Tag: parenting
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Best Parenting Apps
Parenting is hard, but one of the advantages of raising children in today’s day and age is that we have access to resources like never before. In this post I wanted to put together a list of Dashing Dad’s Best Parenting Apps.
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The Best Swimming Lessons in Calgary that EVERY child needs
I previously wrote about why I thought we didn’t need toddler swimming lessons. The crux of my argument was that the toddler swimming lesson experience mostly revolves around getting them familiar with the water. They blow bubbles, maybe go down a slide, and you as the parent hold them while you go around in a…
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Dashing Dad’s Holiday Gift Guide
I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas. I recently wrote about long days, short years and man it just keeps blowing my mind. None-the-less, Christmas is almost here and I’ve been working hard this past month to put together the first Dashing Dad Holiday Gift Guide! I’ve teamed up with some awesome local retailers to showcase…
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What I’ve Learned In My First Year As A Stay-At-Home Dad
Today marks the one-year anniversary of me officially becoming a stay-at-home Dad (SAHD). Since starting this blog I’ve written about why I love being a SAHD, shared the thoughts of other SAHD’s on what it’s REALLY like and over the course of this first year I have definitely learned a thing or two. So as I…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Fish Creek Park Ice Cave
Directions and information on the Fish Creek Park Ice Caves and Ice Falls
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Raising a Child With a Peanut Allergy
“Unfortunately, it looks like Clara is allergic to peanuts.” At these words, my heart sunk. Since we first found out Dashing Mom was pregnant I had been worried about Clara being Diabetic, but being allergic to a food had never even crossed my mind. And I had no idea what to do. Raising a child…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Tumble Time – Lake Bonavista
Most kids love running around and being active and Clara is no different. Recently she gave us a heart attack by doing her first ever somersault… off the couch on to the floor. By sheer luck she landed on a pillow and giggled and laughed at discovering a new way to move her body, while…
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How To Teach Toddler Safe Knife Skills
I’m lucky to be married to a woman that thoroughly enjoys cooking, and loves getting our daughter involved. In this post Dashing Mom will show you How To Teach Toddler Safe Knife Skills, enjoy! –Dashing Dad I’ve mentioned before that I love to get Clara to help me in the kitchen! One of the things…
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The Meaning Of Being A Dad
I never grew up with a strong conviction that I was going to be anything when I got older. When I was eight, I was sure I was going to be a baseball player. I was a pitcher and I had a mean slider that no batter my age could touch. I couldn’t hit to…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Hiking – Brown-Lowery Provincial Park
Location: The trailhead is located off of Plummers Road, just south of Priddis. Make sure to bring a map as cell service is spotty and there are no road signs along the way. Elevation Change: 143 m Duration: 4.8 km (took us 2 hours roundtrip with a stop at the top for a picnic) As…
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Tips and Tricks For Driving With A Toddler
This is Part Two in a series of How To Take A Road Trip With A Toddler, Part one is here. When I wrote How To Take a Road Trip With a Toddler I was unprepared for the nerve it would strike with people. Apparently road trip struggles are real for EVERYONE, and the response I got…
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What the $*%$& Is An Applesauce Sky?
If you have a toddler and you have a Netflix subscription than it is very likely you have watched Word Party at some point. If you’re not familiar, Word Party focuses on four baby animals – Kip, Bailey, Lulu and Franny – who are learning words. Each time they need help learning a word they…
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9 Stay-At-Home Dads Tell Us What It’s REALLY Like
You know those times where you’re at work and everything is going wrong so you turn to your co-worker to vent about how you hate everything. They listen, offer up some advice, or offer to buy you a beer after work. You don’t get that as a stay-at-home parent. Finding a sense of community as…
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How To Take A Road Trip With A Toddler
This year, for Stampede season, we decided to get the heck out of town and headed to beautiful Christina Lake, British Columbia. My cousin and his wife own a cabin there and are gracious enough to let us use it. The only downside to the whole experience is you need to take a 7 hour…
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Music Monday: Twenty One Pilots – Jumpsuit
Stampede is over for another year and Calgarians start the process of getting back to real life and enjoying the summer. We got out of town for Stampede and just got back from a road trip out to our families cabin. I’m working on a post about our experience road tripping with a toddler and…
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16 Things To Do For Free With Your Kids In Calgary
Summer is here which means the days are longer and there is more time to pack things into the day. While Clara and I love doing things like going to Heritage Park , if your budget is a little tight heading there for the day can be a bit pricey. With the help of some of…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Heritage Park
I have always loved Heritage Park and now that I have a kid of my own, Heritage Park is one of the best things to do in Calgary. For as long as I can remember there’s something about the old timeyness of it that really speaks to me. Don’t believe me? When Dashing Wife and…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: The Calgary Tower
I recently wrote an article for Calgary Tourism titled 10 Reasons To Love The Calgary Tower, as 2018 marks its 50th anniversary. Built to celebrate Canada’s 100th birthday in 1967, construction wrapped up in 1968. Now, 50 years later, it stands as an iconic and recognizable symbol of the city’s past and present. A key landmark…
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Things To Do With Your Kids: Hiking – Grassi Lakes Trail
LOCATION: Trailhead begins on Spray Lakes Road, just 2 kms past the Nordic Centre on the left, down a hill. ELEVATION CHANGE: 250 m DURATION: 1-2 hours One of our favourite things to do with Clara (albeit not one we do often enough) is to go hiking. While playing in Fish Creek is an easily…
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Why You Should Let Your Kids Swear (And Win A French Chateau!)
I’ve put together an article roundup of a number of things I’ve been reading lately to help get your Monday started right (or give you something to do while you’re pretending to work). There’s some interesting articles here including why you should teach your children to swear. The last one is the most exciting if…
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Raising A Child As A Parent With Type 1 Diabetes
Raising a child as a parent with Type 1 Diabetes has introduced some interesting challenges, but it has also made some things easier. This year we’re introducing Clara to volunteer work and fundraising by taking part in the Sun Life – Walk For The Cure. What is Type 1 Diabetes? Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is…
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Music Monday: Childish Gambino – This is America (Kid Friendly)
After hearing Childish Gambino – This is America for the first time I was hooked. Like most people, the beat, the lyrics and the video were all something I wanted more of. Obviously, given the graphic content, the video was not something I was able to watch while Clara was awake. We have however, played…
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I’m Not The Dad I Thought I Would Be
I’m not the Dad I thought I would be and that has left me not feeling like a Dad. It’s a weird feeling. In some ways I Dad more than a lot of the Dad’s that Dad out there. But having grown up with a stay-at-home-mom, and with the societal expectations of a family having…
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Things To Do With Your Kids This Long Weekend
Weekends are a great time to get away from the hassles of the week and spend time with the family. Long weekends are even better as they provide that little extra time to let you recharge your batteries. I’ve written about a number of things that are great to do all the time, like swimming,…
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Things to do with your kids: Fish Creek Park
Fish Creek Park is one of my favourite places to go with Clara anytime of the year. In the winter we bundle her up, use her sled and explore the various snowy pathways. In the spring, summer and fall we love to explore the trees, fields, ponds and rivers. Clara has a fascination with bridges…
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Music Monday – Deadpool – Celine Dion – Ashes
I’m not a huge movie person. We watch the occasional movie at home (and Moana more times than I can count) but we never go to the theatres. If I WERE to go to a theatre though, it would be for Deadpool. Ryan Reynolds is a Canadian gem, and Deadpool a gift to the world.…
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Music Monday – The Happy Song
Every parent knows the struggles of a crying baby and more than one of us has Googled ‘How to make your baby stop crying.’ New parents especially know that when your baby is crying and you’ve tried everything you can think of to get them to stop, you wish there was a secret formula to…
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How To Make Cooking With Your Toddler Fun
Cooking with toddlers can be awesome, however, cooking is not one of my specialties. Try as I might I have not got better. Sadly I am full-grown adult still capable of burning water. Which is why I am so fortunate to be married to Dashing Mom. Not only does she work hard all week for…
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The Best Kids Books For Under $10
Like any young child Clara loves to do a lot of things. One of the things she has always loved to do is to have books read to her. She will often pick up a book and bring it over to us and it has always been a regular part of our bedtime routine. In…
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Music Monday – Jinjer
For this Music Monday post I had grand aspirations of posting a more general-public-friendly pop hit that would make you smile and bob your head. Clara likes a lot of these songs and there’s no shortage of ones to pick from. But then the greatest achievement of my young Dad life happened. Clara started head-banging…
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5 Things I Love About Being a Stay At Home Dad
I won’t lie to you, there are lots of reasons I love being a stay-at-home-dad and I think being a stay-at-home-dad is the greatest job in the world. There hasn’t been a day where I have thought to myself “Man I wish I was back at work,” or “boy I miss those long commutes in…
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Why I Thought We Didn’t Need Toddler Swimming Lessons
Looking for the best toddler swim lessons in Calgary? Check out my post here with my recommendation. If you’re looking for a review of the YMCA lessons as well as a list of available options around the city, see below! **Updated September 2018** When I first wrote this post, I didn’t know too much about…
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Music Monday – Meytal Cohen
It’s Music Monday! A segment where I share what music Clara and I are listening to. These songs will be great for parents and toddlers alike. As I mentioned in the About me section, music is a big part of my life. I’ve been playing guitar since I was 15 and have been the rhythm…
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How I Became a Stay-At-Home-Dad
I love being a stay-at-home-dad (SAHD). My story of becoming a stay-at-home-dad is a pretty simple one and one I suspect a lot of parents can relate to. I graduated with a diploma in Journalism, and for the last 13 years have been working as a journalist, writer, communications and marketing professional. In the last…