Good dads know how important it is to spend quality time with their kids and how fun it can be too. But it can be tough to keep coming up with new stuff to entertain your kids. If you’re dreading a weekend of kids complaining about being bored while you countdown the seconds until bedtime, we feel your pain. So each week we feature 3 simple ideas of things to do with your kids.

Build a Blanket Fort

There’s something about making a complete mess of furniture that kids really love and once you add in some blankets and they go bonkers. Use couch pillows, chairs, coffee tables and drape blankets and sheets over them. You can also buy this handy fort kit that enables them to build a sturdy (and glow-in-the-dark!) infrastructure…while not turning your house upside down.

Get Experimental

Blow your kids’ minds while teaching them about science! Dig around online and you’ll find a wealth of inexpensive experiments with stuff that’s already kicking around your house. Some of them may require to be set up the night before but if you plan far enough ahead you can buy a basic science kit (or a more advanced kit) that include everything you need. Here are 7 easy experiments bound to capture their imagination:

Fly a Kite

Definitely an oldie but certainly a goodie and there’s no rule against flying a kite when it’s cold outside. Dollar stores always carry a nice selection and they’re only a few bucks each. Get one for everyone and see if you can all get airborne at the same time. When things are winding down announce you’re having a “Kite Dog Fight!!” and try to knock each other out of the sky. You’ll probably just end up with a tangled mess, but hey, it was fun while it lasted.

For more suggestions check out last week’s 3 Things to Do With Your Kids.

Just a heads up, if you buy stuff using the provided links, The Dad may collect a small commission.

Few recent sitcoms have ingrained themselves into popular culture like The Office has. Picking up where Seinfeld and Friends left off, The Office – thanks to ubiquitous reruns and its presence on streaming apps – is all over the place these days, and it’s not even that far removed from when it was actually on the air.

Whereas Friends is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a reunion special this May, The Office ended only 6 years ago. Fans are still obsessed with the minutiae of the show and love to explore its nooks and crannies, like Michael Scott’s Michael Skarn movie, Threat Level: Midnight, which you can now watch on YouTube.

Not every mystery has been answered, but as the years go by, and the cast hosts podcasts about the show, more and more are being revealed. The latest one? What was on the note Jim almost gave to Pam in the teapot gift she got during their Christmas Yankee Swap.

Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey host The Office Ladies podcast, where they discussed the note, which Jim initially had inside the teapot gift, only to pull it out before he gave it to her. She didn’t actually get the note until the show’s final season.

Fischer said that only she and John Krasinski know what’s on the note because show creator Greg Daniels suggested that Krasinski write something personal to his costar. According to Fischer, he used the opportunity – which came during the show’s final season when, she said, “We were wrapping up filming, we were wrapping up the series, and we were all so emotional at that time.” – to detail what she, and their time making the show together, meant to him.

She says that the note felt more like John the actor saying goodbye to Jenna the actor, as opposed to Jim writing to Pam. The first time she read the note was on camera, which was a bit too much for her to handle. “The first take was probably not usable,” she says.

Tantalizing as the contents of the note may be to aficionados of The Office, Fischer said she’ll never reveal the exact contents. But “just know, it was perfect.”

Just like Jim and Pam’s relationship.

A big part of organized sports is recognizing the contributions of each and every one of your teammates. It’s not always the top-scoring player or the best defensive tackle that brings a team success long-term. It’s the combination of everyone working towards a common goal, including those on the sidelines.

That’s certainly the case at Carmel High School in Patterson, NY where players on the school’s varsity football team recently recognized one of their most valuable members. Caleb Cleary has played a major role in the team’s success but hasn’t played one single minute. That’s because Caleb is busy cheering on the team from the stands or the edge of the field as their #1 fan.

Athletic director Susan Dullea says there’s no debating Caleb’s unwavering fandom. “He attended games, was on the sideline, had his own jersey, and was at every game, home and away,” she shared with The Journal News, adding “The kids love him, and he loves the kids for sure. He was just as important part of our team as anyone on it.”

Team captain Will Boalt sharing a sentiment that echos across his teammates, saying “He was just always around, and he was so supportive. It makes you realize what you have in life and that you have people rooting for you.”

Wanting to recognize Caleb fully and officially, team members took it upon themselves to gather funds to purchase Caleb his very own letterman jacket. When the gear finally arrived, the players were excited to present Caleb with a small token of their appreciation.

The team gathered friends and classmates to share in a special moment, giving Caleb not only the coat but words of sincere appreciation for his time spent cheering them on. “I was talking to him and told him how grateful we were for him,” Will said. “I think it meant more to us having him on the team than I think he realized.”

The district captured a video they later shared to social media, showing the touching moment when Caleb arrived.

The CHS varsity football team all donated money to buy Caleb, a member of the team, a varsity letterman’s jacket. Today they presented it to him in class in front of his classmates, teachers, staff and family. This is what it’s all about!!! #Carmel6Cs pic.twitter.com/K77rVfSup4

— CarmelHS_info (@CarmelHS_info) February 13, 2020

“When he walked in, he looked so surprised,” Will recalled. “He has a smile that when you see him smile, you want to smile. He looked so happy with what we were doing for him. I don’t think he expected that.”

While players and coaches are often recognized for their individual achievements, it’s nice to have a true unsung hero have their praises shouted for all to hear.

Cheers to the Carmel Varsity Football team for setting an example for high school athletes everywhere while reminding us all the importance of recognizing those who help us to achieve.

Windows are a great way to give startle someone. Whether you’re the silhouette of Norman Bates’ mother in Psycho…

or the creepy neighbor from Disturbia…

or perhaps a toddler who’s yet to ascertain the wickedness of full-frontal nudity.

EEP!

According to POPSUGAR, Jeni Boysen thought she could leave her two-year-old, Dax, under the momentary supervision of Peppa Pig while she took a shower. When she got out, she had a text notification.

A neighbor spotted the young nonconformist perched on the windowsill in his birthday suit and promptly alerted his mom.

“Ya know, sometimes you think you’re doing OK at life and then you get a message like this from a neighbor,” Jeni wrote on Facebook. “I just cried I laughed so hard.”

This is adorable, but we can’t bury the lede here: what the hell is Peppa Pig teaching our children?

Technology and social media can be treacherous for adults these days, especially when it intersects with their professional lives. An old tweet that costs you a potential job opportunity, an IG that bares a little too much skin, a blog post that stirs up controversy; anything can happen, and it can really mess with your life.

Sometimes, though, instead of getting canceled, you just go viral.

That’s what happened to meteorologist Justin Hinton, who was covering the snowy weather conditions in Madison, North Carolina last week. Already a tough situation in which to remain dignified – standing at the side of the road, staying composed on-air while dealing with wind and precipitation is never easy – Justin and his cameraman had a little snafu. They launched a Facebook Live via which to share a real-time update on the conditions when something went wrong. Hilariously wrong.

Apparently, during filming, the cameraman accidentally tapped a filter button.

“The photog I was working with said something about the screen having weird faces,” Justin said in a Facebook post. “He didn’t elaborate, so I said it would probably go away. Needless to say, it did not go away.”

The ensuing broadcast featured filter after filter – googly eyes, barbells, a wizard outfit, a wolfhead – appearing on Justin’s face and body, to hilarious effect.

Viewers got a big kick out of it, with the Live generating 327 comments. But Justin had no idea it was even happening!

“I didn’t realize it until I stepped off camera and saw the comments where people were talking about the faces. My bosses, coworkers, friends, PIOs and more called/texted saying how funny it was,” he wrote in a Facebook post afterward.

He even made the national news, with the clip appearing on the TODAY show. Much to Justin’s delight.

It looks like it isn’t just WNC laughing this morning. 🤣 I’m glad I could bring a smile to your faces @PeterAlexander and @kwelkernbc. Here’s the greatest hits compilation @WLOS_13 put together: https://t.co/YsU72AyUNb Remember to laugh and smile today. pic.twitter.com/Tqelma7GMb

— Justin Hinton (@JustinWLOS) February 22, 2020

Good for him, and his bosses, for taking it all in stride. When it comes to technology, accidents tend to happen. Not everyone needs to be canceled when they do! Especially when they’re this funny!

Parenting is a time-consuming business. In fact, time may be the biggest sacrifice parents make when they have kids. Sure, they cost money, and they take up space, and they steal your sleep, and they remove any promise of silence or solitude, and they often push your sanity to the brink, but some of those things are manageable, even recoverable. Time is not.

From the minute they’re born, your days are filled with caring for them in ways both big and small, and it isn’t until they’re somewhat independent that you get any time to yourself, and that is largely dependent on how much screen time you allow. Acts as simple as walking out the door end up eating half a day, and god forbid you need to run a few errands. Simply getting your toddler into and out of the car seat can consume an entire afternoon!

You probably think I’m exaggerating, and I am, but not by that much!

According to research conducted by SEAT, a car company overseas, “it costs UK families an average of 96 hours a year getting their children ready, out of the house, and into the car. That’s around 15 minutes a day only to get their kids into the car.”

This adds up to 96 hours a year. Nearly 100 hours wasted just getting your kids inside your vehicle and strapped in. That’s 4 days! And this doesn’t even include the time spent UNstrapping them and getting them out!

A cute video showcases all the tiny steps required to get out the door and on the road, including wrangling the kid, getting his or her shoes on, getting his or her coat on, packing snacks and stuffed animals and toys for the road – which they need even if that road is a mere two blocks long for a quick run into the pharmacy – and finally loading them into the car and strapping them in.

Take a look at the little video, and try not to cry as you consider all the wasted time you could have spent binge-watching The Office instead of searching for your kids’ stupid velcro shoes!

LeBron James is one of the greatest basketball players of all time. And on a level unlike any player ever (sorry Michael) because he’s been able to use his platform to build his hometown community in a hugely positive way. The oldest students at Lebron James’ I Promise School recently found out they would be receiving four years of free college tuition (along with a free year of room and board).

The 193 11th-graders were informed of this development in a fairly dramatic fashion. They were on a college visit to Kent State University when they were told each student had an envelope under their seat. That envelope included the news of the free tuition at Kent State.

The announcement was a partnership between Kent State University and the Lebron James Family Foundation, which started the public I Promise School in 2018. The high school juniors will all receive four free years of tuition and one free year of room and board as long as they meet the university’s admission standards.

Mr. LeBron’s first #IPROMISE class. His first love ❤️. Thank you @KentState for making dreams come true for our students and families. 🙏⚡️ #WeAreFamily pic.twitter.com/Kqye8DwK3q

— LeBron James Family Foundation (@LJFamFoundation) February 12, 2020

The university president was the one to announce the big reveal and told them why they were helping make college a reality for them.

“We are doing this because we know of the transformative power of a higher education and a college degree, but most of all we’re doing this because you guys have demonstrated over the past several years that you have the grit, that you have the determination, that you have the dreams to succeed,” he said.

The soaring costs of higher education have made getting a college degree a lot tougher for the at-risk youth enrolled in James’ school. This is why a move like this helps show the kids how committed you are to helping them succeed and removing the roadblocks in their path.

The kids’ parents were watching the video of the announcement live in a separate room, and burst into tears while their children cheered upon receiving the full scholarship.

“We have so many options, and I just know that so many kids in my community just don’t have many options,” James told reporters after a recent Lakers win. “So for me to be able to be in a position where I can give these kids options to decide what they want to do with their future, it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever done.”

To stay eligible for the scholarship, students will need to maintain good grades and complete community service hours every semester.

“My wife and I planned it. We read every book, we picked the time to ‘pull the goalie,’ my wife missed one period, and there we were.

When the doctors give you the date it seems like there’s plenty of time to get that and do that and have that ready; you don’t realize it creeps up on you super fast.

The day it happened: my wife’s water broke, but it wasn’t a lot, there was no mucus plug on the bed, there were no contractions, just one of like five signs so we weren’t worried about it. We called our doctor’s office and were told to go in, at about 10am. By 9:30 p.m. we had a healthy 8 lb. 9 oz. baby girl! We were in love with that little blob of joy!

We planned everything except having money, and my job didn’t have paternity leave, so I had to go right back to work. We did have a support system in place though; tons of friends helped us out and we created a schedule so my wife wasn’t at home alone all day with our daughter. When I got home I would help any way I could. (10 hour shifts, doubles; restaurant work sucks when you’re trying to be a new parent.) I was aware of everything – except my wife’s sleeping pattern.

We were parents for two weeks, we couldn’t have been happier, we were so in love, but my wife was not sleeping and was slipping into a delirious stage. One night we were getting into bed and my wife started voicing concerns about how a baby should be sleeping 4 hours at a time and why does she still wake up at 1-2 hours still… I tried to calm her down and tell her babies are all different we need to embrace this and try to sleep while she sleeps.

After about 20 minutes of my wife tossing and turning she got up and just started screaming at me and saying that she was going to kill me and our daughter. I somehow got into two places at once because I stayed in between her, the baby, and the kitchen. After a couple hits to my face I was able to subdue her and call 911.

The next day I called work and told them I wouldn’t be in for awhile. I followed that up with a call to my mother-in-law. She hoped on a flight the next morning, with my mom. My next call was to my wife’s boss who was more like a father to her. Everyone was supportive, having the two mothers there we were able to come up with a plan to have extensive care for my wife and our baby girl, this meant moving us all back to Wisconsin.

My wife was in a mental health ward for a month, our baby girl was in Wisconsin, and I was alone in our new apartment; packing, closing accounts, and back to full-time work to help pay for this move. When she got out she was not the same: timid, sad, and ‘cloudy.’ She had no recollection of what she had done nor where she had been. We had my mother-in-law come down with the baby after her release so they could reconnect. So new plan my wife would not have to get up at night someone else would feed the baby mother-in-law or sister-in-law or me…. Just someone else, and she only had to focus on herself at night. (Especially with the meds she was on.)

That was nearly 8 years ago. Since then we bought a house, I have a 9-to-5 job (actually more like 6-to-3 but I get to see my family more) and we had a second child. After our first experience, we were prepared, and we had a doctor that my wife loved and felt safe enough around to tell her about our past experience so that we got ahead of any more changes.

If there are any other fathers out there, whether you have faced anything similar, more severe, less severe, or even had an easy time, we are all the same! We are fathers and husbands. We would all die for our families! We would all love to not work and just raise our kids and have fun. The only thing we can do is love ourselves, love our families, and expect that nothing is the same as anyone else.

Our differences make us special.”

– Curtis Fristed

Want to share a story about fatherhood? Email [email protected]

Check out the previous editions of Father Figures here.

Sometimes the best news you can hear about a potential reboot is that there won’t be one.

For some of us, that’s the case with the beloved Back to the Future franchise. Despite living in the golden age of reboots and remakes and adaptations and all that, and despite star Christopher Lloyd’s hopes for a reboot, or an animated crossover, the idea of a new Back to the Future doesn’t sit well with everyone.

Thankfully, one of those people is the franchise’s producer, Bob Gale.

In an interview with BBC News, Gale addressed the rampant speculation that Doc and Marty might make a return, either in a fourth installment of the time-travel series, or in a fresh entry that resets it all. He was pretty adamant in his refusal of that idea.

“You know, you don’t sell your kids into prostitution. It was the wrong thing to do. We put ‘The End’ at the end of part three… Plus Michael J. Fox isn’t in the shape to do a movie, and nobody wants to see Marty McFly having Parkinson’s disease, and nobody wants to see another actor playing Marty McFly if it’s supposed to be a continuation,” Gale said.

He ain’t wrong. You definitely don’t sell your kids into prostitution. He’s right about nobody wanting to see a different Marty McFly either. Similar sentiments were expressed by director Robert Zemeckis a few years ago.

“As I’m sure you all know, Michael J. Fox is not in the best of shape with his Parkinson’s. The idea of making another Back to the Future movie without Michael J. Fox, you know, that’s like saying ‘I’m going to cook you a steak dinner and I’m going to hold the beef.’ You can’t do that,” he said.

So you’re gonna have to stick with the original trilogy to get your Back to the Future fix. But if you are really dying for an update, you can watch the recent DeepFake video featuring Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr. as Marty and Doc. That’s probably the closest we’re gonna get, if Gale, and director Robert Zemeckis, have their way.

Mail carriers. One of dog’s most longstanding rivalries, third only to fireworks and vacuum cleaners. Understandably so. Your dog senses that inconvenience of a jury summons, the indignation of an electricity bill. Intermediaries of such lament must be dealt with.

It’s an antagonism as old as the profession itself. Until now. Meet Moose, the dog undermining you learned from cartoons.

Each morning, Moose sits patiently in the driveway and anticipates the mailman.

Oh no, you must be thinking. This dog’s gonna bite the mailman’s ass, and the mailman’s gonna sprint away with the dog dangling from his ass, and maybe some envelopes are flying out of the mailbag. Think again. Forget everything you’ve learned from clipart, because this dog actually loves the mailman.

In one Instagram post, Moose’s owner Meghan Gruszynski states that the mailman recently lost his own dog. If dogs truly are capable of sensing grief, the videos of budding friendship certainly lend credence to that claim.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Everyday 💛 we found out our mailman lost his dog recently. Their love for each other makes my heart so happy. Happy Friday friends 🥰 . . . #goldenretriever #goldenretrieverofinstagram #mooseandthemailman

A post shared by MOOSE (@the.life.of.moose) on Jan 31, 2020 at 3:31pm PST

Gruszynski has found the mutual affection nothing short of heartwarming. “He’s our mailman ’til he retires,” she said in a recent interview. with The Dodo. “It should be fun watching their love.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

My best friend, Mr. Mailman 💌 . . . . #mooseandthemailman #goldenretriever #pawsup #goldenretrieversofinstagram #bestfriends #love

A post shared by MOOSE (@the.life.of.moose) on Feb 20, 2020 at 8:50am PST

We congratulate the dog and mailman on rejecting generations of bad blood to become pals. Let’s hope this sets precedent for the normalization of more unlikely companionships. Looking at you, cat and mouse.