Parenthood

CornerstoneDad Podcast #10 – America The Beautiful, With It’s Hoodies and N-Words

Posted on by Cool Pappa

In this episode, I interview my oldest boy Kory Devon on the Trayvon Martin killing. We discuss some of the issues he faces being a young man not far from Trayvon’s age group, whether people should use the “n-word”, and if America can ever get past its problem with race. Parents, if you have a problem with your children hearing such a frank discussion about race, then parental discussion is certainly advised.

Just click HERE to listen to the show.

CornerstoneDad on True Riches With the Mission Men Radio Show: God’s Sovereignty (God is the Highest Authority)

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All rights reserved by Detroit Liger

Why do we have problems with the concept of God’s Sovereignty?
Is God really in control of all things? Does that mean even the bad things?
Why do bad things like rape happen to “good” people?
If God is in control of all things, should I use birth control?
We tackle some of these difficult questions right here (click link to show page to listen):

Washington Watch Exclusive: The Parents Of Slain Florida Teen Trayvon Martin Speak Out

Posted on by Cool Pappa

I will deal with this story and issue soon. In the meantime, I wanted to post this video from Washington Watch, as it knocks down all the stereotypes that I’m sure people are looking for. Many times people will say, “Well, I’m sure something happened to make that guy act that way” or “Maybe the kid was threatening to the man”.

What saddens me the most is that my son and I were just visiting the Orlando area exactly one month ago. I gave him more freedom while we were away than I normally would at home since his other siblings were not there. My heart rate increases when I ponder on the “what-ifs” like, “What if neighborhood watch would have been following him when he was making the one-mile walk to his cousin’s house?” “What if something would have happened when he was out playing football and on his way home just before dark?”

I think I would be thinking just like Trayvon Martin’s dad said in the above video, he would have been waiting on me to protect him, and I would not have been there.

My mentor Dr. Lyn Lewis used to say something to the affect that black men grow up knowing that they are one step from jail or dead, no matter who they are or what they do in life.

I’ll echo another saying she’d say, that’s some good Sociology right there, because this Trayvon Martin murder proves her point. Good kid, good parents, smart, athlete, but still dead like a L.A. gang member.

Lets keep the heat on this story before it gets swept away by more important things like what the Duchess of Cambridge is wearing or what Peyton Manning is doing.

Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

A Body Enslaved, But A Mind Set on Freedom: A Letter From A Former Slave To His “Master”

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In CornerstoneDad’s house, Black History Month is not in February, it is all year. There is never just a month that we watch “Martin Luther The King” videos (as we used to say in my elementary school), Eyes on the Prize or something on American slavery. Sorry, history is history and truth is truth, and those topics should not just be discussed by families with parents who descended from slaves but by ALL families and schools in America if they are truly teaching history.

So while I did not want to write anything on slavery (or MLK) this month, my wife sent me this article that desires attention. An enormous mind-map could be created from the words of this former slave.

I’d love to hear your thoughts as you read the letter that can be found here.

Parents of all people groups should share this tremendous letter with their children to (and the fact that it’s Black History Month is a good excuse if you’ve never tackled racial issues in your family before) give them insight into American slavery. It helps explain:

 

– Why descendants of slaves in America share the same last name as their slave owner. [Notice both are named Anderson?]

– American slavery’s hierarchy was NOT like biblical slavery and the slaves were not employees. [Notice that Jourdon Anderson speaks of the attempted murder on his life as if this was no big deal or common?]

– The importance that Jourdon Anderson placed on education as obviously, he was a very intelligent man himself. [So not all slaves couldn’t read, write or do arithmetic.]

– How Jourdon overcame the stigma placed on him and his family in the north as people knew they were former slaves.

– How descendants of slaves started on an uneven playing field as they left fleeing for their lives in some cases like Jourdon, they started from nothing in a new location WITH FAMILIES and were never, ever compensated fairly for the work they had done for most of their lives [after 30 years, shouldn’t Jourdon have been retiring by American standards?]

– The faith and knowledge Jourdon had that God was going to judge and was still in control as he wrote, “We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense” and later said, “Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.”

Galations 6:7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. – 

Ecclesiastes 12:14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Luke 12:4-5 Do not fear those who can kill the body and afterwards have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who after He has killed has authority to cast into Hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him.

1 Timothy 1:8-11 8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

(Don’t be mad at me, I didn’t say it, the Bible did…you know, we do claim to be a Christian country and all…right? “One nation, under God…”America…God shed his grace on thee…” and all those other things we learned in school…remember?)

There are many more points that could be brought up, but I’m going to ask that you chime in with a few from what you read.

To me, Joudon Anderson is a true American hero. While he will never have a county, school and other structures built in his honor like slave owners such as the Macomb’s in Michigan, he showed tremendous respect, dignity and wisdom in dealing with his former captor and deceiver.

…and you know, I have a feeling that if ole P.A. Anderson would have offered him the world financially, Mr. Jourdon Anderson still would not have returned “to his old master”.

That’s freedom to die for.

Terrell Owens vs. TO; You vs. Your Inner TO – Who Wins In The End?

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A friend of mine shot this story to me on TO, or Terrell Owens, or ah, I don’t know…

http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201201/terrell-owens-gq-jeremiah-trotter-told-me-not-apologize-donovan-mcnabb

I just know he’s the guy that dropped the classic line, “I love me some me!” and had the great pom-pom end zone celebration that seemed much less rehearsed than the weak Sharpie-in-the-sock celebration pulled in Seattle in 2002.

Yes, it’s been that long. Hard to believe, but the San Francisco 49ers finally eclipsed the success they had when TO was there this season, as he departed the team in 2003. Back in 1999, there was Terrell Owens, a receiver that looked like he could re-write the record books and quite honestly, he eased the pain of Jerry Rice leaving for 49er fans as his talent seemed limitless. He was in perfect shape, 6’3 220+lbs, with deep-speed where DB’s could hang with him from 0-40 yards but post-40, “bye-bye”.

But then TO was born.

Obviously TO had a lot of fun. The article states that the he earned over $80,000,000 (1). That number is not a typo. However, now Terrell Owens finds himself “broke” (dude’s apartment is still the size of my house plus he’s in L.A., and I have 6 people with me) after suffering a knee injury without a contract, at 38-years old, with big child-support payments. Turns out that TO made a ton of bad business investments and even blames agent Drew Rosenhaus for not protecting him. Over the years, TO has always blamed a lot of people for a lot of things. I just watch the ESPN-tabloid so I don’t know what’s true.

But who’s to blame for this four kids by different mothers? The article states,

Now he is in court with all four women, whom he lumps together like one big bloodsucking blob. None of them are being fair, he says: “They know I’m not working; they know the deal.” Although he never established regular visitation with any of the children through the courts, he says he sees the eldest three as much as he can when their mothers allow it. So bitter is his relationship with the mother of the youngest child, a son, that he has never met the boy. (1)

Now, before I continue on, you may ask, “Who am I to judge?” Well, I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to seek a child support reduction, have a tenuous relationship with my son’s mother and fight for visitation. I didn’t make $80 million dollars, I was making a few hundred dollars every two weeks, worried about the lights getting shut-off, and had to take out a zillion dollars in student loans just to go back to school and re-invent myself because I didn’t want my son working side-by-side with me when he turned 16 years old. So yes, I’ve been there TO.

But TO, you need to start fighting to see your kids, and not just “when their mothers allow it” and you need to find a way to be a dad to the youngest you are yet to meet.

Any other single-dad that’s reading this, let me tell you that you fight. You continue to fight. You never stop fighting. Amazing that a fool is willing to fight and kill over stepping on his Jordans, but will hide like a mouse from our own children. This is not because we don’t care, but because we’re scared.

Scared of confrontation.

Scared of our own emotions and how they make us vulnerable.

Scared of losing because we are not in control of the situation.

But you call yourself “Hard”?

How well do you fight your inner-TO?

I often hear Terrell Owens speak of his grandmother and the impact she had on his life. However, I’ve never heard him really talking about his father. Perhaps it was because he didn’t meet his dad until he was 11 years old (2). In a 2004 Sports Illustrated article, we discover,

“At age 11 Terrell developed a crush on a girl across the street and began sneaking over to flirt with her–until her father told him that he could not “be interested in her” because she was his half-sister. “It took me a while to understand that I was talking to my father,” Owens writes. When he asked his mother why she’d never told him that his father lived across the street, she said that “it wasn’t necessary to explain everything to me.”

TO asks for no sympathy because nothing in his experience has given him reason to expect any. But he is entitled to it just the same, and his critics who read this book might want to lay off him for a while. It’s not hard to understand why a man deprived of his father, deprived of his childhood, deprived of the words I love you, would develop a tendency to call attention to himself when he succeeds.”

 That was Terrell Owens talking right there. A man making himself vulnerable. But TO takes over when that same man, who knows what it’s like to grow up with a father so close yet so far, turns around and continues the same cycle with his children.

If a good man is hard to find, then the impact of a bad father is even harder to get rid of.

Just as Terrell’s dad was right across the street, TO’s image will be just as close for his children as daddy is just one ESPN click, internet page,  and reality show away from them.

For what it’s worth, and not because I’m a 49er fan, I think I’d like Terrell Owens if I met him in person and we hung out. He seems like a guy that I’d get along with and I’d certainly love to hit the steel with him. But it’s TO that I couldn’t roll with, and if the article is true, I don’t think Terrell even wants to roll with TO any longer. Therefore, I hope Terrell steps back up and becomes the man and the father he’s supposed to be to his kids.

Perhaps you’re a single dad or soon-to-be divorced dad and you’re having a hard time dealing with visitation. Don’t stop fighting to see them and having a relationship with your child(ren). It’s not about you and the mom any longer, so don’t let that relationship hinder you.

It’s not always easy, it’s not always fun, but when you look back and know that you fought for something worth for more than $80 million, then you have reason to celebrate like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPmOrcbq1fs&feature=related

Remember, you only have one shot at this, so do it right.

CSD

(1) Jeff Arnold, Terrell Owens In GQ: I’m In Hell, http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201201/terrell-owens-gq-jeremiah-trotter-told-me-not-apologize-donovan-mcnabb, January 2012

(2) Charles Hirshberg, Sympathy For The Showboat, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1113703/index.htm, 2004

CornerstoneDad Podcast #8 – Keep Sexual Predators From Your Kids By Keeping Watch

Posted on by Cool Pappa

 

In this latest episode, my wife and I have a chat about the sexual abuse stories coming out of Penn State and Syracuse Universities. The question is asked, “Where are the parents?”

Please join us as we have a frank discussion about keeping the kids away from predators and whether parents are leaving doorways open to allow predators easy access to their children. We also tackle the question, do parents even want their children around at home? “Go outside, go with your friends, go somewhere”, many of us say. But if we say “yes”, do our actions speak louder than words?

Please feel free to leave us comments or questions below or at Cornerstonedad@gmail.com. We would certainly like to hear your views on the subject matter.

Click link below to listen to podcast:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/cornerstonedad/Podcast_8_-_Keeping_Predators_Away.mp3


Once Again, And It’s Not Yet Black History Month! – Reason 453 for Why You May Want To Consider Homeschooling Your Kids

Posted on by Cool Pappa

Wow, another one of these assignments, so soon after the Georgia story? (See here: http://cornerstonedad.com/2012/01/10/parents-protest-at-school-over-slave-math-lesson-reason-344-for-why-you-may-want-to-consider-homeschooling-your-kids/)

What’s the workbook for teacher workshops these days, the Willie Lynch letter?

Some have rightly argued how could many African-American’s vote for Barack Obama just because he is of their same people group.

How about because many people are tired of the only thing African-Americans are known for is being a slave!

Maybe 30 years from now the assignment will be, “How did it feel to run for president and have people doubt whether you were even born in America?” Or, “Imagine being President and having other political colleagues disrespect you and the position in ways they have never done to any other before, treating you worse than one who was extremely promiscuous and of your same party?”

Well, at least in the report below, I see my high school’s slave auction doesn’t seem quite as bad now.

For those who may feel this isn’t that bad, perhaps you’re right. Maybe we as a society shouldn’t be so sensitive. Maybe next September 11, we can have some students pretend they are jumping out windows or pretend they are held by terrorists and about to get their head’s chopped off.

Yea, that’ll be cool.

Of course, we could always have our Jewish brothers and sisters pretend to starve, be infected with diseases, or how hot it would feel to be in an oven. I’m sure some kids in the class will be German so they can chip in as oppressors (or say they were just following orders).

Oh, that would be a real teaching moment for the kids.

And before you read the article below, please remember there’s no such thing as “biracial”. There aren’t two races of human beings. That’s a topic for another day.

CornerstoneDad’s, read over those school assignments!

Michigan mom slams son’s assignment on slavery

MELVINDALE, Mich. – Jessica Gibson says she won’t let her 11-year-old son complete a school assignment that she says took a lesson about slavery too far.

Gibson, 27, of Melvindale, Mich., said her sixth-grade son, Taylan, received the social studies assignment from a Strong Middle School teacher last month. But her son hid it from her, later telling her he didn’t want to do it. Gibson found out about it last week.

“He’s never had a master nor will he ever have a master, so why should he have to pretend to have a master?” Gibson said. “That really disturbed me.”

The written portion of the assignment asked students to answer five questions, which included describing what the slave area and the plantation area are like and what the owner and his family are like. It also asked students what kind of activities go on at their plantation, whether they have any friends or family at the plantation and whether anything extraordinary has happened in their lives as a slave.

A video portion of the assignment asked students to talk about the life they described in the journal, according to the assignment Gibson shared with the Free Press on Monday.

The teacher, Michelle Angileri, told the Free Press she wasn’t allowed to make any statement and directed a reporter to talk to the principal. The Free Press was unable to reach the principal or district superintendent Monday.

Taylan had been learning about slavery when he got the assignment. He said it embarrassed him.

“I’m black, and it was a slave assignment,” he said.

His mother, who is biracial, said she doesn’t think anyone should be required to complete the assignment, regardless of race.

“For him to pretend to be something he’s never been or never will be, that’s going too far,” she said.

Teaching slavery is a sensitive topic that has sparked controversy before. This month in Atlanta, teachers used slavery themes to teach math concepts, including questions such as: “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”

Last year, teachers in Virginia and Ohio held mock slave auctions in which they had white students auction off black students as part of lessons on the Civil War.

Gibson said she tried talking to school officials about her concerns, but didn’t receive a satisfactory solution and doesn’t want her son to get a zero for not completing the assignment.

“Find a different assignment for them to do,” she said.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-01-17/michigan-assignment-slavery/52610652/1

Parents protest at school over slave math lesson – Reason 344 for Why You May Want To Consider Homeschooling Your Kids

Posted on by Cool Pappa

You know, one day I’ll do a podcast or article on some of the racist things done at some of my schools when I was growing up.

The worst by far was the Slave-Trade that my high school put on to raise money by auctioning off athletes.

Oh wait, shout out to the NFL and NBA who still do that…

But you know, I can honestly say I’ve never had to take a test like this.

Beaver Ridge Elementary parents held a protest outside their Norcross school Tuesday after a lesson on Frederick Douglass prompted third-grade teachers to use slave beatings to teach math concepts.

One of the questions on the worksheet. A school spokesperson has said the questions were "poorly written."

Channel 2 Action NewsOne of the questions on the worksheet. A school spokesperson has said the questions were “poorly written.”

Another question on the worksheet. Several parents have complained about the assignment.

Another question on the worksheet. Several parents have complained about the assignment.

School officials said that the questions stemmed from an effort to incorporate history into math lessons.

Channel 2 Action NewsSchool officials said that the questions stemmed from an effort to incorporate history into math lessons.

The protest was held as some parents of third-graders who saw the homework assignment met with the school’s principal.

About 60 parents, community activists and church leaders assembled outside the school. A few carried signs that read: “Shame on them” and “The teachers need to be fired.” Some drivers passing by the demonstration honked to show support.

Parent Christopher Braxton, who complained to the district about the slave math questions, said his son’s class was being led by a substitute teacher for the second day in a row as the investigation into the incident continues.

Braxton said Beaver Ridge Principal Jose DeJesus would not elaborate on the status of the probe or his son’s teacher.

“They apologized for the situation and said they could not speak about it further until they finish the investigation,” Braxton said.

Four of the school’s third-grade classrooms received the assignment, which made references to slaves picking oranges and filling baskets with cotton. It also included the question: “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?”

This is the second time in two years race and ethnicity on a homework assignment sparked complaints at Gwinnett Schools. There was a similar incident in Cobb Schools last fall.

Last school year, third-graders at Gwinnett’s Chesney Elementary were given a reading homework packet that included a story titled “What Is an Illegal Alien?” The assignment, which was copied from the Internet by a new teacher, was not reviewed by the school’s subject area department chair before it was distributed. The math sheet created at Beaver Ridge also failed to undergo a content review, officials said. Under district policy, the worksheet should have been reviewed before being handed out to students, but that process was not followed.

In September, Cobb Schools came under fire for a similar incident, an assignment by a teacher at Campbell Middle School. Students were asked to write on the issue of dress codes and read a fictional two-page letter written by a 20-year-old Saudi Arabian woman. The character wrote approvingly of wearing the Islamic veil — and of her fiance’s multiple wives and the law of Sharia.

Gwinnett Schools human resources officials are investigating the Beaver Ridge incident to decide whether punitive action is necessary. District officials said they would work with math teachers to come up with more appropriate questions.

“These particular questions were an attempt at incorporating some of what students had been discussing in social studies with their math activity,” said Sloan Roach, Gwinnett Schools spokeswoman. “One teacher developed the questions, another made the copies and it was used in four classes.”

Ed DuBose, Georgia NAACP president, had a strong view: “The teachers, the staff responsible for allowing this to go forward should be fired.”

DuBose called off a press conference Tuesday and met with Gwinnett superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks.

One of the teachers involved in the incident is Hispanic, Braxton said. The district would not release the teachers’ names or races. All involved are being questioned about their role and are still employed with the district, Roach said.

School officials said the questions were not intended to be offensive and that copies of the assignment were being pulled so they wouldn’t be circulated.

Copy and paste the link to check out the video of the story:

http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/parents-protest-at-school-1296640.html

A Living Eulogy for My Mother

Posted on by Cool Pappa

Happy birthday to my mother! 

Today is a day that I remember how blessed I am in two special ways.

  1. Both of my parents are still alive
  2. Both of my parents are still married

As I get older, I appreciate both of those points more and more.

CornerstoneDad.com is about promoting fatherhood. But because it is my mother’s birthday, I have to touch on motherhood today. Too often, mother’s are honored while fathers are taken for granted, scolded, and ignored. Even the Intruders cracked on dad in the song below for no reason! But not around here though dads, here you are safe. But please allow me to give my mom her props right now.

Perhaps the smartest decision my dad ever made was choosing the right mother for his children. Everybody talks about being that “Proverbs 31 woman”, but my mother has truly been that woman in our household.

 Proverbs 31:10 An excellent wife who can find? 

   She is far more precious than jewels. 

11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, 

   and he will have no lack of gain. 

12 She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.

 Yea, my dad picked a winner.

 I remember my mom getting me toys from her job as a gift-wrapper at Hudson’s. I found a photo once, where she was one of the only black women in her corporate job back in the ’60’s.

My mom left the career behind to stay home and raise some kids. My dad didn’t make a ton of money, but they decided that her being home raising us was the best way to keep the streets from raising us instead.

Therefore, she was there when I took the bat outside to knock out Ricky Collins in elementary school. Yea, bullying isn’t a new phenomenon young readers. Instead of bombs, some of us had to handle it different ways. Mom kept me from getting in more trouble that day.

Mom would hold down my dad’s arm, to calm him down, as there were times he wanted to go knock out the truck drivers that called us niggas or other names on the CB on family vacations. “Okay, meet me at the rest area and say it in my face!” screamed dad. Mom would calmly but firmly say something like, “Please, let it go, lets just keep going…”. Mom kept daddy from getting into more trouble plenty of times too.

I guess that’s why I love Good Times so much as her and Florida sounded so much alike.

Mom told me about Jesus Christ at eight years old, and my life (and my family’s life) has never been the same since then.

Mom told me about Jesus Christ at eight years old, and my life (and my family’s life) has never been the same since then.

Mom taught me that taking two papers out the paper box was stealing, even if it was just sitting in there and my friend wanted to get one for the box scores also.

Mom almost died when I was around 13, and I’ll never forget the pain she was in as her “insides” fought like Ali vs. Frazier. The crying I heard still upsets me now.

Mom was at home when I called as my high school friends were getting blown out at parties and I didn’t want to join in because I knew the effects of alcohol, plus I was driving. She was my alibi for not joining in the “fun”.

Proverbs 31:27 – She looks well to the ways of her household 

   and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Mom wrote me a letter when she saw that after high school, the gravitational pull of the streets was too much for me, so she tried to pull me back.

It didn’t completely work.

So I’m sure mom wasn’t surprised when I told her I got a girl pregnant.

It was mom that was there when I saw my son for the first time, and no matter what kind of relationship I had with my son’s mother, it was my duty to be the best father I could be to him.

My mom never understood why white parents didn’t except her son, while she never mistreated or rejected any girl her boys brought home regardless of their skin color. Plus, knew that they treated women with respect because we always respected her.

Therefore, my Mom was at my wedding, when I was marrying a “white girl”…and to this day she loves her not because she has too, but because of the relationship she developed with my wife.

Proverbs 31:26 – She opens her mouth with wisdom, 

   and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. 

My Mom is a superb grandmother. The photo above is her telling them things that I never even heard about growing up, like her struggles in the segregated South. Tales about the old buses she had to ride in for school while the “white” schools got the nice new buses. Yea…so much for “Separate but Equal”. (see: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html)

 Proverbs 31:28 – Her children rise up and call her blessed; 

   her husband also, and he praises her: 

29 “Many women have done excellently, 

   but you surpass them all.” 

30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, 

   but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. 

31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, 

   and let her works praise her in the gates.

If you’ve read this far. Thank you.

I hope it made you think about all your mother has done and if she’s still alive, please let her know.

I write not to be sappy, but because I do not believe in giving dead people the flowers and praise at their funeral instead of while they are here on earth to smell the flowers and hear the praise.

Young men, be wise, and choose the right woman to be the mother of your children. Every woman you lay with has the potential to be the mother of your child and I’d bet that many of them, you would not want raising your children (shout-out to Evander Holyfield, Shawn Kemp, and Travis Henry – all athletes that forget that sex and reproduction are still linked despite our 21st century technologies).

Mom, you are blessed.

You have blessed me and my family.

I thank God that you can still be here to read this.

Without you, there would be no CornerstoneDad.

Without you, I don’t even no where I’d be today.

Thank you, and may God allow us to see many more birthdays together as there’s so much more work to be done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA17LOabVGs

Growing Up Without A Father

Posted on by Cool Pappa

Washington Watch with Roland Martin taped a couple of shows dealing with fatherhood. The meetings were hosted by T.D. Jakes  and while I may disagree with T.D. Jakes theologically, he makes many good points on fatherhood and parenting in general.

Some of the topics/questions covered are:

Are men to “sissified” in society?

Will a decrease in dad’s presence mean an increase in promiscuity for girls?

Can a woman teach a boy how to be a man?

If you don’t have any children, can you be a father-figure to someone who does not have a father in their life?

Give the show a watch and let us know what your thoughts are on the subject. If you have a story that you want to share, please share or email me at cornerstonedad@gmail.com as I’d love to hear from you.

Click on the link below to check out the show.

http://www.rolandsmartin.com/podcast/?powerpress_embed=1078-podcast&powerpress_player=html5video

Happy New Year – from CornerstoneDad

Posted on by Cool Pappa

Dads, have you made that New Year’s Resolution yet? Whether you have or have not, check out the tips at All-Pro Dad titled:

Our Classic 10 Ways to be an All Pro Dad  http://www.allprodad.com/top10/parenting/our-classic-10-ways-to-be-an-all-pro-dad/

You can find details at the link above, but here’s a peek at the list:

1.) Love your wife

2.) Spend time with your kids

3.) Be a role model

4.) Understand and enjoy your children

5.) Show affection

6.) Secure your family’s financial future

7.) Eat together as a family

8.) Discipline with a gentle spirit

9.) Pray and worship together

10.) Realize you are a father forever

If you have any other good ideas of goals for dad’s or would like to just share some that you have, let us know in the comments section!

Make 2012 the year you become the dad that you want to be and the year you help make your sons and daughters the men and women that they are to be.

CornerstoneDad’s Dinner Table Topic Of The Day: Kids Are Too Expensive

Posted on by Cool Pappa

According to costofwedding.com (http://www.costofwedding.com/):

“On average, US couples spend $26,542 for their wedding. However, the majority of couples spend between $19,907 and $33,178. This does not include cost for a honeymoon or engagement ring.”

According to the Huffingtonpost.com (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-helfend-meyer/second-marriage-for-bette_b_963383.html):

“While about 41 percent of first marriages end in divorce, the picture is even gloomier for second acts where 60 percent of those marriages fail.”

According to Voddie Baucham’s message titled, “What’s More Important Than A Wedding” (http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?sermonID=7241119264910); (http://www.gracefamilybaptist.net/voddie-baucham-ministries/):

“People will spend $30,000 on a wedding, but when you ask them about having children the first thing they will say is, “We can’t afford children.””

Seems like Americans are investing in the wrong area.

I wonder if those who attended those $30,000 weddings and complained about the dress, food, friends/relatives, etc., will take care of the couple when they get older as well.

Believe it or not, there was a time when people didn’t worry about whether they could afford children or not…even when they couldn’t afford much of anything else.