Here is the second installment of a new feature on SingleDad.com. In this new feature, we will give you, our members, the opportunity to featured on the home page of the site. Each month we will feature a different single, divorced, widowed or remarried member answering some of our favorite questions. If you'd like to participate, just let us know! The only rules are that you will need to answer our questions and you cannot do so anonymously.
12 Questions in 10 Minutes
| Author: RJ Jaramillo | Posted: 05/23/09 | ||
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Name: Joel Schwartzberg
Author, "The 40-Year-Old Version: Humoirs of a Divorced Dad" (www.divorceddadbook.com)
Home Town: Montclair, New Jersey
1. What's the best advice you ever received being a Single Dad?
To take just one of my three kids out to dinner on a weekly basis. This way, we each get more one-on-one time without distractions. I also get more left-over french fries this way.
2. What's the best advice you ever gave to a Single Dad?
To not think a divorced dad has to bend over backwards entertaining his kids while they're in his sole custody. The kids want to spend time simply living with him, and the same should be true vice versa. Even an errand run to Kmart can be a fulfilling - even bonding - experience, providing you're willing to put some speed behind those big red shopping carts.
3. What should every Man know about a Woman?
That she wants, more than anything else, to be heard and affirmed. That, and jewelry.
4. What Should every Woman Know about a Man?
That he can't be realistically expected to have a conversation and watch television at the same time, unless that conversation includes the word "nachos".
5. What should every Single Dad know about his kids?
That they love him, by default. That their love is his to lose.
6. What skill should every Single Dad have?
Humility, and the courage to admit both mistakes and vulnerabilities in front of his kids. That, and the ability to find the MUTE button on a remote control simply by feel.
7. What should every man do before he dies?
Make love to a beautiful woman, order steak in a very expensive restaurant, and buy new underwear again.
8. What was your first car?
A Mazda 323 hatchback, in which I drove my mother and myself to the Academy Awards in 1991.
9. Which is your biggest challenge at home; Cooking or Cleaning?
Both, really. And remembering not to litter my apartment with shoes.
10. What is your proudest moment being a SingleDad?
When my son told me I talk to him in a way that demonstrates that I "get him" more than my ex-wife does. Also, whenever I get angry with my children, but overcome the impulse to act on it punitively.
11. What was the scariest moment being a SingleDad?
When my ex-wife threatened to move far away with the kids. Also, the first time I ran out of cereal.
12. What matters most in my life is... ( finish the sentence)
Doing right by both my dreams and my responsibilities.
