Basketball is His Favorite Sport

Carter gets obsessed with a lot of things.

At first it was Star Wars, then Toy Story, then Cars, the Star Wars again, then Legos, then Pokemon, and now it's sports.  Most recently it's been basketball because that is what is readily available on TV.  Before basketball it was football where somehow he became a huge New Orleans Saints fan.  I blame video games for that.

Basketball is all he ever talks about nowadays.  Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony  are his favorite players, while the Oklahoma City Thunder are his favorite team.  Much like his dad, who was a huge Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls fan, Carter is very much a front runner.  When you are six you never want to see your team lose so naturally you pick teams that always win.  That is why there are so many Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys fans my age, because when I was a kid they were always the two best teams.  We don't realize it, but unless we live in an area that has pro sports teams, we always go for the winners.  So all of you lifelong Yankee, Steelers, Cowboys, Lakers, Celtics fans... you are nothing but a lifelong bandwagoner.

From sun up to sundown, Carter has basketball on the brain.

His birthday is next week and all that he wants is a basketball hoop and a bunch of jerseys, most notably the players mentioned before.  If he isn't checking scores on ESPN, he is playing basketball on the Xbox.  If he isn't playing on the Xbox, he is up in his room playing basketball on his little toy hoop that has been hanging up since before he was born.  And that is where you can see things like this:

For a six year old he has some crazy good skills.  Of course he is good at any sport that he plays right now.  It's something that I saw in him from an early age before he could even walk.

Right now he says that he has no interest in baseball, but I don't buy it.  I never saw this obsession with basketball coming but I am on the lookout to see what's next.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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End of the Little Days

Parenting is a hard job.

Nobody said that it wasn't, but there is nothing that can prepare you for the wave of emotions that you feel at any given moment.  Kids really do keep you on your toes as you just never know what they are going to hit with you with next.  Such was the case this morning.

My oldest Tyler had the ability to grow up slowly.  He liked all the usual little kid things: Cars, Toy Story, Nemo, Mickey Mouse, and of course Legos.  There was a natural progression that I am sure most first kids go through, although he was into Star Wars before most of his friends.  He has grown out most of these things, but still loves to play with Legos.  He has an iPod now and spends a lot of his time texting and Facetiming.  Basically he is growing up into BIG kid.

Which brings me to Carter.

He doesn't wear them on his head all the time

As the younger of the two he has spent most of his childhood trying to keep up with his older brother.  That means what ever Tyler was into, Carter was as well.  Before Carter could even say any letters or numbers he could tell you who every Star Wars character was.  He never really got into shows like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or the Doodlebops; it's almost as if he skipped a few years and graduated right to shows like Phineas and Ferb and The Clone Wars.  While little, I almost feel like he's never been a little kid.

Currently Carter is obsessed with sports, and as a dad while that is great, part of me wishes it didn't happen so early.  He'll be six next month, but sometimes I feel like he is going on 16.  He no longer plays with toys and loves watching sports on TV.  Legos are out; basketball, football, and soccer are his thing now.  He just told me the other day that he doesn't like Mickey Mouse and his character shirts were too small on him (even though they aren't.)

But I always had something to hold onto, until today.

This was one of those moments that kicks you in the gut and tells you that your kids are growing up despite your best efforts to not let them.  Out of the blue Carter decided that he didn't want to wear his little boy underwear anymore.  I was blindsided to say the least.  For the past three years while I could see him getting bigger and moving onto to older kid things, I could always count on one thing, his little Toy Story underwear.  It's almost like they were the only thing that was holding him back from being a big kid.  While he got bigger and bigger I could put those little tiny underwear on him and keep him the little kid that he should be.

Sadly that will no longer be the case.  My little guy is growing up and there is nothing I can do to stop it.  

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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Dads Round Table

In case you haven't already noticed, I've gotten myself involved with a new website called Dads Round Table. On top of my own blog and writing for Parent Society and Huffington Post, this new initiative is one that keeps me pretty busy.  I'm excited about this.  The idea behind it was that a bunch of us dads could get together and share our stories and hopefully learn a little bit about this whole parenting business.  I have heard that there is strength in numbers.

Anyway, I am the Creative Director behind this whole process.  What that title means is that I hopefully can put together a bunch of really cool videos to tell a story that we couldn't otherwise tell with words.  It's what I did for a living before I became a stay at home dad, and it's what I hopefully will do when I head back into the work force one day.

To give you a little teaser of what I am trying to come up with I present you with the following:

So there will be much more to come.  I have a lot of video that I have shot of my kids over the years, it's a matter of editing it all down.  It seems that nobody likes to do that but me.

So follow along with me at Dads Round Table. You can also follow us on Twitter or Facebook if that is your thing.  Pull up a chair.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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Five Things Moms Say

As I was scrolling my Twitter timeline yesterday I came across an article about "Funny Things Dads Say." I'm always curious to see if other dads sound anything like me. Usually I'm screaming at the top of my lungs for someone to stop hitting their brother or to get down off the chandelier. To my surprise the article was not written by a dad, but by a mom.

Now normally I wouldn't get so sensitive to these sort of things, but this is a place where I happen to be a writer as well. (Check out my latest!!!) I have no problem if someone wants to write a self deprecating piece about what dads say, but to hear it out of the mouth of the opposite sex is something that I am growing tired of.

I understand that women make up the majority of people that read blogs, perhaps you are one of them, and if this was turned around and I wrote a piece about what moms say I might be vilified, regardless of whether it was intended to insult them or not.

Whoops, too late:


Listen, kids run around and inevitably they are going to fall down.  As much as you want to tell them about what is going to happen, they won't truly know until they find out themselves.  It's not so bad to let them get a little boo boo every now and then.


Yeah, thanks for making us out to be the bad guy.


Grab a chair, grab a light bulb, take out the old one, put in the new one.  It's not rocket science.


Your kid is five.  It's embarrassing seeing you hold your kids hand down the slide. Let him go and catch him at the bottom, it's way more fun.  Stop acting like he is going to fall off the playground.  Chances are he won't.


Stop.  Let's wait a few weeks to see what he is into next, before you take up an entire wing in your house with this over sized soon to be lego table.


In typical guy fashion, I can't count.  But at the end of the day, you know that you've said it.  Don't drink any of that White Zinfandel crap.  You might think that you are all classy, but please go for a Cabernet, or a Red Zinfandel, or maybe even a Reisling.  While we are talking about wine, please stop bringing Pinot Grigio as a gift... that's garbage.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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