THE FATHER LIFE

Helping others is a trait I believe is written in our DNA and is also something that is learned from our environment. That is why we need to be able to teach it to our children and cannot assume that they will just do it naturally. One of the methods often [...]

Tennis pro Serena Williams shocked her many supporters with her behavior at the 2009 U.S. Open. After being called on a fault, Williams cursed at and threatened the lineswoman who made the call. Although published prior to the incident, I wondered if her background had any bearing on her actions. I have admired Williams as [...]

I am pleasantly surprised and encouraged by the resurgence of the graphic novel in the American anthology of boyhood fiction. Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid are two series that have led the way for this trend; is Malice in the same ballpark? Maybe…
I am pleasantly surprised by this [...]

The fine folks at Klutz sent me a copy of Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars for review.  While I thought it looked like lots of fun myself, I thought it would be even more interesting to get the opinion of my home’s artist-in-residence, my daughter Emma.
Now Emma has been drawing for… well, about as [...]

Here at The Father Life we embrace the idea that “becoming a dad doesn’t mean that you stop being a guy.” Chris Mancini’s new book, Pacify Me: A Handbook for the Freaked-Out New Dad, captures that idea to the letter. As a relatively experienced dad (my sons are 11 and almost 4), I wasn’t sure [...]

Authored by Dr. David Swanson, Help — My Kid Is Driving Me Crazy is written in an easy-to-access style. Reading the first few pages made me think that this book was really a session from the therapist in his office. The book strives to lay out different objectives in each of its [...]

New and expecting parents thrive on parenting books, but once the child turns one year old most parents feel that their instincts have taken over. Unless dealing with a specific issue (potty training, biting, identifying a mysterious rash), we rarely have time, so the books get put away. But what if our instincts are wrong?
NurtureShock, [...]

In my previous article, I encouraged all you men out there to rediscover the joy of reading.  Still searching for that perfect book?  Look no further.
I recently read A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father, written by Chris Lemmon, and I strongly recommend that each and every one of my readers do the [...]

The Forty- Year- Old- Version: Humoirs of a Divorced Dad by Joel Schwartzberg takes humor mixed with a dose of reality and transparency and wraps it all together in a package that any father can enjoy regardless of marital status. Arranged as a collection of 40 short essays, the book can be enjoyed both stretched [...]

It’s easy to lose the spirit of the Christmas season in the midst of all of the shopping and planning for the upcoming holiday. Buying this and ordering that, I’m reminded of Linus bemoaning how we have “gone commercial” in the TV classic, “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown.” But it hasn’t always been that [...]