Take the time and read the rest of the story.

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By Ernest Hooper, Metro Columnist

Published Tuesday, July 22, 2008 10:08 PM

I don’t want to talk to my daughter about sex. Ever.

I just want to sit on the porch with a shotgun and chase the boys away.

But it’s not that simple for fathers, says Patrick Wanis, a Miami human behavior expert who has a doctorate in health psychology and hypnosis.

In 2006, teen pregnancies rose for the first time in 15 years, and Wanis states in bold terms that the increase can be blamed on absent fathers and fathers who fail to play an active role in bringing up their daughters.

Studies from researchers at the University of Arizona, University of Texas-Austin and Wake Forest University all indicate girls who have positive relationships with their fathers wait longer to have their first sexual encounter.

With an estimated 60 percent of U.S. girls spending at least part of their childhood without a father in the home, the need for dads is increasing. And divorce shouldn’t interfere with their role.

Wanis said fathers can help form daughters’ self-image, self-esteem and self-confidence, and teach them discipline, morals and values.

“Dads need to spend more time with their daughters, ask more questions, express sincere interest, listen attentively and openly express love and affection,” Wanis said.

As the father of a 6-year-old girl, I’m a few years away from this stage. But wow, I can’t believe I have to do all that. What about mom?

Rest of the story here….

Raising a toddler daughter is supposed to be every parent’s greatest delight. The reality is you survive the experience looking like Wiley E. Coyote after he fell off a cliff and the Roadrunner just dropped a giant rock on his head.

Toddler‐hood, or better known to many as the ‘terrible two’s,’ is complete with every growing emotion from naughtiness to the use of new words in the funniest situations. And similar to other children, my daughter is developing her language skills by leaps and bounds, often trying out multiple new words at the same time. Thus she’s learning to be part of the bigger world and to live with people around her.

One of those sources unfortunately is the common television. It’s now a regular occurrence that I am unable to sleep in any day of the week, including the weekend. My daughter has a schedule programmed into her now that at 6:45 am she wants a bottle of milk. Then she climbs out of bed, drags her miniature couch chair in front of our bedroom TV, plunks down, and watches the Wiggles musical show. After that comes some cartoon of Higgly‐town wobblepeople, and if she’s lucky the Micky Mouse Fun House show.

“MEESHKA MOOSHKA MINNI MOOTH,” She sings along every time.

And she get so engrossed in watching at times, that she forgets to blink and starts crying as her eyes starve for moisture. I literally have to stand in front of the TV and block her view to get my daughter to blink and re‐moisten her eyes.

“DADDY! MOOOVE!”

But the most noticeable thing about my daughter getting older is her temper tantrums. Like most children her age, she comes complete with an ear‐shattering crying that she can fake on a moment’s notice. It’s at just the right pitch to annoy her parents, and probably shatter glass if it went through an amplifier. And she uses this talent frequently.

TV’s turned off? Scream.

She has to eat food she doesn’t like? Scream.

Her baby sister takes her favorite toy? Scream.

Even the family cats are acting a bit neurotic now with all the high‐pitched octaves trading spaces throughout the rooms and the house. My daughter even managed to scare one of my cats so bad with an unexpected scream the poor feline fell out of his cat stand unexpectedly and got hurt. It wasn’t a graceful fall either.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel from all the eardrum shattering coming soon?    I hope so.

But then I have to remind myself, I still have my daughter’s baby sister growing into her own toddler years as soon my older one leaves them. So I’m probably looking at another three years of hearing loss before I can get back to being normal. That will be just enough time to then shift to a cardiac arrest as my girls get older and more creative in how to torture their old man.

Who would have not jumped in to protect their daughter seeing her confronted by two older guys?  

Being out manned 8-1 afterwards what could he have done? (The parks has a no concealed firearms policy).

If you saw one guy trying to defend himself would you jump in and help?

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By Scott Seroka, KARE 11 News

Six men remain in the Scott County jail following what police call a brutal assault on a father trying to protect his daughter.

Shakopee police say as the crowd was leaving Valleyfair Amusement Park around midnight on the 4th of July, the victim’s daughter was confronted by two men.

“The 12-year-old daughter was either touched or slapped in the buttocks area,” Scott County Attorney Patrick Ciliberto said. “The father confronted (the men) by yelling at them for what they had done to his daughter,” he added.

Police say the two men called their friends, who were also in the park. The group of seven men and a juvenile then confronted the father.

“They beat him to the ground and then, the evidence that we have, when he was on the ground, they used their feet on him. They were kicking him in the face when he was down,” Ciliberto said.

Rest of the story here…

Video is here…

What a story!

Watch the video - then go visit the website:  http://www.teamhoyt.com/history.shtml

How can one person really make a lasting impact? 

How can one person create change when they themselves work a 9-5 job?

The story below is about a regular guy doing extraordinary things and changing a young girls life forever. 

A young girl that wasn’t his own daughter and he really didn’t know personally.

However, when it counted he stepped up to the plate.  He took a moment of his own precious time to make a few calls, send some emails and in the process changed a whole lot of peoples life forever.

Geoff Le - I salute you!

Question is:  How can YOU change a life today?  Baby steps count to…

From Fort Worth to Vietnam and back, a teen’s life is forever changed thanks to an e-mail

by Bud Kennedy

This is a story about a Star-Telegram reader.

It’s also a story about newspapers today, and how somebody at a computer in Fort Worth can change the life of a 15-year-old girl in a Vietnamese village.

Rest of the story here….

This thing about women never forgetting ANYTHING starts very, very young.

Men have the opposite gene: that which requires them to only remember the important stuff.

For example, let’s say “the guy” mentions that a few summers ago, the weather never got too hot. And to this, “the woman” would respond with, “Well, I remember when you couldn’t get the lawnmower started, the temperature was 72 and there was a light breeze blowing from the east. My tulips and daffodils had just bloomed. In fact, it was April 6^th, 2003.”

That really drives men crazy, this “non-selective” memory phenomenon, because it doesn’t allow men to argue their way out of a damned thing.

So my five-year-old daughter and I are discovering the wonders of the first ‘Dollar Store’ that we had ever been in. She had no concept of money, but she was drawn like a moth to the bright lights when she saw aisle after aisle of toys.

I, of course, couldn’t believe the food area! Speaking of food, my wife still remembers when I was so excited about this big display of canned chili that took up an entire aisle at Target. At sixty-nine cents a can, it was a deal I could not pass up. I drug her all the way over to the display just to have her tell me that the “awesome deal” wasn’t for chili, but rather for DOG food! It looked just like a can of chili to me, but it was pretty hard to argue my way out of the fact that the can had the words “Dog Food” written all over it. My wife’s conclusion is that men will eat anything if it’s in a can, and especially if there’s a picture of meat on it.

Ummmm…Let me get back to the “Dollar Store” adventure.

As my daughter sat in one of the toy aisles I decided to go over to the next aisle to check out the household goods. I pick up this pack of light bulbs and say to myself, “Wow, four for a dollar! I’ve been paying nearly three times that amount at the hardware store.” Just then one of the bulbs slips out of its corrugated wrapper, free falls, and promptly explodes on the floor.

My daughter is the first one on the scene and says, “Geez, I heard that all over the store! Why are you throwing light bulbs, Daddy?”

“Why don’t you just keep your voice down you little miniature person?” I thought.

Now, do I run away like the wind, or do I do the right thing in front of my daughter and go get someone to help me clean it up so that some other little kid won’t get hurt by the broken glass? Knowing full well I had a vocal witness on my hands, I go fetch the manager and tell him I’m sorry and that I’ll pay for the light bulb and clean it up, too. He just laughs and says that everyday someone breaks something in the store, but they usually don’t tell anyone. Momentarily, my daughter stands impressed that I actually ‘fessed up’ and I feel good that I took this golden opportunity to demonstrate good, ethical behavior.

But, without missing a beat, my daughter (with perfect womanly timing) asks me, in my weakened sheepish condition, “Daddy, since we are already at the ‘Dollar Store’ can I get this Barbie look-a-like doll?”

Now, what could I say? Of course she could have the doll, though I knew full well that it would not serve in any way as a hush-doll. My wife was sure to be told all about “Daddy and the Light Bulb,” before we even got our shoes off.

Moral: If you are stupid enough to try to remember the details of something bad that you did, just ask your daughter. However, she probably has already volunteered that information, many times, without you asking….mine has.

Let’s just take her on a 500 mile bike ride!

Story below:

ather, daughter on 500-mile bike ride

Kurt Guenther and his daughter Addie, 9, of Fernandina Beach departed Sunday on a 500-mile bicycle ride along the flood zone also known as the Wisconsin River.
One of their routes was across the levy for Lake Dalton, but it no longer exists due to recent floods, said Guenther in a press release. This was the lake that emptied in 1.5 hours after the levy broke earlier this month, sweeping houses into the river.

rest of the story is here….

Deployment across the globe brought Air Force Reserve Senior Master Sgt. Timothy Dale Wooten and his 16-year-old daughter, Chelsey, closer.

The family moved from Shreveport to Bossier City several years ago but she decided to stay at Byrd High, where she soon will be a junior and plays on the basketball team and takes part in track sports.

Her father drives her to school and supports as many of her activities as he can, and tons of family photos adorn the walls of their home in south Bossier City.

Rest of the story here…

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With the untimely passing of the extraordinary Tim Russert on Father’s Day weekend, I did what many others have been doing in the days since — I have been reading voraciously about him, his life and his family. Not coincidentally, it was his relationship with his father that has had me most enthralled.

My own dad came to stay with me for Father’s Day weekend. I don’t think I have spent 72 hours alone with my father in my entire life.

… rest of the story here at the LA Times

Rest In Peace
Johnathan Southworth Ritter
September 17,1948 - September 17,2003
We miss You!