All Settled In and Back to Full Time Dadding

Today is the first “normal” day for the family. My wife started her new job (the reason we are here) and I am home with the boys. Back to being a SAHD at least for now.

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The plan is to look for work and only take something that is exceptional. You see, we don’t want to do double daycare. With Harry starting school in September, it makes sense to get to then and do the single daycare.

So I get to basically have my second summer in a row at home with the boys. How lucky am I?

Like A Dad To Move Office and Kids To Toronto

Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 15, 2014 – Like A Dad, a parenting blog focused on the life of one dad and his family, is excited to announce that it will be relocating its office to Toronto, on May 14, 2014.

Like A Dad was started in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in November of 2012, after the birth of the owner’s second son. The blog is relocating it’s staff (family) to Toronto due to job changes and to be closer to family and friends. All day-to-day operations will begin in the new office on the Tuesday after the Victoria Day weekend.

Like A Dad is written and managed by Michael Cusden, a digital marketer, who excels in creating engaging web content for several properties. He will also be leaving his day job of 5 years at SimplyCast, to pursue bigger challenges in Toronto, where he once worked in the television industry.

A Dad’s Life: Moving With Kids

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This post was first published on Urban Parent.

Who likes to move? Anyone?

Moving is certainly not an ideal way to spend a weekend. We have all roped our friends into it at some point with the promise of pizza and beer. It is a lot of work and something I have accepted as something you pay others to do if possible.

But there is more to moving than the boxes. There is the mental side of it that I have never really thought about until now.

That’s because we are moving for the first time with kids.

Yes, we are packing up the place, grabbing our two boys and hitting the road for Ontario. Toronto in fact.

But how do you break it to your kids that you are picking up the only life they have ever known and taking it elsewhere?

Well for our 20-month old, he really has no opinion. As long as we bring him, he is happy.

Our soon to be 5-year old however, that is a whole different psychological experiment.

The Importance of Dads

This is a guest post by Ashley Hardway

There is nothing quite like the love of a dad. Mom’s love is so comforting and nurturing and lets us know we are loved unconditionally. The two loves are hard to compare and are equal in their importance. So many times today we see children left with only one parent and generally it is the mom. The importance of dads and the benefit of having them in children’s lives cannot be replaced by any other love.

In no way am I trying to discount the position or importance of a mother in a child’s life. Mom cannot be replaced any more than dad. So many mothers today are trying to take over the role of mom and dad because of absentee fathers and that is an impossible thing. Women are just not able to be men no matter how hard they try. Dads give us a sense of security and of strength and safety that is so much needed in the world today.

A Dad’s Life: Life Father Like Son

Originally posted on Urban Parent

Who is your favorite sports team? Do you have several?

Everyone seems to have at least one on some level.

The one team that gets our attention and brings us great join and even greater pain.

But how did you pick it? Was it recent or have you been a fan since your childhood?

For me, my dad was pretty new to Canada, so he did not have an allegiance yet. He loved English soccer for sure, but there was no connection with North American sport past knowing who the teams were.

So, for me as a boy, the world was wide open to pick the team I was going to love.

Growing up in SW Ontario, you would think I would have sided with a team from Toronto or Detroit. Nope, I was different.

My longest running bond with a pro sports team is with the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL. I have been a fan of them since I was 10.

Second longest would be my love of Michigan basketball, which started around the same time and makes more geographical sense.

It got me hooked on hoops to the point of playing it for the next several years.

That same University of Michigan team is where I am now seeing the next line of sports fans grow. My boys.

Modern Dads: We Feel The Time Crunch, Too

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Michael Cusden, a Halifax marketing manager and his two sons, Harrison, age four and Charlie, age one (scott munn for The Globe and Mail)

Full article can be seen in the Globe and Mail.

“In a lot of companies, guys will get that guilt. If you’re not doing overtime, you’ll be passed by the guy who is because he doesn’t have family obligations,” says Michael Cusden, a Halifax marketing manager.

Cusden, 39, says he got raised eyebrows for taking a six-month parental leave. “I drew my line in the sand,” said Cusden, who now makes it clear that his weeknights are reserved for family. Even so, his leisure time has dried up to a couple of hours on the weekend and he often combines his own errands with playground trips. Being overwhelmed, he says, is “not a mom thing any more. It’s a parent thing.”

Winter Just Won’t Go Away

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March 30th, 2014. Yes, technically it is spring. Yesterday we got a taste of it with warm weather. Today, back to cold rain and ice. It really is getting depressing.

There is so much waiting to be done outside. Gardening, cleaning out the garage, pumping up the bike tires and just getting more exercise.

Being stuck in the house needs to be over. The boys are ready to explode through the walls.

Recounting A #Snowday In #Halifax With Photos

Well I did it. I made it through a snow day with the boys. While my wife is away (flight cancelled), I had a fun day at home, hunkered down in the house for what was a pretty big storm. It is actually still going but luckily, the boys are not.

The house is now quiet, but because I know the day would speed by and I would forget a lot of the highlights, I had a camera with me all day and did my best to tell a story.

You will notice the many shots of the outside world to give you an idea of the snow we got.

This will also make it easier to describe our snow day once my wife does get home.

So enjoy this post as I recount a snow day in Halifax with photos.