at
home dad
men
who change diapers change the world
Instead of the traditional Dads night out Jim LoCascio of Cape Coral, FL and Capt. Mark Gauthier of Nokomis, FL organized a weekend deep-sea fishing trip last month. Veteran at-home dads Bob Nooner came down from Illinois, and Roland LaScala from Ohio to join 4 other at-home dads. In the photo at left Bob Boisvert of Largo, FL caught the most fish - mostly groupers. Jim plans to make this an annual event, and has already scheduled the next one for March 5, 2005. If you would like to join these guys next year you can get more info at their web site or email Jim at jimloc@swfla.rr.com. To hear more fish stories talk to Bob or Roland (he won the pool with the largest keeper fish with a nearly 24 inch long red grouper) at the next At-Home Dads convention in Chicago. I would go but I fish every year in Maine with my brother and bro-in-law. Here's our Men's Fishing Weekend site.
Now for an update on The Trixie Update. The last time I mentioned Ben McNeill's blog the media was taking notice. Now he wants to see if he can cash in on is quasi-famous blog site where he tracks sleep, naps, nursing, diaper leaks, bottle-feedings of his daughter Trixie in real time. He has tweaked his new software and has dubbed it "the Trixie Tracker". When I first saw this site I wondered how could he spend all day on the blog to keep it updated. With the software he designed, he was able to just hit a function key on the computer every time the baby poops, pees or needs a diaper and his software does the rest organizing, it into charts and graph.. For example when he changes a diaper he hits F9. So why do we need this? He claims by knowing his daughters sleep patterns he knows "when I can take a shower or have some personal time." Family members could track to see what the baby is doing from work. He wants to charge thirty bucks for a year to use his software.. This is an interesting idea, and he has made good use of his computer design skills during his kids naptime but I don't know if I want to hit the "Escape" Key every time the baby has a diaper leak.
The UN
put out a 2003 Human Development Report
which showed the "work burdens in selected countries" In the report it
listed the number of minutes spent working by males and females per day. Of
course we end up with a list which has to have some country at the bottom. The
"loser" was Africa with 273 minutes (4 1/2 hrs) per day. The number
was more than an hour and a half less than the average and over 2 hours less
than the US. The report was from 2000 statistics.
When you end up at the bottom of any public list, some guy is gonna get mad.
Well, Reporter Kuben Chetty of The Daily News in South Africa found the guy. She
promptly located Chris Slabber of Durban, South Africa, a local at-home dad to 2
sons who proudly proclaimed "We're
not a bunch of lazy sods!" At Durban's Tourism website
their motto is "South African's Playground" Maybe I will set up Mr.
Slabber with a playgroup there.
Speaking of playgroup I'd like to welcome Michael Roediger's East
Pittsburgh Stay-at-Home Dads playgroup to the Network Playgroup list.