Does you teenager play Xbox? Duh. A better question is, when doesn’t your teenager play Xbox?

As a parent, we were cautious about allowing our teen boys to have an Xbox Live account. The thought of having complete strangers having audio conversations with our boys was a bit unnerving. I’ll pause here to allow you think dwell on potential of this technology for a moment…

Yeah, pretty scary.

We dealt with it by setting some rules. When we first got an Xbox Live account we did not allow them to have audio headphones. This means they could play live but could not have conversations with anyone. We then progressed in allowing our older son to use an audio headset with the stipulation we was only allowed to play with groups of friends he knew. Believe it or not this worked pretty well. And we know and therefore has a certain degree of trust in his choice of friends. We also know all our boy’s friends’ parents.

We got it all figured out (not really) until now.

Now parents have to deal with Microsoft’s new Xbox technology  SmartGlass.

*sigh*

To add to your nightmare, Xbox will add video capabilities to you child’s late night gaming activities! Oh joy!

(Now you have been able to video chat on Xbox prior to SmartGlass and there is much more to this SmartGlass technology than just video sharing – like accessing the web! I’ll save that for another post.)

But here is the biggie. Your precious little tike’s, Xbox Live account will not only be able to connect with other video SmartGlass account, it will be able to connect to Microsoft Windows 8 accounts!

Now not just gaming nerds and teen boys will be able to video chat with your son, now you have desktop weirdos to deal with too!

Please be cautious parents. Our job is getting more difficult everyday!

And we thought dealing with texting was difficult!

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Lets face it. We all want our daughters to marry someone who can provide for them. Duh.

I have three. So yes, I hope there are three Dr.s out there preparing themselves to marry my daughters.

But.

The lie us Dads tend to believe is that in order for our girls to marry someone rich and successful we must spoil them. You know, let’s allow them to experience and get used to a high standard of living so they will be sure to find someone that will allow them to continue to live at that high standard of living.

Admit it. You’ve thought it. Set the bar high, right?

I did.

But our job as parents here is to raise them to be secure, satisfied and thus happy no matter what income level they marry into.

If all else fails, invite a few pre-med students over to the house every now and then.

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My oldest daughter is about to graduate from high school.

*sigh*

Bout time! But I digress.

She is afraid of needles. Not a particularly interesting fact in any other manner except she is allowing this little fear to change the course of her life.

Now that I find interesting.

She wants to be a midwife. Midwives use needles. See where this is headed?

Isn’t it amazing how the thing you are most afraid of in life just so happens to be EXACTLY what you are supposed to do?!

No? Not you? K.

So back to our story. I decided I would do a lil googling to see what can be done to get over this issue. Yeah, apparently you can actually get over certain fears. In fact you can get over about anything… with the help of Google.

So I began to type into Google. “How to get over the fear of…”

Hmmm. Uh huh. I see. I see.

Flying? Understandable I guess.

Heights? Guilty!

AH! Needles!

Oh but for the sake of entertainment, let’s keep going…

Rejection? Ouch? Someone’s got issues.

Driving? This can only be the parents of teenagers.

Death? That one should take care of itself.

Commitment? You’ll get no sympathy from me, sir.

Blood. Sure.

Dogs. Got bit once running.

Clowns? Ok, let’s talk about this one, shall we? Now I’m going to assume this isn’t a joke. So why, please do tell, are people so concerned about this fear they feel the need to find a cure?

What, do they drive by a clown school on their commute to work every morning?

I’ll save you the trouble and tell you the answer to all of these.

Do what you fear.

And that doesn’t mean marry a clown.

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I have 6 children, 4 of which are teenagers, three of which are boys.

After the first 16 games played in the NCAA basketball tournament and who is winning?

My 8 year old daughter.

She picked 15 out of the first 16 games correctly.

It’s just no fair competing against my daughter.

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Our cat is dying.

Yesterday we found out our beloved kitty, a stray we took in 6 years ago has diabetes.

He is a huge farm cat who grew from a malnutritioned “teen” to a 23 pound monster. We had him declawed only to find him come in from a night of fighting with a bloody ear, neck or eye. Tough cat, sweet pet.

A gentle giant.

Back when we adopted him, we believed he would comfort us when the time came for his 14 year old sister cat China to go to heaven.

It’s not going to happen that way.

Last night my wife said, “I just don’t know how we are going to tell the kids.” I responded with, “I do.”

I had to step up and be Dad.

So this afternoon I had a family meeting where I explained to our 6 children, ages 8 to 18 that a family member was going to die…

It’s ok that pets die. It’s ok that people die. It’s ok that this is a difficult time.

This knowledge may not make it easier for us to grieve. But I hope it provides a little comfort to you kids.

It will be ok. Because we are going through this together, as a family.

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There are plenty of text, Instant Message, Twitter and Facebook slang dictionaries out there. But dang if this series of tubes doesn’t move fast now don’t it?!

How’s a Dad to keep up?

If you are a parent in control enough of your children’s lives to actually be their friend on Facebook, then you’ve seen some interesting language. And yet you might not know their meanings.

Here are a few of the acronyms in totes heavy use right now.

Facebook Acronym Slang:

SMH – Shake My Head

HMU – Hit Me Up

LMS – Like My Status

TBH – To Be Honest

IMO – In My Opinion

SUPER UBER TOTES new Facebook Slang you don’t know about yet:

ITAY – Is That A Yeti?

MPA – More Pie Admiral?

CIHTH – Can I Have That Hanky?

TSI – This Sore Iches

TGCD – These Goats Can Dance!

So as always, the Zipopery is here to help you.

So if you have a few more acronyms you need to know the meaning of just… LMK.

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My 8 year old needs to read more. She’s a pretty good reader but we are trying to encourage her to read until she actually enjoys it.

Yeah I know, it’s a loosing battle. But hey a Dad has to try.

Well my daughter and I have a small passion for collecting these tiny little erasure toys.

I personally really like Gomu Eraserlands. They have a cool little iPod I just love.

My daughter likes these IWAKO Food Toys.

Anyway, my wife found these cool new tiny little toys called Barbie Squinkies.

They come in these little plastic bubbles that can open and close. Well, she earns a new Barbie Squinkie each time she finishes a book. Tonight after finishing her next book she got to open her first squishy little Squinkie and was very excited.

I don’t know what it is about these mini toys but they appeal to me. I think it’s because they look pretty sweet on my toy shelf at work.

So, I think if I work hard and make 30 consecutive blog posts in 30 days I think I could talk my blogging co-workers into buying me a new Gomu for my toy shelf.

Hey, a boss has to try.

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This year was a family Valentine’s Day.

It was very nice, very classy.

Pizza and dessert pizza, watching the Duggar’s.

Just us. Our eight hearts, one family.

How did you spend your Valentine’s Day?

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