Our guest DAD today is Brad is the CEO, Producer and Star of the website DadLabs. Their mission is to strengthen families and benefit children by empowering today’s fathers. DadLabs provides resources to expecting, new and veteran fathers that will launch them into a more active and creative role in the lives of their children.

Check out his video on a fantastic idea to do to spend quality time together as a family and read his parenting experience below:

Smart. Strong and Sensitive?

There was a very interesting conversation going the other day at DadLabs.com about how our day-to-day behavior as parents, shapes our kid’s perceptions much more forcefully than we may realize.  The conversation started with one gentleman bemoaning the fact that his son viewed him as sort of a dim bulb.  It turns out this specific Dad had been consistently answering questions brought forth in family conversations incorrectly, so that his son might provide the correct answer.  The Dad’s objective was to build his child’s intellectual confidence; instead his consistent oafishness demonstrated to the child that Dad indeed was a dullard.  Mom was the smart one that was sought after when problems needed solving.

I faced a similar situation dealing with strength some years ago.  When my son was very young, during arm wrestling matches and feats of strength, I would always let him win. After joining the family a few days into a vacation at the in-laws house, my father in law called me aside  “you must stop letting Walker win every arm wrestling match.  He is telling everyone in town that you are a weakling.”

I didn’t think much about it at first but after over hearing Walker tell his cousin that “My dad’s not very strong” I reconsidered.  At that moment it hit me, if he forms these opinions based on the games we play, what am I teaching him from my daily routine?  The way I treat his Mother, the way I talk on the phone, the way I react to difficult situations, all of these teach him something about me and about the world.  I get it; little pitchers have big ears and EYES.

A boy needs his father to be his first hero and a hero is smart, strong and kind!   It was time to start living that everyday.

So I whipped grandpas’ ass in a few arm wrestling matches, crushed the eleven year-old cousins strength challenge, beat the old lady next door in a race to the mailbox and then took them all out for ice cream.

I still let Walker win some games of basketball and volleyball but only 50% of the time.  Arm wrestling matches are 100% Daddy won and I am a gracious victor. I am looking forward to the day when he beats me for the first time fair and square; I hope he’s nice about it.

Thanks Brad! For myself as a mother it is refreshing to learn more about parenting from a group of Dads! I love how there are so many “vlogs” (videos as blog posts), those really appeal to my husband and he already has watched quite a few!

I have forwarded the site to everyone I know (Moms & Dads), readers be sure to share DadLabs with all of your friends!

Tags: dadlabs.com, dads, monday, weekly family activity

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