Monthly Archives: August 2011

August 30, 2011

Game Time: Tackling The Past

By Brad

P&G and Wal-Mart are gearing up to launch the latest Family Movie Night film Game Time: Tackling the Past which premieres September 3 at 8/7c on NBC.

As a movie fan [and a sports fan] I can honestly say even before viewing the movie that I usually avoid these TV movies on network TV aimed for “family.” Usually they are sappy, cliched and more-or-less melodramatic. Which is fine but not my cup of tea. But while watching Game Time: Tackling the Past I was never bored, or annoyed while I was watching it. However, I was never that excited to watch it either. Really, that’s the trouble with these TV Family Night movies is they are aimed for a wide audience and have to cater to as many people as possible. It’s educational in the way that they are parables and instruct, in a entertaining way, decent and upright morals that each and every one of us should know and live by. This is what to expect in a Family Night TV movie. So why do so many fail? Well, most times its the subject matter/plot or could be the stiff acting or poor production quality. Game Time: Tackling the Past does NONE of these truly wrong.

Game Time is the story of Jake Walker, a pro football tight-end who, despite a knee ailment is nearing his career high and close to breaking a receiving record. He also is in the middle of a contract-renewal with his franchise team. When we first meet Jake he is cocky and self-assured and gives the impression he is playing for that record rather than his team. However, he also seems like a nice and cordial gentleman. In the midst of the contract negotiations he receives a call from his family that his high school football coach father [Beau Bridges] suffered a major heart attack. Jake’s brother, Dean, is the assistant coach of the same high school that their father coaches at as well as their Alma Mater.

Jake, being the pro-football star, has left their small town 15 years earlier and is somewhat estranged with his family. We see in small vague flashbacks that there has been some hard feelings or strong words expressed between both Dean and their father to Jake. However, Jake races home to be with his family in their moment of crisis. Jake’s agent fully understands his trouble but urges him to come home ASAP because of his impending contract renewal. While home Jake reconnects with an old high school sweetheart, Sarah, who is divorced and Jake bonds well with her young son, Sean. While waiting for his dad to recover and his contract renewal he meets his old high school’s current team now coached by Dean, while his father reluctantly retires due to the heart condition. Meanwhile, he utilizes the school’s gym and weight-lifting equipment, which happen to be the same old equipment he used as a student there. His mother, played very well by Catherine Hicks from Seventh Heaven, holds his family together in this crisis. She is also the guiding light to Jake in how the bad blood between his brother and father could be solved and cleared.

It turns out that Jake’s contract was not renewed after all by his team due to his knee issue and is forced to find a new team or a new career. Dean extends an invitation to his brother to be Offensive Coordinator/assistant coach for the high school team which Jake turns down. With the help of Sarah, who also teaches dance at the same school, Jake gives the football team a dance routine to aid them in coordination and poise to be better football players. This is the cliched sports training montage of the film and it’s a good excuse to show it’s lighter side as well as a chance for an inspirational pop song. Eventually, Jake does become coach, his dad gets better and the bad blood between everyone goes away. The big first game of the season is coming up and Jake gets the word that another team wants to sign him for a two-year contract. Just before the big game, Jake says goodbye to everyone but Sarah’s son, Sean, who races on his bike to say goodbye to Jake. Jake then realizes that his life is better off now in his old town with Sarah, Sean and his own family coaching high school football to continue the good outstanding legacy of his father. He turns down the professional contract because with his weak and troubled knee he would never be able to give that team 100% and would only coast by in conquest of his record.

A great aspect about this movie is that you don’t have to be a fan of football to enjoy it. They never get into technical stuff that could potentially confuse the audience. However if you like football it’s not dumbed-down either. All the characters are likeable and the only antagonist in the whole film is Dr. Tate, Sarah’s dad, who keeps hounding the Walker family to acquire ringers from neighboring towns to boost the teams odds of winning, mainly because other teams are doing it. Not much of a villain but almost every time you see Dr. Tate he is pushy or complaining about the state of the team. Even though Jake is shown to be arrogant and selfish, it turns out his good family values never went away as you continually see him doing the right thing or even greater deeds not expected from selfish people. In one segment Jake, buys the high school a whole new room of weigh equipment, not just because he needed better equipment himself while he waited at home but because he truly wanted to help the team. He is also racked with guilt about his brother’s leg injury from when they played high school football. Turns out the hard feelings with Jake and his dad was from this incident in which Jake, for his own glory, dismissed his father’s play and called his own which left his brother with a leg injury which halted Dean’s future football career. Dean however has no ill feelings for this incident as being a family man and a football coach is what truly makes him happy. In fact he pities Jake’s career as he sees it as selfish and not up to their father’s standard or values. In other words, he’s only playing football for himself and his record, not for the team.

Playing for the team is the main moral in this movie and I cannot disagree with this at all. As a father now myself I want to teach my kids that teamwork and selflessness are very important virtues to have and live by. Whether it’s your family, friends or football team, they need you as much as you need them and everyone strives when you give it your all to them. In one scene, Dean scolds Jake for telling the football team that playing for yourself is just as important if not more-so than the team. However a good thing to point out is this movie doesn’t ram this point home every 15 minutes like some TV movies have in the past. Using football [or any team sport] to get this point across is not uncommon but barely used effectively as seen in Game Time.

The acting in Game Time could have been worse. It’s not going to win any awards but for a TV-made movie it’s not abrasive either. Acting veterans like Beau Bridges and Catherine Hicks give the film the lift it needs. However the romantic subplot couldn’t be more cliched. It’s the usual boy-leaves-home, boy-returns-home, boy-reconnects-with-old-sweetheart routine and I could see what was going to unfold between them on autopilot. However kudos to the filmmakers who made her a divorcee AND had Sean out of wedlock in a very moralistic TV movie. That, I did not expect.

Like I stated earlier, Game Time: Tackling the Past wasn’t bad but neither was it great. It teetered on the fence of bringing anything new to the film world yet it was decently done enough to entertain in a very enlightened way for an American family watching it together. The mere fact that I never rolled my eyes or groaned at the screen is no small feat. I have literally turned off hundreds of movies simply because they are “unwatchable.” As a father I can honestly say I wouldn’t mind watching Game Time with my family.

So if you want a decently done and moralistic movie to watch with your family I urge you to see Game Time: Tackling the Past premiering Saturday, September 3 on NBC at 8pm ET/7pm CT.

http://www.familymovienight.com/game-time-tackling-the-past/

https://www.facebook.com/familymovienight

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

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August 29, 2011

Dad Central Consulting

By Brad

I’d like to let my faithful readers know that Poppa Penguin is now a member of Dad Central Consulting www.dadcentralconsulting.com and will on occasion test and review products and blog about my experiences. This is great in a myriad of ways as a parent and as a parental consumer. More importantly it’s great as a blogger because my blog can and will most likely garner new readers and also gives me the chance to try new products and give my two cents on them to those who read my blog. Plus it sometimes rewards my reviews with a little spending money so I can spoil myself for a change and not just my daughter.

So I look very forward to being a member of Dad Central Consulting and being able to give my honest opinions on things other than simply use my blog to rant and rave about the ups-and-downs of being a SAHD. I feel more professional now being a blogger and even though I may be rewarded from time-to-time it’s allowing me to express my opinion on merchandise or media is a part of why I started this blog in the first place—informing other SAHDs and parents-alike on what I learn and learn along in my journey.

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August 15, 2011

Filling the Void

By Brad

As a Post Script to my previous post, I’d like to give a ton of credit and admiration to my loving Mother and Step-Father, who not only filled the void left by my dead-beat father but made me happy, healthy and made sure I had a good life. My mom is a very strong and moral person who made sure me and my brother were not affected so negatively by the divorce and nurtured us, practically by herself, for many years. I owe all that I am to my wonderful mom. I am a great parent by her lead and example of what a great and loving parent should be. I cannot thank her enough for all that she endured and persevered through emotionally and that through her strength we came out better than OK.

And much love and thanks also for my Step-Father who I also learned that, you don’t have to be related to be a great parent. I also lead by his example of what a good and moral parent should and should not be. He may not have the same genes as me but I am proud and honored to be called his Son. I cannot imagine my life without him and his support. He has been by our side longer than my biological father has and is my one, true father.

I love them both very dearly and I take pride knowing they have a wonderful son who became a great husband and father himself.

1 Comment | posted in Advice, Daddy blog, Emotions

August 15, 2011

My Father Is Dead and I Shed Not A Tear

By Brad

This past weekend, my estranged father passed away. I have not spoken to him in over 15 years. My brother and I in sound mind and wisdom disowned him. We were fed up with the bad behavior, the lack of love and affection as well as attention and we felt in our heart that he had given up on us so we gave him essentially what he wanted and that was free from his responsibilities and ties to us and our mother. I was a high school graduate so I really knew what I was doing at the time plus some teen angst mixed in I’m sure. But after the divorce he kept moving farther and farther away making it harder [or easier] for all involved to stay better in touch. He stopped calling us as much and the holiday and birthday cards/gifts were either months late or not received at all. In other words he gave up on us. I never regretted that letter nor looked back at that fateful decision that should be a very sad and hard decision to make but even as I learned of his demise on Saturday evening I felt nothing. Couldn’t even think of a positive memory shared with the man. I went on enjoying my evening with a good friend and watched movies and drank some beers. On my late night car drive home that same evening I tried in vain to feel sad or sorry or even hate or anger but none were to be found.

I tried to feel something because quite frankly the man who gave me life is gone for good and still nothing came. My mother’s first husband and Maddie’s grandfather is never going to be seen again and still no emotion. After two more days and spending time with my wife and daughter and my brother and mother yesterday I still feel nothing. I’m not ashamed to say I don’t feel an ounce of sadness because for 15 years he has been but a memory for me; he was already essentially dead. However, I still felt a ghost of him lurking in the shadows of my life and the possibility of him contacting me was slim but it was still feasible to still see him. Well that ghost is gone now. I’ll never talk to him again nor will be know my wife and his beautiful grand-daughter. He died utterly alone and that was his choice.

I’ve been thinking about my father a lot in these past 2 years since I’ve become a father myself. He was the inspiration [or lack thereof] for fatherhood I needed to be EXACTLY the opposite the man, husband and father he was. He abused and ruined not only his life but his family’s as well. A very bright man who not only fell from grace but stayed there for good and is now the greatest failure I will ever be unlucky enough to know. My daughter is MY LIFE now. No question or doubt. My sole motivation in life is to make sure she is happy, healthy and lives a great life. Even if she hates me I will make sure she lives a great life. My father didn’t give two shits when we wrote that letter to him. He asked me if I wrote it and stood by it and told me [TOLD ME!] he loved me and that he’ll always be there for me. But, Hey, at least I can remember vividly the last words my father told me. At least for his sake it was sweet albeit completely hollow. If Maddie wrote me a letter telling me to never bother with her again, I don’t care what continent I was on I’ll be on the first flight back to her. Of course I plan on never being too far from her ever in her life anyway to get to a letter. My esteem is high enough not to feel that my father left us because we didn’t make him proud or even make him happy. He was just never cut out or equipped to be a father. Maybe too selfish to fully give all of himself to his children but he made a ton of mistakes and we as his sons were willing to live with some of those mistakes to still call him Dad but then he made even more and worse mistakes. And now he left a very poor, miserable and lonely corpse.

As a father now I just can’t fathom treating my family the way he did. The boozing, drugs and womanizing really fucked up his life to ways I can’t believe I once called him Dad. It was sad and tragic when I was growing up but as a proud father now myself It’s downright deplorable and embarrassing that a very smart adult could treat himself and his loving family in such a destructive way. Now I’m not unique going through this life experience. Which is the sadder and more tragic aspect of this article. Many many fathers are, in a word, dead-beats to their families and it’s such a sin.

My father’s father, one of the greatest men I ever knew, told my father after the divorce “You messed up with your wife, Don’t ever mess up with your children.” Sound and wise advice I have to agree with 110%.

Sadly he didn’t heed that advice and that’s why I have zero advice from my old man. Who, at the young age of 62, is now dead with only his brothers as his next-of-kin.

However, the lesson he gave me to NEVER BE LIKE HIM, speaks volumes to my ears.

N.A.B. 02/09/1949–08/13/2011

1 Comment | posted in Advice, Child raising, Daddy blog, Emotions

August 1, 2011

Two Terrific Years

By Brad

This past weekend marked the two-year anniversary of the end of my wife’s maternity leave and the beginning of my emotional and most rewarding journey as Stay-At-Home Daddy to my precious Madeleine. I cannot stress enough how grateful and honored I am to be with her every single waking minute and watching her grow into a wonderful and very intelligent little girl.

But for this post I wanted to share some of the things I learned in these two years as a SAHD. Some quick little tips for the other SAHD’s out there.

1. Keep smiling. No matter how bad a day you may have or a bad week even, tomorrow will most likely be better. The laugh and smile of a child can erase the worse feelings.

2. Maintain composure. I will be the first to admit that this is the toughest for me with my bad temper but the guilt I feel after yelling or temporarily losing my sanity to a toddler outweighs the anger. Try not to feel so bad because your child’s love is just as great as yours and will soon forget the minor incident after his/her nap. But don’t think this is a good reason to lose control.

3. Always be prepared. I was going to write a whole post based on my SAHD Survival Bag. I’m still on the hunt for a nice MALE-style diaper/baby bag [I SHOULD INVENT ONE MYSELF RIGHT?] but for now I’m using [appropriately or ironically] my work messenger bag. Some of the essential items besides wipes and diapers are:
Bendy straws; I noticed most diners and restaurants only give kids’ drinks with straight straws and thus creating more mess and frustration for us and Maddie.
Napkins; Self explanatory but always needed.
Kleenex; See Napkins
Batteries; You never know and a toy that doesn’t run is like Hell for a toddler sometimes.
Roll of quarters; Does your kid love those dumb arcade rides outside stores and inside malls? Well not everyone takes dollars or has a change machine.
Crayons; I really started putting these in again for dining out. On two occasions the diners’ crayons were so old and dry they didn’t even write.
Burp cloth; For larger spills and heaven-forbid vomit.
Juice Boxes; Always a good idea, especially for the car.
Snacks; Again like Juice Boxes, in case they are extra whiny or stuck in the car for too long. I prefer Goldfish or Craisins.
Utensils; Not every place has decent plastic kind plus it’s always better to supply your own.
Fast Food/restaurant coupons; Not so much for them but for you in case you need a quick lunch or for the mall food courts.
Small First Aid Kit; Especially with band-aids!

4. Bring a towel. Ever go to the playground and forgot it rained a lot the day before and pools of water have collected at the bottom of every slide and on the swings? Good idea to keep a cheap towel in your vehicle.

5. Don’t give up. Kids could be more relentless and demanding then any crack addict on withdrawal. The more you as a parent give in the more the kids will take. Never let up and never worry about being the bad guy because they will learn and have to learn that no-one ever always gets what they want. This could go for sleeping as well. Yes the crying is heart-breaking but they need that nap or a good nights’ sleep. You give them that extra inch you will lose a foot. Believe me. Which also leads to…

7. Choose your battles! Not every little thing they want/need/whine for is important enough to us to fight them over. I learned that some things aren’t worth the aggravation as long as I feel that letting Mads have her way will not lead to worse behavior. I tell myself countless times “It’s OK she plays with [such-&-such], it’s not a big deal.” For instance Maddie used to go over to my bookshelf whenever she followed me to the office and would routinely pull out a dozen or so books just for fun and curiosity. I never let my tidiness get the better of me and would often let her b/c she’s not ripping the books up. Most times I would even leave the books on the floor for weeks until I felt the need to clean them up.

6. Mind your manners and watch your tongue. I’ve seen kids repeat the most innocent of phrases to the worst words imaginable. I’ve learned to bite my tongue, especially while driving and to cut out the cussing. I now use words like ‘poopy’, ‘bozo’, ‘creep’, and ‘imbecile’ more often than I used to. Also Maddie is very good at saying ‘please’ ‘thank you’ and ‘excuse me’ appropriately more and more as she’s learning to communicate and it’s not just because we force her to use those phrases but because we, too, use those phrases. Kids pick up on our behavior a lot so what you do and say has to be decent.

7. Have Fun! I know this is corny and sounds unnecessary to say but the more fun you have with your kids makes all the difference. I can’t imagine just sitting around the house simply watching Maddie do her thing alone. I seldom wake up unenthusiastic with my day with her. I wake up happy and looking forward to playing and laughing and learning with her. She is my life and she’s making it a happy one despite being home alone with a toddler and my career on hold. If I make her laugh it’s worth more than a weeks’ paycheck. I play with her toys and puzzles, watch her shows and movies countless times and beam when she tries and likes a new food. I marvel at the life I co-created and how patient, generous, smart, happy and loving she is, not just at me but our family and friends. It’s not always easy being a big kid at heart but my daughter makes me one more-so and for that I cannot thank her enough.

And it’s only getting better and better…

3 Comments   |  tags: | posted in Advice, Child raising, Daddy blog, SAHD, Stay at home Dad