Dad Life

A friend shared this with us. It has to at least make you smile...

The Girls & Boys Projects recognizes all of the fathers out there! :)

The Worst Man In History

Who, you ask? Try all of us. Yep, modern man, when compared to men of the past - way, way back, past - could be the "the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet." That according to a new book by Peter McAllister entitled, "Manthropology."

In the book, McAllister, an anthropologist, makes claims that prehistoric man was faster and stronger than man is today. In fact, some women were stronger than modern man is today, too. The why [this happened] makes perfect sense - we don't have to run down our own food anymore, we don't take part in war the same way, and our tests of manhood come in very different forms now. The why he chose to reveal this information is less clear.

*Note: It might be important to introduce a new "Man Law" at this time:

• Rule #45: If you find in your research that man has become weak, shiftless, and a basic waste of space, do not release these findings in a book that is easily accessible by our female counterparts.

Can you hear the fights men and women will have now?! ("You aren't half the man you used to be!") The insults are limitless... Women already have enough ammunition with the dumb things men do, why provide more fodder?

It that's not enough, wait for McAllister's next book about the Aka Pygmies of Western Congo: "Dubbed the 'best fathers in the world', the men spent most of their time raising the children, going so far as to offer their nipples for the babies to suck on."

MCALLISTERRRR!!! WHAT'RE YOU TRYING TO DO HERE?!?!

Hopefully, his work will open up some interesting dialogues on the concepts of health, activity, and manhood. Even if it does paint a sorrowing picture of devolution...

I'm Tiger Woods

Who can forget those adorable little faces from Nike's "I Am Tiger Woods" ad campaign? Golf was almost immediately being watched by a wider and more diverse audience, and being played by people once denied access to the same courses on which the game takes place. Kids everywhere wondered what it would be like to be Tiger Woods, the golfer.

And, now there is a new reason to want to be like the smiling, 33 year-old mega-star who never seems to make a wrong move: his role as "Dad."

The images of Tiger and his father Earl embracing on the golf course are as well known as the red-shirt-ed, fist-pumping Tiger adding another trophy to his collection. The love and respect from father to son was tangible and admirable. As the NYTimes piece above notes, "If Woods grew up knowing nothing else, it was that his father and his mother, Kultida, were wholly committed to him."

And, that's an important lesson to take away from this story. Kids will always want to be Tiger Woods. They will want to achieve his success on the golf course and be worth what he is worth. But, with Father's Day just in our rear-view mirrors, fathers (and fathers-to-be) should garner additional inspiration from the phrase "wholly committed to him." We can't all fly our kids around the world to watch Daddy play golf like Tiger Woods. We can't all take the time away from work to foster our child's passion for golf like Earl Woods. But, what we can do is work hard everyday to be sure our kids know we are wholly committed to them . . . And, you don't need a private jet to do that.