There is a crisis of fatherless households in the United States. "According to data from 2022, there are approximately 18.3 million children across America who live without a father in the home, comprising about 1 in 4 children (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022)." - Source: America First Policy Institute. One reason why Jordan Peterson reached such levels of popularity in 2017 was due to a phenomenon of being a kind of "internet dad", who told young people to clean up their act, clean their room, not to apologize if they don't mean it, not to feel bad for their own ambitions, that they have something singular and unique to contribute to the world, to slay the dragon as a meaningful path in life on a hero's journey, to adopt responsibility as an antidote to the suffering that is always part of life (and thereby making the inevitable suffering of life tolerable and meaningful), and not to interrupt children who are skateboarding, among other pieces of advice. So why not formalize the collective advice of dads who have been there and done most of what's generally required in life, which is too broad to make into a list. Suffice it to say, this group is an attempt to discuss the important aspects, and the fun aspects of how to make life easier, more profitable, and generally the way it should go.

When we started this group, we wanted to be able to share our experiences as fathers, learn from one another, and gain confidence in leading our kids. Confidence has to come from within, so I see this as a fitting first post for me on the platform. Coming from a broken homes, when my wife and I decided to have children, the number one wish we had was for healthy babies. Breaking the cycle of negativity we both experienced as kids was a close second. I make a conscious effort to tell my children positive qualities they have daily. “You are so smart, son..”. “Wow, that’s a great question..”. “Sweetheart you are so cute..”. It started to become almost a daily affirmation to our son and daughter. When headed to school in the morning, we tell our kids how athletic, handsome, beautiful, intelligent, caring, loving, and kind they are. We kind of set up their day with positive vibes if that makes sense. I truly believe instilling confidence in your kids makes them stronger and better humans. Of course you have to have confidence in yourself first to instill it in others. I work to keep this confidence up daily, because my main mission is to prepare these children I love for success when I’m no longer around. Some of this comes from my background in the military, however most is the desire to get it right and prepare these kids to be kind, confident, successful human beings. Coach your kids athletic sports, take the extra time to show them an answer to their question, pull over for ice cream after school on a whim. I’m spiritual, so there is always that aspect of daily life I instill in our kids as well. In short, I try to create an atmosphere of encouragement and enthusiasm with our children daily. You get out as much as you put in. I encourage you to try this and make a conscious effort to do a little extra for your kids daily. I know there are good and bad days, however like a good investor, I always strive for overall up and to the right. Think outside the box, get creative, zig when you should zag. I truly believe leaving the earth a little better than you had it is 100% in your offspring.

College can be a very large expense, and reasonable questions to ask are “Is college worth it? What’s the return on investment?” The short answer is that it depends. It depends on where you attend college, how expensive it is, what subject your degree is going to be in, and whether that degree can provide a return on the college investment. There are ways to determine all of these factors with a degree of reasonable expectation. The costs of college tuition varies considerably. On average state schools are largely less expensive than private schools. But there are exceptions. The “investment” factor of the equation can differ greatly. There are some colleges that offer fast online degrees that can be completed in about half the time (in two years) as compared to the traditional time of earning a bachelor degree (which is four years). This strategy can reduce the cost of college in general for getting a bachelor’s degree. Also attending college online means that you won’t have the housing and living expenses of on-campus residential school. So fast online degrees can be a large savings as compared to a four year on-campus experience. Some colleges accept transfer credits from Sophia Learning, and this can both save money and time in getting a bachelor’s degree. Sophia Learning is a third party education provider that offers basic classes that can be transferred into your degree program at a participating university or college. What’s great about Sophia Learning is that you can complete as many classes as possible within certain time frames, and for inexpensive flat rate costs. For $99 a student gets one month to take as many classes as possible.

The first thing to do is let the meat sit in the open air for about 10 minutes, to bring it closer to room temperature. Then salt the meat. As I wrote in a previous post I’m on the Carnivore diet so all I use as a spice is salt. Rub the salt in. Sometimes I’ll use Kosher salt which is more flakes than it is granulated, and rubs-in well. Get the grill up to 400° degrees. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a gas grill or a charcoal grill. The temperature for normal cooking on a grill (that isn’t slow cooking or smoking) is 350°. Once the temperature reaches 400°, put the steak on for four minutes on one side, and four minutes on the other side, and that’s it. You’ll want to let the steak sit for a few minutes on the plate given that it’s still cooking even though it’s been taken off the fire. Cut, and enjoy.

Kids who grow up with and communicate through devices in their hands are sometimes referred to as the “silent generation”. Social awareness and intelligence that’s in-person, requires social interactions to be done in-person. There are social cues that cannot be learned through a device. I’m not saying that I don’t communicate through my phone, because I do. The irony is that you’re reading this on a device. But I grew up before these cell phones existed, when the best way to communicate at a distance was to actually talk on the phone, which is a higher form of communication than texting and messaging. I’m not naive enough to think that the tide will be stemmed, but you should know that balance is key, and that the predominance of digital communication is stunting the social growth of the silent generation. Depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts are all up in young people, whereas dating and relationships are down, and has now started to decline America’s birth rate with the younger adults having significantly less children. The dad advice is to spend less time on communication through any social media and more time in-person. It will produce rewards for the rest of your life.