June 26th, 2012 by Richard
by Richard
There’s that old saying about something being as smooth as a baby’s bottom. That means something is very smooth and soft. Not because it is wet and sticky and smelly. They’re talking post change, not pre change.
Anyway, baby skin is so smooth and soft because the only thing it’s been exposed to was a nice nutrient-packed bath for nine months or so, followed by pampering and suchlike.
As opposed to, say, older dudes who have done things to their skin, horrible things. Who here hasn’t made a long, sliding dive into gravel? Or on the asphalt? Or worked with lawn tools or just plain tools long enough that you start developing blisters? Yeah, I didn’t think I’d see any hands up with those questions.
However, one thing babys definitely have over us in the race for soft skin, is that theirs hasn’t been damaged by the sun for almost every day of every week of every month of every day of their lives.
It’s only relatively recently that people have begun to recognize the importance of protecting our skin from the sun’s Ultraviolet A and Ultraviolet B rays. UVA and UVB are what cause sunburn and blisters.
Fortunately, there is a better protection for our skin than sweating it out in long sleeves and long pants, or staying indoors with the curtains drawn all day. It’s called sunscreen.
We’re supposed to be using it every day, according to dermatologists. I’d love to, but I have a constitutional aversion to walking around all day feeling greasy.
Little dudes, on the other hand, don’t get much say in the matter. In addition to having delicate skin that really needs to be protected as much as possible. That’s where we come in.
You need to make sure you’ve added some good sunscreen to the little dude’s diaper bag before you go out. There’s two types of sunscreen, ones that block the sun’s rays from being absorbed and ones that destroy the damaging rays after they’ve become absorbed. It’s those last kinds that are known to cause stinking. And, dude, believe me, you don’t want to be the one who puts the stinging kind of sunscreen onto a little dude’s face. That is not fun.
Try to find a sunscreen that is designed to physically block the sun’s damaging rays, one that will not sting and one that is intentionally formulated to be used on the face. It’s not that hard, but we’ll leave that as an exercise for the student to complete.
While you do need to make sure you cover your little dude’s face well with the sunscreen, you don’t have to trowel it on. Just get a good, even coat. Try to apply it every day, especially during the summer. Just as important, try and keep the little dudette out of the most powerful sun’s rays, between 10 am and 4 pm. That’s a bad time for soft, fragile skin to be out and about.
After all, we want that skin to stay smooth and soft for as long as possible.
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June 25th, 2012 by Richard
by Richard
There’s first-world problems, like complaining that the airport in which you’re about to catch a cheap flight to the islands doesn’t have enough plugs to charge your iPod for the flight. And then there’s these dudes.
There’s a movement under way among dads in America that’s changing what you see on TV.
Across the country, more and more are fed up — and rising up against the stereotype of the inept, clueless father.
“We’re not the Peter Griffin or the Homer Simpson that we’re often portrayed as,” said Kevin Metzger, who runs the Dadvocate blog.
In an article on CNN.com, Josh Levs talks about how seeing dumb dads on television or in ads or whatever kind of media is often the chief complaint most dads have. Really? The chief complaint? Nothing about lack of support for paternal rights in custody cases? Nothing about horrendous health care support by the government? Nothing about the appallingly high infant mortality rate in this country?
It’s dumb dads in the media? Wow. Just. . . wow.
David Holland, father of three, rails against “doofus dads” in ads. In his blog Blather. Wince. Repeat., he calls them “Madison Avenue’s go-to guy.”
During every commercial break, he says, he and his wife “try to see who can be the first one to spot the idiot husband or father.”
In a sign of their growing power, dads out to end the stereotype recently scored a knockout blow against a pair of TV ads.
A Huggies ad earlier this year said the company put its diapers “to the toughest test imaginable: dads, alone with their babies, in one house, for five days.”
Another Huggies add shows a bunch of dads with their young dudes watching a ball game. The dads ignore the babies for a long while and let the Huggies sop up all the problems.
These horribly offensive commercials were so horribly offensive that the dads had to protest and eventually got Huggies to take them off the air.
Dudes, really. Get a grip on reality.
This is gentle ribbing. This is not discrimination. What it is, really, is just sad.
I’ll admit, I’m probably the first one to say something snarky when the school administrator talks about how she loves “all you moms for coming out to volunteer.” Of course, I do it because it gets a laugh. Not because I feel offended.
I like that some people have a reduced amount of expectations for what dads can do. It makes the looks on their faces when I show up all the more priceless. These idiots on television? They’ve got nothing to do with me.
Bleating about this sort of thing is a waste of time and energy. There are far more important things we can get worked up about. Like the NBA playoff format and officiating. Now that needs to see some protests.
Grow a thicker skin. Get on with your lives. You’re already living life on the lowest difficulty setting. Take the ribbing and stop making the rest of us look like ungrateful whiners.
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