Category: Family (Page 3 of 4)

A Father’s Ambitions, From a Dad-to-Be

September 1, 2014 / Patrick Padley / 4 Comments

Dear Son or Daughter–

As I count down the days to Fatherhood, I’ve been reflecting on the kind of dad I’d like to be and what it means to be a father. I know that I’ll figure out the “dad thing” as it comes, but this is meant to be a summary of my fatherly aspirations before you are born.

There are many places to find examples of fatherhood. While your mom prefers to read books about parenting or just talk to our friends who have kids, I find myself quietly observing other parents. I’m like a psychologist in a human zoo. (Yes, like the monkeys at the zoo)

I like to watch other dads in how they handle different situations. What happens when the child throws a tantrum? How does the dad play with his kids? I’ve found this a good way to also see what not to do, particularly when I see a father who lacks interest or responsibility in public. I will take these to heart and do my best.

Beyond watching random dads, I think it makes sense to look at my experience…

My first #realdadmoment (or should I say awkward dad moment)

July 19, 2014 / Patrick Padley / 0 Comments

I’m a tall guy–six foot foot five to be exact. I get into awkward situations because of my height. I call this “tall people problems” (aka #tallpeopleprobs). On a regular basis my wife points out how most of my tshirts look tiny on me and when I go to my in-laws house I feel Gandolph in the Hobbit.

Well, I sort of had my first awkward tall moment as a father while at a BBQ with a Catholic community group we are involved in.

Musings on Motherhood: Diaper Aisles Exist to Make You Cry

July 11, 2014 / Nicole Padley / 0 Comments

While some women may revel in the process of creating a baby registry, swooning over all the cute and little clothes, scanning every item that fits their fancy. I had quite a different experience. I started out hopeful walking into Buy Buy Baby that fateful afternoon with every expectation it was going to be one of the more enjoyable parts of this pregnancy. After all what isn’t great about creating a formalized list so the world will know what you want other people to buy you…because just straight up asking for stuff, well that would be rude. Little did I realize how much I had greatly underestimated the power of pregnancy hormones. Continue reading

Musings on Motherhood: Pregzilla Strikes!

June 9, 2014 / Nicole Padley / 3 Comments

It’s no secret that pregnancy has its ups and downs, yet when others describe their own journey toward parenthood the not so glamorous moments seem to be conveniently forgotten. I haven’t decided if this is some sort of inexplicable amnesia that mothers are blessed with post labor, or if people really are under the guise that pregnancy is just a magical time. News flash ladies…it ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Of course there is that one beautiful benefit at the end of nine months you get to cuddle up with and dress in cute clothes, but I’m not there yet. So in the meantime I figured I would humor you with some of my favorite humiliating and downright awkward musings on pregnancy and motherhood thus far. After all, everyone loves a little dose of self depreciating humor from time to time.

Man films one second each day of wifes pregnancy

Husband Creates a Time-laspe Video of Wife’s Pregnancy and the Result is Beautiful

September 9, 2013 / Patrick Padley / 0 Comments

Looking for a smile today? From Buzzfeed to Patheos, this video has been making the rounds on the Web. A Colorado man named Danny Pier, created a time-lapsed video of his wife’s pregnancy. On his Vimeo page Danny explains, “inspired by other second-a-day videos, my wife and I decided to capture 9 months of pregnancy with our first child.” The result is a collection of short moments, which culminates with the birth of their daughter, and it is incredibly heartwarming. Also, I totally want to be friends with them—seriously, ski trips, hiking, cool dogs, vacations and road trips all in a 9-month period of time? We need to hang out some time…

As a soon to be husband, I hope that one day I can honor my wife’s gift of motherhood in a similar way.

Natural Family Planning: What’s Your Model?

July 27, 2013 / Nicole Padley / 2 Comments

As Natural Family Planning week draws to a close, I feel it’s important to distinguish between a few of the methods available. Since Patrick and I are preparing for our wedding day, we decided that it is important for both of us to understand my fertility so that we can together make responsible parenting decisions.

NFP offers a few different methods available to those looking for an alternative to birth control. I’ve laid out a brief description of the methods I am personally familiar with; Creighton Model and Symto-Thermal. I am also aware of the Marquette Method, but since I have no personal experience with that method I will leave the description to its experts.

Creighton Model

Sample Creighton Model Chart

The Creighton Model Fertility Care System (CrMS.) was introduced by Dr. Thomas Hilgers and fittingly named after where his research is based in Omaha, Nebraska. This is not your grandmother’s rhythm method. It involves tracking a woman’s vaginal mucus every day, every time you use the bathroom. A women’s time of fertility is determined by the mucus’s color, stretchability, and sensation.

The advantages are numerous. It is effective for any women’s cycle; regular or not so regular. It is inexpensive, running around $40 each time I visit my practitioner. Initially, I was setting up appointments with her more regularly in order to learn this method. Now that I’ve had some practice, I usually schedule a visit once or twice a year just to check in with her. This is much cheaper than birth control, which depending on your insurance coverage can cost up to $50 a month. Yikes…I’d rather spend that money going out to dinner with my husband.

Another advantage to using this method is that it seems more and more doctors are becoming familiar with it. Therefore, they can offer advice on any potential concerns there might be. This method can help you both achieve and avoid pregnancy.

Sympto-Thermal Method

Sample Sympto-Thermal Chart

Sympto-Thermal is another popular method used. STM was first organized in 1971. It combines the cervical mucus observations as popularized by Dr. Billings, the basal body temperature observations noted in the 1930s by Rev. Wilhelm Hillebrand and adds the optional observation of cervical position. In charting these three primary signs of fertility, a couple can determine their fertile and infertile times.

A woman practicing the STM model takes her temp with a basal thermometer at the same time every morning before getting up and beginning her day. (I like this 3M thermometer because it is cheap and continues beeping at the end) Throughout the day, she tracks her mucus pattern similar to Creighton just not as in-depth. She and her husband then use signs from both her mucus pattern and temperature to determine which phase she is in; pre-peak, peak phase or post-peak and base their parenting decisions off of this knowledge.

Interested? Want to know more?

This is a very high-level overview of two of the most popular methods of Natural Family Planning. I realize there are other methods out there, but again since I’ve personally had no experience with them I leave it to others to explain. If you have questions, I recommend asking your local Catholic diocese or contacting one of the organizations below.

Do you use STM or the Creighton Model? What do you like about it? What do you hate? Tell us about it!

http://www.creightonmodel.com

http://ccli.org

www.nfpandme.com

iusenfp.com

Top social network sites for teens and what parents need to know

May 25, 2013 / Nicole Padley / 0 Comments

I’m not a parent yet, but being a middle school teacher supplies me unique insight into what’s trending particularly with young teens. You wouldn’t believe the things I see and hear in my classroom as the students interact with their peers. Students today face an immense amount of pressure to stay connected with their friends than ever before. While social media adds its benefits to life, put in irresponsible and immature hands can prove detrimental to a student’s emotional growth at the very least.

What’s Trending?

So, what are the top social network sites for teens? To understand where teens like to spend their virtual time nowadays, just watch them on their smartphones. Facebook is becoming irrelevant. Just the other day I took a spontaneous poll in class to discover which social media channel was used most by my 8th grade students. Here are the results:

Vine (60% of students) – A six second video app that allows users to share the video on other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Instagram (97% of students) – This app allows users to take pictures, apply digital filters and share them on a variety of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Snapchat (90% of students) – An app where users can take photos or record videos and send them to a select list of recipients. Users then set a time limit for how long recipients can view their photos (no longer than 10 seconds) after which the photo or video will be deleted from the recipient’s device and the company’s servers.
Texting (100% of students) – If you aren’t aware of what this is get out from under your rock!

So what’s the big deal?

The point isn’t just that times change… we all know that. Rather, it is crucial that parents are aware their children are facing more pressure to “fit in” now than you or I ever did simply because more of day to day life is being documented. Teens are evermore conscious of what they are or aren’t missing out on… adding a whole new spin to cyber-bullying. Aside from this point, teens possess a natural privy to what is trending and what isn’t. This makes it even more difficult for parents to protect their children from the dangers that can occur with the use social media. Teens are discovering, using and potentially abusing these new forms of communications long before parents and myself are even made aware of what they are. I mention this not to scare parents or discourage teens from using these kind of apps. Instead, I hope this post is educational for parents and inspires responsible use for young people.

What’s a Parent to do?

It is not enough to monitor your child’s Facebook or Twitter activity. There are countless other avenues in which teens can find themselves victims of cyber-bullying. For example, as explained above, the app Snapchat allows photos and videos to be sent and then automatically deleted. This is the opposite of Facebook: simple, seemingly secret, and fun. It doesn’t take the imagination very long to think up numerous ways a teenager could abuse an app like this. Parents, you need to immerse yourselves in their culture and discover what it is that your teens are truly using in terms of social media. Along with that, you need to educate your children on how to responsibly use these things. Below I’ve listed a few good resources to help you stay up to date and get the conversation with your teens started. Any other tips to share? Write us a comment below.