Author: realmarklandry

What a Conversation With an Angry TrumpFan Facebook Friend Taught Me About Politics in America, and Myself

A Facebook friend recently posted this on her timeline:

Why did African American Dems refuse to stand when our President announced the lowest unemployment rate for AAmericans in history?

I said, “Ask them.”

One of her friends asked, “What are they saying?”

I mentioned the ever present wage gap, the ever present unemployment disparity between blacks and whites, and a few other staples of the racial inequity conversation.

My friend asked “Cite your sources please.”

So I shared a link from my blog that lists all the disparity with references.

My friend said, “this has nothing to do with what we’re talking about.”

I repeated my “ask them” statement, a little more snarkily. My friend responded with something akin to “I already know the answer.”

Boom – you couldn’t articulate American politics more clearly.

The conversation devolved into this:

“Mark Landry You’re like a spoiled child who can’t get his way and has to be sent to his room because he won’t listen to reason.”

Continue reading What a Conversation With an Angry TrumpFan Facebook Friend Taught Me About Politics in America, and Myself

Dear My Kids: I Don’t Care if Your Room is Clean, but I do Care About Your Strength of Character. So Shut up and Clean Your Room

getting kids to clean their room

char·ac·ter  /kerəktər/  n. 1. The ability to do the right thing when everything inside you, down to the bowels of your soul, wants to do the wrong thing. 2. Pretty much everything sucks if you don’t have it.

A few years ago, my wife and I decided to tackle our kids’ messy rooms.  It’s taken this long to make any headway.  But now, when we tell them to clean their rooms, they do it – really well.  They even keep their rooms cleaner on a day-to-day basis than they used to.

We started with “just put everything somewhere,” which meant transferring all the crap on their floor into a box, or under the bed.  We operated that way for awhile, mainly because of the screaming and crying that it caused, then ratcheted things up a bit when we changed the definition of “clean your room” to include cleaning under their beds.

After awhile we added “keep your storage bins clean,” and recently tacked on the “keep your shelves organized” amendment.  We still have a little work to do but I’m confident that, by the end of 2018, all rooms, with the exception of my closet and the garage, will be kept as they should.

Our kids fold their clothes and clean their rooms on Fridays.  They have multiple chores that must be executed on a day to day basis.  We have a family business meeting on Saturdays.  We still get some fussing, but we don’t get the meltdowns from long ago.

This process has been a lot more difficult for me than my wife – I’m the artsy, sensitive, empathetic one.  I hate doing things that cause people pain. Continue reading Dear My Kids: I Don’t Care if Your Room is Clean, but I do Care About Your Strength of Character. So Shut up and Clean Your Room

I’m Not Out of Control, I Just Have Delayed Gratification Issues.  

I went “stay at home dad” a few years ago, and unwittingly entered into the world of too much food, too much coffee, too much booze, and too much TV.

If you’re considering the world of at-home parenting, hide the chips man, it’s super hard.

Toughest thing for me is the lack of “wins.”  I used to run my own business.  I could regularly measure my successes.  At the end of most weeks, I could sit back and say, “well done.”

This?  I’m just happy that I’m not incarcerated at the end of the day.  

I constantly break up fights, repeat myself over and over again, get critiqued daily for my poor choice of menu options, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah.  There are few wins here, so when I get some down time I want to escape, fast.  

Enter food, coffee, booze, TV, and a whole new level of angry-chubby.

I’ve always been delayed gratification (DG) challenged, but it’s off the hook in this, the darkest hour of my life.  The idea that I need to feel some discomfort now, so that I can feel good later, doesn’t make as much sense as feeling good now…

…which leads to more discomfort later, which leads to another big boy pour – wash, rinse, repeat. Continue reading I’m Not Out of Control, I Just Have Delayed Gratification Issues.