.000-02:002006-11-12T20:31:06.830-03:00Happy Father’s Day – to my wifeBy Russell KingBeing an American dad ain’t for sissies. To do this parenthood thing the right way, for you and for them, you have to bring your "A" game day after day after day for at least 25 years from the birth of your youngest child, even if you have only one. Parenting is a contact sport requiring speed, flexibility, strength and endurance. All of which is why Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1149477145039043342006-06-05T01:09:00.000-02:002006-11-12T20:31:06.572-03:00The Big Lie we're telling our kidsBy Russell KingAs I watch Hannah try to make sense of the demands of middle school, H.L. Mencken seems more and more right: The main thing children learn in school, he said, is how to lie. The Big Lie is the message we give our kids about what’s important and what’s not.Hannah’s word for it is "boring." She can do the work very well when she has a mind to, when Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1148528211217194442006-05-25T01:31:00.000-02:002006-11-12T20:31:06.285-03:00These are the good old days.By Russell KingIf we’re to believe the newspapers and TV news programs, our schools are full of kids who are illiterate, violent thugs who’d rather smoke, drink and do drugs than anything else. Today’s youth are foul-mouthed, self-centered, over-sexed losers approaching the on-ramp to the Highway to Hell with the gas pedal floored. One study found that in a recent Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1146874575108544472006-05-05T22:10:00.000-02:002006-11-12T20:31:05.935-03:00Fathers, sons and the rise of steamBy Russell KingSometimes the pieces of life’s puzzle overlap and make moments that leave you thinking. The lines of father and son run close and parallel, and an American dad can find himself with a foot on either side. I’ve been having one of those moments for a couple of weeks now.A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting my parents. I live way north in America, Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1142540644321359832006-03-16T16:36:00.000-03:002006-11-12T20:31:05.634-03:00Score one for our sideBy Russell KingWhen the TV show "Who wants to be a millionaire?" first aired, all I could think was "Shouldn't we be asking 'Who wants to be a good person?'" It's one of those wild dreams I have as an American dad: That our culture will finally start sending messages that are actually good for my kids to internalize.No, I haven't been holding my breath.A bit later, two filmsRussell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1142272751834587312006-03-13T14:55:00.000-03:002006-11-12T20:31:05.347-03:00Graduation madnessSound thinking from the folks at www.ThinkProgress.org :College athletics sponsors like Nike, Adidas, and Reebok make millions of dollars each year by adorning college athletes with their "swooshes" and other brand logos. Now, those corporations have an opportunity to help college athletes in the classroom. Today, the Progress Report is launching Graduation Madness: The March Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1141409447190564742006-03-03T15:04:00.000-03:002006-11-12T20:31:04.974-03:00Three questions for bedtimeBy Russell KingOne night, years ago, Logan was having a sleepover with a bunch of little buddies and they would not settle down at bedtime. Rhonda looked at me and said, "OK story-teller, do your thing." My creative well was dry at the moment, so I just started telling the first story that popped into my head. Why a story by Leo Tolstoy, which I'd heard probably 20 Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1141011462302369382006-02-27T00:35:00.000-03:002006-11-12T20:31:04.699-03:00The rise and fall of Daddy Powerby Russell KingYou know you can’t avoid it, but you hope it’s farther off than it is. You’re never quite sure what’s worse: the pain of an end and a loss or the helplessness and hopelessness of dreading what you know is coming. There is always the rationalization that the ending of this is merely the beginning of that, but the consolation is slight. When it strikesRussell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1138598645137158542006-01-30T02:20:00.000-03:002006-11-12T20:31:04.398-03:00Christmas lives on in WisconsinBy Russell KingThe American dads living in Wisconsin got a bad rap last month, and it’s time for this one to speak up about it. Wisconsin got tagged as some sort of hotbed of heathenism, the cradle of an anti-Christmas crusade, and I’m here to tell you that it’s hogwash. Some other American dads and moms from Wisconsin are going a bit further and demanding an Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1135303064256413562005-12-22T22:28:00.000-03:002006-11-12T20:31:04.159-03:00Object lessons for fathers and sons by fathers and sonsBy Russell KingPriorities in life Stan Van Gundy, the head coach of the professional basketball team in Miami, recently decided that the rewards of spending time with his family outweighed the rewards of his job. The millions of dollars, the fame, the glitz and the glamour simply were not enough to justify the many weeks on the road away fromRussell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1134449322541012962005-12-13T01:29:00.000-03:002006-11-12T20:31:03.813-03:00Feeding the beast in the culture of deathBy Russell KingTookie Williams's plea for his life has been rejected by both the California and U.S. Supreme Courts, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has refused to grant him clemency, so the convicted killer will be executed at midnight (Tuesday, December 13). By the time most of you read this, he'll be dead. It gives this American dad reason to Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5640722.post-1134104583498712742005-12-09T01:59:00.000-03:002006-11-12T20:31:03.542-03:00I remember JohnBy Russell KingTwenty-five years ago today, December 8, John Lennon was killed. I'll not go into details about what his life, words and death meant to me, except to note that my first child is named after him. Instead, I'll leave you with a few of his words on fatherhood."The pressures of being a parent are equal to any pressure on earth. To be a conscious parent, and really look Russell Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07584441005616023265noreply@blogger.com