http://www.ibabuzz.com/aparentlyspeaking/2008/02/06/looming-valentines-a-dad-offers-advice/ From diapers to diplomas, an irreverent, practical guide to all things parenting Sun, 15 Apr 2012 00:18:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://www.ibabuzz.com/aparentlyspeaking/2008/02/06/looming-valentines-a-dad-offers-advice/comment-page-1/#comment-519 Ari Soglin Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:39:34 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/aparentlyspeaking/2008/02/06/looming-valentines-a-dad-offers-advice/#comment-519 Whoa! Hold on and let’s roll back the tape. … No. Nope. No eye-rolling. My people will be talking to your people about this patently false accusation. … Our people are the same people? Oh, well, yeah, you do have a point. … At 7:30-ish a.m. the morning after a late night (for reasons having to do with the election, so wipe that smirk off your face), I’m not in any condition to be coherent. But that never stopped me before, so I’ll try with this one tiny bit of advice: Dads, let the kids do their own shopping for mom instead of buying the kids’ gifts yourselves and merely asking them to sign a card. Sometimes the latter is simpler, but when the kid does the choosing (or, even better, creating) it has two benefits. One, it’ll touch mom’s heart to know that her children put in some thought and effort. And, secondly, if the gift is a dud, it gives dad a totally legit reason to shrug his shoulders and give one of those “kids will be kids” looks. Why take the heat yourself if you can be insulated from it? (See, no eye-rolling.)

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