My wife and I are fortunate to have grandparents fairly close by who adore our kids and are eager to help with babysitting. They do a great job and we trust them enough to be leaving our kids with them later this year while my wife and I head to Hawaii (our first real full-week vacation in 14 years - and without the kids too).

We also have a few gals from our church network of friends who we use occasionally. Recently we even received a letter of recommendation from the local YMCA, certifying that our next door neighbor's 13-year old daughter had passed their babysitter training and certification program. I was pretty impressed that she had taken the program and learned some valuable child care skills, including CPR and basic first aid.

This might be something worth looking into if your child is 13 years or older. It might also be a great way for them to earn some extra money over the summer months while school is out.

I know that not all of you have convenient babysitting options available however. I've spoken with several other dads (and moms) at work who don't have family in the area, or who don't know of any friends with children who are old enough to babysit.

One mom I talked with said she and her husband hadn't been on a kid-less date in SEVEN years! That's most likely on the far extreme, but it made me wonder what we would do if we were in their shoes.

Speaking of babysitting options, I recently found out about a national babysitting service called SitterCity. They're a babysitting match-making service with literally hundreds of thousands of sitters nationwide. They do full background checks with a four-step screening process for applicants. I was also impressed that SitterCity recently partnered with PETCO to provide babysitters who can also watch your pets - not a bad idea if you ask me, and it gives SitterCity even more credibility.

Dads, if you're reading this I'd love to hear from you. Would you be comfortable using a service like SitterCity to get a night out with your wife?

They seem trustworthy, and there's a link on their site where you can read ratings and testimonials from people who have used their services. Here's one that stood out to me:

I have lived in Fairfield County for two years and have been unable to find a babysitter. I learned of your site in Kiplinger's magazine. I logged in, posted a job and had eight replies within a day. I interviewed one candidate and hired her for a job that very day. She was great. My kids really liked her and my husband and I can have a life again! Thank you so much for a wonderful service.
-Catherine L., Trumbull, CT

Check out their web site when you get a chance; I'd like to know what you think.

And if you already have a trusted babysitting source, but it's been a while since you've planned a date with your wife, then consider this your wake up call!

This morning in the shower my 8-year-old daughter knocks on the shower door with a pack of multiplication flash cards in her hand. "Daddy, remember you said you'd help me with these today?"

We ran out of time last night during bedtime tuck-ins and I had promised her we'd do it today (although I wasn't planning on doing it first thing in the morning). But there she was begging me to do flash cards first thing in the morning, just like that lady on the Mervyn's commercials "OPEN, OPEN, OPEN".

Keep in mind that school has been out for two weeks now, and this was completely her own initiative. Her enthusiasm made me smile, and I just couldn't refuse cruising through a stack of flash cards after finishing my shower. She was so excited about the whole thing, and it really made me happy too!

But wait, there's more. Next, my 6-year-old son comes in as I'm ironing my work clothes and says "Dad, remember how we used to do that wrap up thing with the towel?"

"Oh, you mean 'Sack of Potatoes'?" I asked? "Go get a towel and we'll do Sack of Potatoes!"

'Sack of Potatoes' is where he puts his hands down to his side and I wrap him up with a towel. I hoist him up onto my shoulders like a sack of potatoes, toss him on the bed, and then yank hard on the end of the towel - lifting him off the bed a few inches and rolling him over a couple of times in mid air. My kids absolutely love this kind of torture!

I had a grin on my face the entire drive in to work this morning. Can you blame me?

Yesterday was my birthday and in our house the birthday boy/girl gets to choose the day's activities. I chose a day trip to Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast.

First we stopped at McDonald's for Egg McMuffins and Sausage McMuffins with egg (my favorite), and then headed out to the beach. The weather was a perfect 75 sunny degrees, and the water was actually warm in one particular stretch of coast line.

The beach wasn't very busy even though it was a weekend day, and we found a great spot in the sand to lay out a couple blankets. My wife took some pictures of the kids playing in the water, and I took them out into the surf so they could jump incoming waves.

After a while we all came back to the blankets to rest and drink some water. The kids started digging in the sand near the blanket, while my wife and I relaxed in the warm breeze and the sound of the crashing waves.

This picture perfect moment lasted for all of about 3 minutes. My daughter was upwind and decided to stand up and shake out her sandals, which sent about a half cup of sand right in my face. The other two kids started arguing and fighting over the sand toys, which escalated into a shouting match. In the span of about 15 seconds we went from dreamy bliss to complete chaos!

"Welcome to parenthood" I told myself, reminding myself that this is just normal family life with typical (though unacceptable) behavior for 6 to 10 year old kids. I wouldn't trade it for anything though!

Aside from the sand that I inhaled, it was shaping up to be an almost perfect day - until the very end on the way home, when I saw something I wish I hadn't.

We were about half way home when I started feeling very drowsy, so we pulled over to a gas station off Hwy 26 to get a drink of water from the cooler in the back of the truck. As I pulled over and got out of the truck, I heard another dad (probably drunk or high on something) completely losing his temper with his 5-year-old son, yelling and swearing up a storm at him.

He had reached down and grabbed his son's shoulders with both hands and was yelling "It's absolutely F***ing ridiculous that we have to stop every 30 minutes so you can go to the bathroom"! His wife finally convinced him to let the boy use the facilities, but the man continued to yell "Absolutely F***ing ridiculous!" a few more times while their 5-year-old scurried over to find the bathroom all by himself.

I still wonder what he would have done to that boy if we hadn't of pulled into the same parking lot just then. I made eye contact with the man at one point but didn't say anything to him - I've been in those kinds of situations before and I know he wasn't open to hearing any advice or judgment from me or anyone else. It would probably have escalated the situation even more if I had intervened, although I would definitely have jumped in if he started physically abusing his child.

As he yelled to his wife "I don't CARE if he's only 5 year's old!" I thought to myself - "you SHOULD care, you idiot!" After all, you're the parent... the adult... and it really DOES matter that the boy is only 5 year's old.

Sure, we've all been frustrated when our kids have to go to the bathroom for the 3rd time in the span of an hour (which always seems to happen right after leaving the restaurant, where there was a perfectly good restroom facility just waiting to be used... but no, they have to wait until everyone's packed into the car and we're back on the road)! Sure, that can be frustrating, along with getting sand in your face when they don't consider the affect of their actions, but it's NEVER an excuse for physical or verbal abuse.

We're responsible as parents and adults to take the higher road, exhibit patience, and often times to remind ourselves that the behavior is typical for their age. We're responsible to consider how our words and actions will make our kids feel about themselves too. Think how dejected that little boy must have felt to have his father speak and act like that towards him!

What do you think I should have done in this situation? Have you had a similar experience, and how did you handle it?

Summer vacation has started, and parents across the nation are scrambling to find entertaining activities to occupy their children.

It won't be long though before all of the movies will have been watched, all the parks and swimming pools visited, and boredom will start to settle in. Not that our job as parents is to keep our kids entertained, but planning meaningful activities throughout the week definitely helps reduce the amount of sibling bickering and fighting.

After the small fortune that my kids made recently picking cherries and selling them on our sidewalk, they were eager to spend their hard-earned profits. My folks gave one of my kids a Webkinz toy for her birthday a few weeks ago, and so my son wanted one as well.

My kids have fallen in love with Webkinz. They frequently come up and tell me what they did with their pet online, what they learned, what they bought, what they taught their pet. It's as close to really owning a pet that I have seen yet.

I have never been more impressed with a toy as much as I am with Webkinz by Ganz (even more than Nintendogs). They're little stuffed animals that each come with a unique ID that can be entered on webkinz.com to create a personalized and secure pet management account.

Your child can give his pet a name and do all kinds of fun activities that will do more than just entertain. Ganz claims that more than 2 million units have been sold to retailers and 1 million users have registered on the Webkinz site, where kids can create lively domiciles for the virtual versions of their animal, shop for pet paraphernalia, and chat with fellow Webkinz owners.

I asked my kids what they liked to do the most with their Webkinz, and here's what they said:

"I like to dress my pet."

"I like to play games with my pet, and she tells me when he gets tired and yawns so I know to let her rest for a while."

"I like to play games with my pet and win money and cool stuff for my pet's room."

As a dad, I love the interactivity they built into these pets, and the fun that they have with them online. But I also dig that they actually get tired after a while and you have to let them rest. That's like having a built-in timer feature, which helps ensure that your kids don't spend too much time in front of the computer screen.

I also like the online safety factor. The only way to communicate with another Webkinz owner, is if you already know someone with an account, which limits the prospect for interactions with new people. And more importantly, you're limited to pre-defined things that you can say to other Webkinz users. That way I don't have to worry about someone saying something inappropriate to my kids while they're playing online.

You'll probably find that Webkinz are already sold out at your local toy store, but you can still get them online. Amazon has a good selection of Webkinz, and they're also available at Jake's Dog House. In fact, here's a coupon for 15% off your Webkinz order from Jake's Dog House (just use code first15 during checkout).

I mentioned in my previous post that I'm not much of a sports guy, but I definitely want my kids to like sports - both son and daughters. One thing I did last year and a couple years before that was to coach my daughter's soccer teams. The first year I was the head coach and the second year I was the assistant coach.

I literally went on Google before hand to look up the rules of soccer, and to get some ideas for some drills to practice. I was that clueless. But we're talking 7-year olds here guys, and you can get away with just about anything at that age as long as you have a positive attitude and work hard to help the kids have a fun time.

The other thing I did last week was take my kids to Joe's to buy a bat, a few balls, and mits for everyone. I thought they'd be really excited about the new gear, but it was the baseball cards that drew all the excitement. And not just the gum inside. They divided the packs up evenly between them and read each player's stats; then they traded and did it all over again, and then they started fighting over who got which one... you get the picture. They had a new set of sports heroes and they were crazy about 'em!

With warm, sunny weather finally arriving here in Oregon, I decided to check off a few task items on my Honey-Do list (that list of things my wife has been nagging me to do with the house for months).

After knocking out some of the low-hanging fruit tasks, like buying moss killer for the lawn and taking my old grill to the dump, I got out the shovel and started digging out a path along the side of our house.

As soon as I started digging, my kids immediately materialized out of nowhere and asked if they could help. "Please dad, can we help dig the path?" In fact, 9 times out of 10 my kids want to help me with whatever project I'm working on - I've even had them ask if they can help me scoop dog poop out of the back yard! They just love to do things with their dad, and I'm sure your kids are the same way.

Projects are natural kid-magnets, and I think that instead of shooing our kids away, we should take advantage of the opportunity to connect, and turn the project into a memory builder!

I don't think my kids will ever reminisce about the paint job I did on the kitchen, or reflect fondly on the crafty job I did on our crown molding. But I guarantee they'll remember the path project that "we" did "together".

As a general rule of thumb in our house, we allow our kids 2 hours of "screen time" a day. They can choose to use their screen time for TV, computer games, or GameBoy/Nintendo DS.

When they choose computer time, they have several online destinations that offer some amazing high-quality games starring their favorite TV, movie, and toy characters - all completely free. Here are a few of their favorites (side note: kids love to be interviewed about stuff like this):

hotwheels.com barbie.com nickjr.com disney.com hasbro.com

The games are great, and I'm thrilled with the price, but I'm a little concerned that they'll end up browsing to some less kid-friendly sites on the web while I'm not watching. They wouldn't do that intentionally (not yet anyway), but the possibility is there as they get older and learn to use the browser to explore other online sites like youtube or myspace.

It's impossible and impractical to monitor everything our kids do online (who has time to sit behind their kid for a half hour while they play on the computer??), so we also encourage them to check out games on CD from their school library, which they do. Still a great price (free), but they have to return them in a week or so.

I also recently learned about the Family Savings Outlet, where we can get popular game titles delivered on CD for a very affordable price ($4.95 each and just over a dollar for shipping). They have software for both fun and learning, with titles that are targetted to specific age groups.

It's nice that there are several options for screen time, but I think it's also important to encourage some regular board games - ya know, the kind where you actually sit down and play with each other, in person.

Our two favorite family games are Uno Spin and Zooreka. They're loved by everyone from our 5 year-old son to our 9 year-old daughter, and are fast paced enough to keep everyone's attention (even mine).

The real reason they love the games though is because it's a chance to hang out with dad (and mom too). For me it's a chance to turn off work and have fun with my kids, while helping them become better competitors - gracious when they win, and respectful to each other when they disagree with a play.

Which reminds me - it's been a while since we had a family game night. It's definitely time!

Our elementary school brought in an education expert last week to help parents like me get more involved with our kids learning, and I was hoping to come away with some hands-on tips for helping my kids with their homework.

His main point was that teachers empowered by parents are more effective than just teachers and parents working individually. He encouraged us to communicate with our teachers, ask questions, visit classes, and provide them with feedback.

I spoke with Bridgett's teacher and several other parents afterwards, and we all agreed that it would be helpful to have a website where information could be shared. Websites are "my thing" so I offered to set up a website with a blog so that her teacher could post announcements, assignments, etc. It will also give parents and students a chance to ask for clarification on assignments, or to discuss anything that's not clear.

My two daughters are ages 7 and 9, which is about the start of what I'll call the "Sleep Over Phase". Their friends invite them over to spend the night for birthday parties or fun occasions. In fact, both of my daughters are having sleep-overs tonight, one here at our house, and the other at a trusted friends house.

The first time is always the scariest, and for good reasons. You won't be there to protect your child overnight, and you certainly don't want anything permanently damaging to happen to your child.

Bottom line, no matter how awkward you may feel about saying no to one of your child's friend's parents, it's your JOB and responsibility to protect your child - and this is one area where it's definitely better to be safe than sorry!

We live about 10 blocks from our kid's elementary school - just a little too far too walk, but too close to use the bus. So we drive them in each day.

Last week I started taking on the delivery honors. Imagine 3 kids and me crammed into my Ford Ranger extended cab, with my laptop and their backpacks piled up between two kids in the back. They love it!

There's nothing like "riding in Dad's truck"

For me, it's a great time to talk with each of them briefly before their day starts off... ask them what they'll be doing in school today (music, PE, special reports, etc).

It's also a chance for me to be "crazy dad" for a few minutes and get them laughing their heads off.