An alarming 44 percent of Internet users said they were “sometimes” or “often” ignored because another member of the household spends too much time online. Barely behind the 48 percent that said they were ignored because others spend too much time watching TV.

While these survey results aren’t surprising, they are a bit unsettling. For years our kids had to compete with our work, our friends, our TV time, and now they have to compete with the never-ending World Wide Web and all that it offers. How do you react when your wife or child approaches you while you’re online? Are those hours spent on social networks really more important than spending time playing or reading with your child?

As a bonafide internet junky I’m as guilty as anyone else of letting my online “life” interfere with real life and what’s truly important.

For more information about the study and some other perspectives visit:

Center for the Digital Future – (only highlights of the report)
Christian Post
Internet Use Cuts Into Family Time

For details visit: Fathers’ Day Contest on momz.com.

DJ has a great mom and dad. His passion and determination are inspirational and surely his mom and dad are exceptionally proud of him.

Enjoy! (12:21 rated PG)

If you’d like to learn more you can find DJ’s blog here: DJ Gregory Blog

Click here to view the embedded video.

Don’t try this at home!

The site also cover issues associated with father’s rights, or lack of thereof, such as child support and loss of most parental rights although most fathers retain a large portion of the parenting responsibility.

Here’s an article from Time magazine from 2007 that sheds more light on the topic as well.

Duped Dads article in Time

I apologize for posting this very sad news. My hope is that we dads can all learn something from it and perhaps even find a way to show some support this heartbroken family as they struggle to live their lives after this tragedy.

If you have ever seen a car or truck doing donuts you’ll understand how debris gets kicked up and thrown about as the wheels and vehicle spin. Apparently at the Monster truck show in Tacoma Washington Friday night a piece of metal from a truck in the show the was launched into the stands after another truck began doing donuts. Sebastian, a 6 year-old, was struck in the head by a frisbee-sized piece of metal weighing approximately 10 lbs.

Little Sebastian never had a chance. They rushed him to the hospital, but he died yesterday morning from the blow to his head.

For more on the story: 6 Year-old killed in Monster truck mishap

Needless to say the family is devastated and angry. Sadly, the show continued on as the event organizers were completely oblivious to what had happened. Amazingly, the shows scheduled for Saturday and today are going on as planned despite the obvious dangers to people in the stands.

Please don’t assume any event is completely safe for you or your kids. Don’t depend on anyone else to be as concerned about the safety of your family as you are. When you’re with your family look at everything as though you are responsible for the safety of those involved. If the situation doesn’t pass your test then do the responsible thing(s): Try to correct the situation, tell someone in charge about your concerns, leave or don’t go in the first place.

Apparently the teenager suffered from seizures and with the cause of death being reported as a head injury suffered in a fall in their bathroom it appears the boy had a seizure and fell hitting his head on the bathtub.

His son also suffered from autism so there will be banter about that as being involved as some have claimed dad Travolta neglected to treat his Son’s condition due to his religious beliefs. Let’s hope these folks restrain themselves and let the Travolta family mourn their loss without too much drama.

Source: Yahoo – Article on Son’s death

After just 10 minutes on this free Website I had created my immediate family tree including profile pics, date of birth and some other basics. Within an hour I had about 30 family members created with most of them setup with profile pics. The learning curve was non-existent… it was a breeze.

The most exciting thing about this site is the ease with which any family member can signup and be creating their own family tree within minutes. In fact, within the last 24 hours most of those family members who I had added to my family tree had registered and begun adding their family tree to create an even larger, more comprehensive tree. This ease of use and the fact that it’s free give me great hope that it will continue to grow and deepen in terms of photos and other conteent since it’s so easy to upload anything to your own tree and make it available to family OR family and friends OR to anyone.

Geni does offer a premium version for only $5 month, but there isn’t much there beyond what you get for free (yet) so there is no need to upgrade. I actually want this company to make a profit over time because I’m grateful for the resource they have built and made available for all of the families on tight budgets out there.

There all sorts of other great geneaology tools available online. For a few of the best ones for building a family tree check out Genealogy category of Big Guide.

Here are what some others are saying about ‘Daddy How Do You Know‘ by Step Jones:

“Written in a style that is part personal journal and part life manual to be discovered later by his young son, Step Jones demystifies the process of our development into thoughtful human beings, explores his discoveries about what success is, and reveals for us all his strategies for achieving dreams in a diverse world of ever-quickening change.”
Doug Lytle – Attorney – San Diego

I love and appreciate you for writing this book. Wow, what a journey! It’s emotional, educational, and endearing. The content actually caught me off-guard, and I feel that I have lived, learned, and loved more deeper as a result of reading your book. Thanks for being you and Thanks for allowing me and every reader into your world.
John P. Smith, Jr. – Principal Trainer – Los Angeles

The book will be published and available on Amazon.com early next year, but you can read it now free-of-charge online here (no registration required…): Daddy How Do You Know

Merry Christmas from dadz.com!