My wife took me to see Nancy Meyers’ new movie, “It’s Complicated,” which stars Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin. She had seen it a day or two before and wanted to see it with me saying, “It would be good for us.” Honestly, I do tend to like what is typically labeled “chick flicks” but don’t like director Nancy Meyers’ perfect world, perfect rich characters, perfect looking people, dressed and coifed just perfectly. But, for the sake of marital harmony, I agreed.
I didn’t expect what followed. Throughout the …

Do men really have good support for emotional issues, on a regular basis?
When a man reaches a certain age and he’s depressed, he’s struggling with his place in the world, he’s going through family problems or a divorce, or financial and job worries, etc., where can he turn? Add into the mix that he’s a single dad and has no immediate family around and you have my situation, a few years ago.
When my marriage first broke up, I was blessed to find a circle of men that supported and guided …

I know my column is from my personal perspective, and often about my personal life. Yet I feel this topic is more confessional than many others and affects me too often. I take things too personally.
Having this deficiency is truly toxic when you are raising kids or beginning a new marriage, both of which define my present state of affairs.
Let’s give some examples and see how many of you relate to them. Easy ones are when ShortRib (my wife) isn’t smiling, isn’t talking much, or doesn’t respond quickly to an …

What an interesting contemporary question: will our kids ever leave?
I left home at sixteen to go away to college and never returned, except for visits. I stayed close to my parents, and they did help me financially through college, though I worked every summer to supplement my education expenses and pay for my own spending. ShortRib (my wife) and I wonder when will our kids be independent enough to afford to leave?
The other day I talked with a mother who has two teenage daughters. One is graduating from high school …

The journey from child, to teen, to young adult to parent seems to have similar stops along the way for most everyone.
When I was in college, during the “age of stupidity,” as a man I greatly respect refers to the 60’s and early 70’s, as a “love child” and soon-to-be yuppie, I was thoroughly convinced that I would be a different parent to any children I might have than my parents were to me.
Naturally, I had ALL the answers. My parents’ tastes in music, fashion, politics, my Mom’s “helmet” style …

Diversity is a nine-letter word; so is parenting.
ShortRib (my wife) and I met a wonderful couple on our recent honeymoon that, at first, we thought and they thought represented the most diversity in a couple any of us knew. In fact, they were written up as just such a phenomenon in a local paper in their hometown. David is a 55-year-old, liberal, white Jewish lawyer, while Farah is a 40-year-old, conservative, black Christian, non-profit worker. Key thing about them; no kids, by their mutual choice. However, they’ve been married 10 …

Where do our kids get their values? Are you comfortable with the values they learn in public school? How about on MTV, cable or other television?
Are reality shows actually reality? Do you think modern music teaches them about love and romance? Maybe going to the movies is better and seeing Academy Award winning movies like “Slumdog Millionaire,” or “Departed” will teach them right from wrong? How about the Internet where they can see their friends post naked pictures of themselves or, if their parents haven’t been smart and restricted access, …

One of the clichés about volunteerism is the fact that you often get more than you give.
In my case, it was in ways and means I least expected. I’ve just become a Big Brother, again, to a 7-year-old boy and a Mentor to a 22-year-old young man. As these relationships are new, I don’t yet know what lessons I will learn. But, I know well the lessons I learned the first time around.
I became a Big Brother, long before I was married or a parent. My life, at that time, …

One of the most endearing experiences we had on our African safari and honeymoon was no, not all the mating animals we coincidentally encountered, but a playful incident among lion cubs.
As I mentioned in Part One of my African Reflections, we were fortunate to find the same lioness we had witnessed earlier during her mating. After finishing those obligations and, starving, she had made a kill and was eager to eat. Her pride of cubs and fellow lionesses began following her but it became evident she was not going to …

ShortRib (my wife) and I went on our honeymoon, shortly after getting married at the end of last year. It was an exotic trip and one we wouldn’t have undertaken, given the subsequent economic collapse, had we not already paid for the trip (which was non-refundable).
We were thoroughly excited, with my only concern being leaving GuitarHero (my 15-year-old) and JugHead (my 12-year-old) with an adult friend, for so long, with us so far away.
The lessons we all learned and the experiences proved, as is so often the case, beyond anything …