Marriage and Parenting Skills and Tips | Become a Better Father and Husband with Husbandhood.net

Busy Dads - Build A Quality Relationship With Your Kids In Just Five Minutes A Night

Eric — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:58:36 +0000

Spend some quality time with your children when you put them to bed at night. Even if you don’t put them to bed you could still lie down with them in their beds and just schmooze. I have been doing this with my five year old son and seven year daughter for years now and its extremely rewarding. At night after putting them down to bed, I would cuddle with them for anywhere from five to twenty minutes. I don’t do this every night, only when I have time. The earlier they go to bed the more time I would have with them. Sometimes I would just fall asleep next to them for up to an hour. It’s a great way to get a nap in the evening.

Let them ask you anything or talk about anything they want. Make it like an “ask me anything” session where they can ask you about anything no matter how silly. This is a really great way for them to get to know you as their father. My son loves to ask me about all the toys I had when I was little. My daughter asked me about all the pets I used to have, “What type of dog did you have when you were little?”. You don’t have to talk about anything really. If you kids want to just cuddle with you then that’s just as great. It can really get to be fun when your son or daughter asks you about something when you were little and you happen to have photos of what you’re talking about. Just the other day my son asked me about a couple of toys I had when I was little. Remembering that I had pictures of me with the toys I ran downstairs to get my photo album. Its amazing how things or toys in the background of a picture become the main focus of the photo.

Do this every or almost every night for just five minutes (even two minutes is something) and you’ll see the difference that it will make in both your life and your kids.

First Aid & CPR Courses In Toronto

Eric — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:19:41 +0000

Here is some shameless promotion of new services I am providing in Toronto.

If you live in Toronto and you are interested in taking or required to take a first aid and CPR course then give me a shot. As many of you already know, I am a certified First Aid and CPR instructor and many of my posts on the topic have come from either what I have learned in my courses or from what I have experience first hand.

I offer the traditional CPR courses i.e. Adult, Infant, Child and Standard and Emergency First Aid courses as well. These courses include introduction and demonstration in using a defibrillator (AED aka shocking machine) All these courses provide certification through the Toronto EMS First Aid training program. The courses follow the newest 2005 CPR guidelines and certification is recognized by Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) and the International Liaison Committee On Resuscitation (ILCOR).

In addition, I offer customizable Infant and Child Emergency courses which cover hands on, what-you-need-to-know content in a short two hour session as opposed to taking a full blown 16 hour Standard First Aid course. These Infant/Child Emergency courses cover everything from Choking and CPR to bleeding and fractures. The only downside to this type of course is that due to the short time length you do not receive any certification from it. Most parents who I have provided such a course for preferred to learn everything they needed to know in two hours without certification than to sit through a eight to sixteen hour course.

WSIB is the governing agency that approves all First Aid Training programs in Toronto including Saint Johns Ambulance and Canadian Red Cross. Once an organization becomes approved by WSIB it can start providing courses in First Aid. In other words, in doesn’t matter if you became First Aid certified through Canadian Red Cross, Saint Johns, or Toronto EMS. If it’s a WSIB approved agency then your First Aid status is recognized across the board. As for CPR, agencies can either provide courses according to the guidelines established by ILCOR, or the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC – Canada’s equivalent to the American Heart Association), or both. The difference between being certified through ILCOR and HSFC depends on whether or not your place of work is a health care provider i.e. hospital, nursing home etc. Many of those places require you to have a HSFC approved certification by taking the Health Care Providers Course. However, if you need CPR training for general workplace requirements, or for such things as life guarding or babysitting, then an ILCOR recognized certification is adequate.

So if you live in Toronto and would like to know more about my services check out my new site at www.TorontoCPR.ca or just email me at torontocpr@gmail.com. You’ll notice a few familiar articles there.

Impress Your Wife With A Customized And Creative Mother’s Day Card

Eric — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:50:22 +0000

Last year I wrote a Mother’s Day post on ‘Creating a Sentimental Mothers Day or B-day Gift for Your Wife’ and after looking back at the post I realized how wordy it was. While the post was extremely informative (no subjectivity here) it could have been written without all the unnecessary info. This time I decided to get to the point without rambling on and on like I am doing right now.

So, if you want to get your wife or mother a card and you’re not sure what to do with it then this post is for you. Don’t expect your wife to be impressed with you if you get her some boring greeting card, even if it is funny, for Mother’s Day. Even if you already have something planned for her, this post will help add some more creativity to your gift giving.

Several years ago when I was a tad bit more creative than I am now I made this for my wife:

An edited 3D Mother’s Day card with the photos of the kids and me popping out.

What you’ll need:
- Greeting card - either from a store or homemade
- Separate photos of you and the kids cut out and trimmed down
- A few pipe cleaners
- Scissors
- Tape

I started by looking for the almost perfect greeting card that would let me do what I wanted with it. I say ‘almost’ because you most probably will need to edit the card a bit to make it look the way you want.

The card that I used above was intended to be given to a mother from a child. It said on the front “What could you want more for Mother’s Day?” and on the inside it read “You already got me!!” So I thought this card would be perfect if I just edit out the ‘me’ and replace it with ‘us’.

Then I got the cutest photos of me and the kids and trimmed them down as best as I could to the outlines of our bodies for a more ‘realistic’ look.

Yeah, I know I look dorky. Can we move on with the post here?

Next, I took pipe cleaners, shortened them a bit, wrapped them around my finger for the springy effect and attached them to the back of the photos with tape.

Now all thats left for you to do is write something meaningful (sorry can’t help you with that) and you’re done.

Placing the card in an envelope is especially important as it will conveniently hide the 3D effect until your wife takes it out. If you did everything right the photos should spring out and bounce around a bit when your wife opens it.

Remember, Mother’s Day is on Sunday May 11, 2008.