December 23, 2018
The end-of-year festivities and craziness are upon us! As with most of parenting, the magic and the stress are a package deal during the holidays.
In this episode, Patrick and John close out the year—and the first season of Just Winging It—with the latest stories, a reflection on the year, and a look ahead.
Thanks for, you know, putting us in your ears this year. From our just-winging-it families to yours: have a fantastic holiday and joyous new year.
December 16, 2018
'Tis the season to buy lots and lots more stuff. Gift-giving (and getting) can be another magical aspect of the holidays, especially for the kiddos. How do we keep consumerism at bay this time of year, and keep grounded in ye olde spirit of generosity and gratitude?
John and Patrick prep for holiday fun, strategize gifts, and think about how to add a dash of thankfulness to the festivities.
December 9, 2018
We're living at a time where more than half of families with children have two working parents—a shift from the days when it was typically expected that mothers would stay home. Yet even with today's increasing acceptance that either parent can bring home the bacon, so few dads choose to stay home.
Enter this episode's guest, Joe Ketner, who is about to transition from the workforce to the diaperforce. Joe talks to Patrick and John about what went into his decision and how he's planning to enter life as a stay-at-home Dad.
December 2, 2018
The concept of Santa Claus is just one of those things that's in the air during the holiday season; our kids will catch it one way or another. But the extent to which we indulge in the magic (lie!) of Santa and the way we work through the eventual unraveling is a parenting responsibility worth giving some thought.
John is about to enter this holiday season with a three-year-old who's only just starting to become aware of Santa Claus. Patrick helps him work through whether and how he'll go about it. Oh, and this article from PBS NewsHour helps too.
November 18, 2018
Hard to believe we're already breaking out the, "back in my day" phrase, but here we are. Young parents have been through dramatic changes in pop culture, technology, and life over the last few decades. Sometimes it's nice to pause and remember how damn cool the nineties were.
Patrick and John look out to their past from rocking chairs on the front porch as they dwell on the good ol' days. And then ponder what their kids will look back upon with nostalgia.
November 11, 2018
When you become a parent, time and its passing can quickly become an obsession. The whole notion of time, of memory, of aging surfaces constantly as that little being grows.
John and Patrick stumble into this episode's subject, looking at how they perceive time and how they can maintain a healthy relationship with it.
November 4, 2018
Maybe there's more to this whole identity thing after all. While our kids are the center of our world, how do we raise them to know they aren't the center of the world?
Patrick and John go deeper to explore a parent's role in cultivating moral character, this time with some guidance from the book 8 Keys to Old School Parenting for Modern-Day Families by Michael Mascolo. They talk through why their generation often gets labeled as entitled and how they can prioritize virtues that avoid that sort of behavior in their own kids.
October 28, 2018
Much of the time our focus as parents is on the now; helping our kids and ourselves navigate daily life. But we're also playing the long game, attempting to raise what we hope will become well-adjusted, self-sufficient human beings.
Who are our kids going to be when they grow up? How much of their identity is set and how much is being shaped?
John and Patrick think back to their (sometimes awkward) searching for themselves as they grew up, and talk about how they might help their kids form identities of their own.
October 21, 2018
This is Halloween! A day that doesn't come with the stresses of most holidays, Halloween becomes all the more fun to celebrate with kids.
Hang out with Patrick and John for a spooktacular conversation about festivities, costumes, and frights. And maybe something about how to Halloween with kids, too.
October 14, 2018
There's a moment in each of our lives where we first come to terms with the concept of death. The concept, like so many, carries even more weight now as a parent. How do we help our kids have a healthy understanding of the fact that we've all got an expiration date? And what are we going to tell them happens next?
Probably, these are questions we've got to work through ourselves first. Just another light, fluffy conversation as John and Patrick reflect on how their own understanding of death has been shaped over the years.
