Tackling Divorce with HBO's new comedy series

(Disclaimer: Our friends at HBO provided us with a copy of their show Divorce for a review and giveaway. All thoughts, opinions, and uncomfortable laughs are our own.) 

The topic of divorce is not one that seems like it is made for a comedy, but the new HBO series Divorce finds the right balance of humor and seriousness that makes it work. The series stars Sarah Jessica Parker, back on HBO after her long run as Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City, and Thomas Haden Church as a couple that has come to the end of their run after a hilarious incident at the birthday party of a close friend.

What Legacy of Loving Will I Leave for My Sons?

I have been to a couple of weddings in the past few months.  As one who has been married and divorced twice, I have felt myself wince each time when the couples have pledged to be together for life.

The wince registers on many levels I’m sure.  In part it registers an abiding sense of failure on my part, particularly with my second marriage.  I have two sons, now ages ten and twelve, from that marriage, and I share custody with their mother.  As I watch the boys go back and forth, with their own adaptive grace and resilience, I still think this is not the life I wanted for them and experience a sense of failure in not giving them the family life which I had hoped for them and which I worry, and sense, that they miss.

Love and Skateboarding: An Ollie at the Ends of the Earth

Photo by Tim Libretti

     

Our friend Dr. Tim Libretti had written another piece for his Fatherhood in Divorce series. For those of you that skateboard or have children that skateboard there is a lot more to it than riding a piece of wood with four wheels attached to them. 

Many years ago some Mennonite friends of mine invited me to their church for their baby daughter’s dedication ceremony.  While I cannot really speak to the finer points of Mennonite ritual, the ceremony, it might be fair to say, was the Mennonite version of a baptism, though no water was involved. 

The child received a blessing, and the parents, among perhaps other promises, confirmed themselves in their commitment to follow their daughter, in the words of the pastor, to “the ends of earth” in helping her fulfill her mission on this planet, whatever it turned out to be.

Our Children’s Happiness, a Parent’s Happiness: A Two-Way Street

 I’ve heard it told that what can be most damaging to a child’s healthy development are a parent’s unfulfilled dreams.  These words have hovered in my mind insistently over the past year as I’ve had to make many monumental , or what felt like monumental , life decisions while in the midst of a protracted and currently unresolved divorce.  Friends who have lent me their ears and wisdom while witnessing me struggle through tortured decision-making processes repeatedly reminded me that my sons don’t just need a father in their lives; they need a happy father in their lives.  Of course, as you can imagine, I have also heard quite a bit that the children need to come first, which I believe.

Nurturing Manhood in my Sons

   

When we started Fandads five years ago, we had a somewhat of a vision of what we wanted to do. We wanted to share how two "fanboys" grew up into "fandads" and how they passed down their geekiness to their kids. As in life, things do not always go as planned. We veered away from that path here and there, but we always tried to get back on course. There are a few heartfelt posts on here  hidden among the reviews, giveaways and geeky news that we share with you. Click the Dadlife tab to read some of these. 

At Dad 2.0 I realized that we never really established a voice for the blog and that is something that we are going to try to do. While we are a site about having fun and doing geeky things with our kids, we have to face the reality of life and how it is not always so sunny.