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Few things make a dad more proud than building something himself that, otherwise, would have cost him an arm and a leg at the store. Of course, when it comes to serious recreation/friggin’ ninja gear, maybe seek some outside advice.
Don’t get me wrong; the mechanics appear to be top notch. It’s the foresight and execution that need a little work.
Oh well. At least you saved those few extra bucks, right?
Brooklyn dad Lance Vining and his 4-year-old son, Zach, were walking to school on a brisk December morning when Zach noticed a lone glove abandoned on the sidewalk.
“Daddy, what happens to the gloves that are just left on the sidewalk?” Zach asked, clearly concerned.
“Well, nothing happens to them,” Lance responded. “Because you can’t do anything with a single glove.”
This answer simply wasn’t satisfactory for Zach, who was “crestfallen,” according to Lance. So, instead of accepting his own answer, Lance decided to actually do something about it.
With a few posters and a laminator, the duo created the “Lonely Gloves Club,” a network of neighborhood ‘lost & found’ locations made specifically for neglected gloves.
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Zach and I having fun trying to be good neighbors. #lonelygloveclub #windsorterrace
Locals immediately began to take notice.
“As we were putting up the signs, people were commenting, ‘Oh, that’s a good idea,’ which was kind of awesome,” Lance told New York News 4. Realizing additional steps could be taken to reunite folks with their lost gloves, Lance even launched an Instagram page to promote new arrivals to the club.
The campaign has gained some followers—both online and off—with people requesting signs to start their own Lonely Gloves Club in their local neighborhoods. Lance and Zach have sent posters to California, England, the Netherlands, and a number of places in between.
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Zach mailing off another poster! This one for the second time. #notenoughstamps
It’s hard to track just how many people have been reunited with gloves due to the club’s efforts, but Lance says he and Zach “see new gloves appearing and other gloves disappearing, so it seems to be working.”
Currently, there is only one documented glove recovery story on Instagram, but the heavy use of hashtags and exclamation points emphasizes just how special the find was.
“It’s really rewarding to think that such a small, little idea that was supposed to just be for our neighborhood is being so well-received by other places in the world,” Lance said.
“I guess it’s kind of a universal thing that everybody goes through every winter — we’ve all lost and seen gloves on the side of the road.”
Working as a creative director in Manhattan, Lance has loved the opportunity to participate in a project with his son.
“This is the kind of thing I do for big brands all the time, so it’s a bit of an insight into my world for him,” he said. “I wanted to show him that if you see a problem, you can solve it. You don’t have to wait for somebody else to solve it.
Gloves, hats, mitts, boots, snow pants, jackets and the dreaded snow day. These are just a few of the hardships people who parent in cold climates have to endure.
Here are the funniest tweets about winters…with children.
The weather is finally cold enough to require gloves & hats, because frantically searching for the lost shoe before school was just too easy.
— Stephanie Ortiz (@Six_Pack_Mom) November 7, 2018
A snow day on a Monday is the ultimate parental kick in the crotch.
— Valerie (@ValeeGrrl) December 12, 2016
Snow day, from the Latin meaning, to drink all the booze and eat all the foods.
— Simon Holland (@simoncholland) January 22, 2016
Hour 2 of this snow day and I’m prepared to go full-on Iditarod to get my kids to school tomorrow if necessary.
— SpacedMom (@copymama) January 4, 2018
20 minutes getting them ready.
5 minutes outside.
20 minutes getting them back inside.
15 minutes hot chocolate.1 hour down, 8 to go.
— Lady E (@cakevans) February 14, 2016
Make your child angry today by trying to protect them from hypothermia.
— Kim Bongiorno (@LetMeStart) April 2, 2018
It’s so cold, my kids are willingly wearing their coats outside.
— Abe Yospe (@Cheeseboy22) January 4, 2018
Remind your kids to take a coat to school so the inside of their backpacks can be toasty warm all day while they freeze to death at recess.
— Domestic Goddess (@DomesticGoddss) November 7, 2017
Winter budget when you have young kids:
$100 – snowsuit
$65 – boots
$40 – hats & scarves
$25 – thermal leggings
$1,579,325,753 – mittens— Carbosly (@Carbosly) January 15, 2017
My 1 year old is insisting to put on her own snow-pants so we should be ready to go outside in about July.
— Brian Hope (@Brianhopecomedy) January 26, 2013
[building a snowman with my kids]
Me: Ok, who wants to put the arms in?
Kids: *went inside 2 hours ago to play video games*— Kalvin (@KalvinMacleod) February 2, 2015
“Look, a giant snowball!” is kid code for “We got bored halfway through our snowman.”
— Myrrh (@ixix82) December 14, 2017
Me: [pulls photo from wallet]
Stranger: Adorable. Are these your kids making snow angels?
Me: No. They’re playing in flour they spilled.
— The ParentNormal (@ParentNormal) April 22, 2016
Short film Alike highlights an all too common theme in parenting but in a fun, whimsical way. It opens with a father loading up his son’s backpack with an unreasonable number of textbooks. The son, seen joyfully running around the house, is instantly anchored to the ground when his dad straps it around his tiny shoulders.
Acclimating to the bag’s immense weight, the boy happily wobbles out of frame. His father grabs an equally heavy work briefcase and follows suit out the door.
On their walk to work/school, the boy spots a violin player in the center of town and is instantly captivated by the performance. Surrounded by grey buildings, grey cars, and grey pedestrians, the boy, father, and violinist appear to be the only things in color.
Despite his son’s obvious enchantment with the musician, the father reminds his son of their responsibilities, slips the backpack full of books back on his son, and leads him back into the drab, colorless environment of the city. Clearly, this severe lack of color isn’t a simple design choice.
After a quick embrace, the father departs from his son’s school and heads to a dead end, soul-crushing job. Surrounded by menial tasks, the color literally drains out of him. Watching the clock with dull grey eyes, he counts the minutes until he’s free to leave, his color only returning when he’s with his jubilant son once again.
The son, however, retains his color initially—daydreaming about the violinist and the way the music made him feel, but he’s told day after day that his passions are not appropriate. As time wears on, his color also begins to dwindle and he’s forced to leave his interests behind to conform to the other students.
In a behind the scenes video, the film’s co-director Daniel Martinez Lara explains how fatherhood means constantly asking ourselves what the best things are for our children at any given moment. We try our best and don’t always get it right. This film doesn’t answer that question per se but acts as a reflection of that process.
This is the reason the father and son characters are playfully known to the film crew as “Copi” and “Paste.” We often consider our children to be miniature extensions of ourselves rather than unique individuals with dreams, desires, and personalities. Alike begins with Copi dragging Paste through the motions of what he believes life should be. It isn’t until he listens and acknowledges his son’s passions as legitimate that a genuine connection is established once again.
Parenting can often be viewed as a long list of “shoulds” and “musts,” but it’s also an opportunity to see your children for what they are: amazing people. So, while we have a responsibility to teach and guide our kids, so they don’t become garbage human beings when they grow up, it can also be important to stop and just let them listen to the music every once in a while. You never know what you might learn as a result.
D’oh! In whole year we’ve been doing Dad Grades, we’ve neglected to offer analysis for one of the most iconic, influential, beloved dads in the history of pop culture: Homer J. Simpson. Let’s jump right into it.
By the end of any episode surrounding him and his kids, Homer Simpson has revealed himself to be, deep down, a caring and devoted father. Jumping the Springfield Gorge on skateboard to earn Bart’s respect.
Working two jobs to afford Lisa’s dream pony.
And as far as Maggie goes, who could forget this tug at the heartstrings?
Wow. Okay. Where to begin. Chokes his son, for starters.
We know this is the same unrealistic cartoon violence they themselves satirize by way of Itchy & Scratchy, but we’d be remiss to omit that piece of information from this very serious analysis. Yikes.
Look at this.
That’s a mace.
Don’t worry. All uphill from here. Drinks excessively, can’t forget that one. Again, fully aware cartoons operate within their own system of both physics and ethics, so we’re good on smug comments condemning the actions of Wile E. Coyote or whatever. You knew this damn well this Dad Grade had to happen at some point.
Kept Bart out of school for some time to start a business that amounted to stealing and reselling grease. Multiple crimes in that sentence.
Oh yeah, DANGEROUSLY stupid. Jumped over Springfield Gorge on a skateboard Did we include that as a strength? Yeah, that was a dumb thing for him to do. I mean, a DRAWBRIDGE closed on his head one time.
Just an unprecedented level of ineptitude, really. A horrible example to set for your kids. We here at The Dad do not take such reckless abandon lightly.
You know what? Let’s just stop with drawbridge on head. Doing a deep-dive on the paternal competency of Homer Simpson is like watching footage of hot dogs being made. Trust us, best to just throw some relish on that bad boy and enjoy it for what it is.
Over the past year, we at Dad Grades have offered analyses on countless TV and movie dads, all the while priding ourselves on doing so with both accountability and fairness. We aim for complete objectivity throughout every one of these super serious evaluations that should be taken seriously. We do not like what we’re about to do any more than you do. It is with a heavy heart that we give our very first…
Check out our previous edition when we graded Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor!
Parenting is a tough gig. We’re all doing the best we can, trudging through, mostly happy to survive another day without blowing it too badly.
Then we run across some parents who are doing more than merely surviving, they’re crushing it on every level, and making us look like amateurs. Like the Cincinnati dad who built an igloo for his kids, complete with wheelchair access. Nine kids. All of whom have special needs. All of whom they’ve adopted.
If I had nine kids, I wouldn’t have the energy to get out of bed, let alone build an igloo, let alone add a ramp to the igloo! Gregg Eichhorn is a superhero, and so is his wife Katie.
“We adopt all medical and special needs kids because seems like those are the kids where they have the hardest time finding homes for them,” Eichhorn told CBS.
His oldest, 19-year-old Zahara, was adopted from Uganda. She is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, but she had no problem rolling into the enormous snow fort her dad built with his sister. She couldn’t wait to get in there.
“Her face lit up – she gets super excited,” Eichhorn said of Zahara’s reaction when she saw the igloo. “I think she felt like a movie star.”
He wasn’t the only one! Elijah, Zahara’s brother, also uses a wheelchair, was excited about the igloo. All nine of the Eichhorn kids were.
“They’re all loving it. They think it’s really neat,” Superdad said.
Obviously. Who wouldn’t want a badass igloo like that in their yard!
Reddit agrees. One of Gregg’s friends posted about the igloo on Reddit and it immediately took off, garnering over 70,000 upvotes and nearly 1000 comments as people shared their admiration for the dad, and for his handiwork.
Eichhorn is happy for the extra attention his viral post is bringing to special needs children who need homes.
“I think it’s really important that all kids with medical and special needs that are orphans have people to step up and provide them with homes.”
If you reach a certain age and aren’t in a relationship, parents simply can’t accept it. In their eyes, you are their little prince or princess and anyone would be damn lucky to be with you.
So, bless their hearts, they do their best to help you out with setting up blind dates and plan, planning social events, or just incessant prodding about their need for grandchildren.
One particular dad from Portland, Oregon went above and beyond, however, when he placed an ad for not one, but all three of his sons in a New Zealand newspaper while they were there on vacation.
“Hello Parents. We are from the States (Oregon), visiting your beautiful country. My wife and I have three wonderful, successful, handsome, alas unmarried, sons between the ages of 28-32,” the ad in the NZ Herald read.
“We are not expecting, just hoping, to introduce our sons to nice NZ daughters. At the very least we’ll embarrass our sons and the truth is, we do find some enjoyment in that.”
Neil, the proactive father, said the ad immediately received over 200 replies and he was doing his best to sort through them all since his sons still had no idea any of it was happening.
“I’m somewhat surprised that I have got quite a lot of responses,” he said.
“It is hard to tell how many are genuine. A few are maybe just scammers but for the most part, people are really amazingly nice in your country.”
Neil’s sons—Matthew, Jeremy, and Benjamin—range from ages 26 to 31 and all have steady jobs in the Pacific Northwest region. According to their dad, though, their dating lives haven’t really been a serious focus for any of them.
“I know one of my sons uses these dating sites and is always going on introductory dates and meeting somebody, but he hasn’t had a serious relationship in quite a while,” Neil told the newspaper.
“I decided to help. I have no idea what will happen, but at least we will be able to meet some people.”
Neil says he’s still deciding when and how to tell his sons about the ad, probably waiting until they are actually on the flight to New Zealand or casually slipping it in while they disembark.
“I might say, ‘Oh, by the way, I did place a little ad for you guys’,” he chuckled.
“I am sure they will be surprised and annoyed, but I am sure they will laugh. We have a good relationship and are always joking with each other. They know I am a little unusual in that regard.”
As it turns out the brothers were all good sports about it. In total the ad sparked more than 600 responses and even resulted in a few dates.
“Between my brothers and I, we went on a few one-on-one dates,” Benjamin told the Daily Mail.
“[New Zealand women] are very intelligent, kind, friendly people. We love their accents. They were a lot of fun, everyone we met seemed nice.
“I think we will continue to stay in touch with the people we met. We really want to come back – it was a beautiful country.”
“We were 10 months into marriage as 23-year-olds, new to NYC. Jake was in grad school at Columbia while we were getting used to living in our 400 sq. ft. studio in Washington Heights. His mechanical engineering midterms were coming up, so I made some freezer meals and went to CA to visit my family while he studied and took tests.
Two days into my trip home, we got a call from an old friend to adopt her sweet baby girl.
While my saying yes was immediate, I of course knew I should probably consult my husband! So I called him, around midnight his time, and asked him if we could keep her! (This is possibly what caused him to go grey at 25?)
He replied, “What? Is that allowed? Of course! We have to do the right thing,” and watching him meet her a week later was the most special experience. It was an unconventional and unexpected way to enter into parenting, but he is absolutely crushing the dad game and it’s as if the dad jokes started immediately.
It’s like something releases in the brain once you’re wildly in love with your kids. He’s holding off on the white leather New Balances for now, but causes our daughter, Stella Grace, to light up with his imaginative play and jumping on the trampoline.
He even said it’d be okay to have a few more kids, and he just bought me a minivan, so I assume that means he wants to max it out! I’m thankful for the father he is!”
– Monique Coleman
Want to share a story about fatherhood? Email fatherfigures@thedad.com
Cody Lutz of Petersberg, KY enjoyed the recent snowfall in the “Bluegrass State” by constructing a giant 9-foot-tall snowman with his fiancee and soon-to-be sister-in-law.
Lutz commented in a Facebook post that his fiancee’s sister was “elated to experience the biggest snowfall she’s ever seen.”
Using a giant tree stump as a foundation for “Frosty,” this giant snow fellow was about as sturdy as they come. So much so, in fact, that he survived a head-on collision with a would-be vandal’s car.
When Lutz cam home later that day, he noticed tire tracks leading up to the snowman from the road. Clearly, some motorist out there had vehicular snowmanslaughter on the mind but underestimated all the junk in Frosty’s trunk.
The snowman looks a little worse for wear with the tree stump in its base now exposed, but the snowy imprint of the bumper definitely adds some flair.
“You reap what you sow,” Lutz said. “Still standing and still smiling, Frosty certainly had the last laugh!”
