family | At Home with Tech

April 18, 2021

The Indestructible Dining Room Table

Living with this old dining room table has taught me how to be a better parent. Here’s the story.

When I was growing up, my father constantly hounded me not to jump on the living room couch and to stop spilling my milk on the dining room table.

No, my parents didn’t cover everything with plastic, but our New York City apartment wasn’t really designed to accommodate the usual physical energies of a growing boy. Still, I made it through without causing too much damage.

Now, I’ve got my own son. He’s almost eleven, and I find myself on opposite side of the same equation. Like father, like son?

A Fateful Meeting
Many years ago when I lived in Arlington, Massachusetts, I picked up an old and somewhat beat-up dining room table from the curb. It was abandoned there, the table top and legs, just up the street from where I lived, near the Capitol Theatre.

I carried it home, put it together and then took a closer look at what I had dragged in. It wasn’t really in that bad shape, and the craftmanship was solid. It must have been built in the 1940s and lived in someone’s home across a generation or more.

Then, circumstances clearly changed, and it was cast out, waiting for the garbage truck.

But I saved this table and integrated it into my own life. And it’s stayed with me across my journey and into parenthood.

Reflections of Family Life
It’s lasted far beyond my expectations. I figured it would eventually get replaced with a nicer table, but then a funny thing happened to it during our early parenting years.

To borrow a phrase… it took a licking and kept on ticking.

No matter what kind of abuse it took, it had this seemingly magical quality to bounce right back.

Pen and crayon marks? No problem.
Fork gouge. Not that noticeable.
Water spill? The stain somehow evaporated.

Actually, there were so many little marks, the scars simply began to blend together into a dull, well-worn, distressed look. I’m sure the table sported a uniform shine in the previous century, but now, it simply absorbs the daily life of our growing boy with its own muted elegance.

Learning from your Mistakes
I woke up on Saturday morning and began setting the dining room table for breakfast. Sitting in the middle of the table was a science experiment and magic trick of sorts from the previous evening. Our son had created the illusion of dry bits of paper floating inside a Ziploc bag of water. It was a clever design that, of course, used two Ziploc bags.

My wife and I enjoyed our son’s after-dinner illusion, but unfortunately, we all forgot to make sure it was cleaned up and put away.

Sometime overnight, the bag with the water sprung a leak.

So when I walked over to the table in the morning, there was a huge water stain that spanned the entire length of the dining room table.

In many situations, this would be a game-over moment for a piece of wooden furniture. And for me, it should have prompted a response of significant stress.

But it didn’t.

After observing the pool of water, I walked over to the kitchen to retrieve some paper towels, and then I mopped up the mess. I took another look at the massive wet stain, which I knew would mostly disappear when it dried. I shrugged and went about my breakfast prep.

That’s it.

Yes, I later pointed out the water illusion’s structural failure to my son, and I did suggest that he shouldn’t leave aqua experiments lying about.

But compared to other corrective conversations, it was very Zen.

The Real Value of a Dining Room Table
Parenting is a messy business. Growing up is a messy business. Good messy.

I’ve realized it’s just fine for your dining room table to reflect that.

A table for science experiments
A table for art projects
A table for family Zoom chats
And yes, sometimes a table to eat on

I expect that some folks might be horrified with my position on dining room table protection, but I’m so happy letting this table be the surface for so many of our family’s home adventures.

And now, it’s clearly become my own little experiment.

I think one day… a few years down the line, we’ll get the table refinished. It’s certainly earned it!

Life Lessons
Yes, my indestructible dining room table has been an invaluable tool across these years. It’s ongoing presence has also taught me not to worry so much about the little nicks and dings… and water stains.

That’s life.

This lesson has helped me to avoid some of the parenting styles I grew up with. And I’m really thankful for that.

I don’t know who left this magic table for me all those years ago. But whoever you are, thank you!

April 4, 2021

The Real Reason to Buy an Ad in your Child’s School Yearbook

Does the first day of kindergarten seem like yesterday, and now graduation is just around the corner? It’s time to mark the occasion with your own yearbook ad. Here’s why it contains more value than you may realize…

If your child is graduating this year, congratulations. Have you thought about purchasing a parent ad in the school’s yearbook? You know, the kind of ad where parents send congratulatory messages to their kids (for all to see).

Beyond the immediate impact of the ad when your student opens the book for the first time, your ad will likely bring a smile to your child’s face for decades to come when that dusty book is revisited.

Our son will be graduating elementary school, and we just finished our online ad-generation project for his yearbook.

Unexpectedly, my experience completely changed my perspective on parent yearbook ads. I realized that what you include can really impact the ad’s enduring value into the future. Here’s how to tap into that opportunity.

A More Complete Story
School yearbooks cannot possibly capture the complete story of every student.

I remember as a kid looking through my yearbooks for the first time and sometimes being disappointed that I wasn’t being properly represented in the overall story of the school year. Translation: I felt there weren’t enough pictures of me.

Perhaps that says more about my personality than the visual balance of my yearbook, but there will be inevitable imbalance in any school yearbook.

Back then, in the predigital age, it felt like ads were mostly confined to small businesses. So parents couldn’t normally impact a yearbook’s content.

But with today’s easy-to-upload online ad creation tools, parent-generated ads can offer the huge opportunity to rebalance the equation.

And just as importantly, your ad is a place for your content to likely live through posterity. (Everyone generally holds onto his or her yearbook.)

Sponsored Content
Beyond the option to simply congratulate your kid, you can also think of your ad as a place to document a few highlights of your child’s accomplishments and journey.

You probably don’t want to overdo it by writing five hundred words in a full-page ad. But there’s a definite opportunity to include some details that the yearbook editors may miss or wouldn’t know.

A Time Capsule for a Few Photos
The photos you include are probably what your child will immediately appreciate the most, but these included pics are special for another reason. That’s because yearbooks are time capsules of a sort, as they’re more likely to survive over time.

Among the many thousands of photos you take of your children, the truth is only a small fraction of them will likely last into the future decades. That’s because it’s difficult to maintain an endlessly expanding digital database of thousands of family photos.

I understand that now, and our son is only ten years old.

You’ve got to ruthlessly choose just a few pics as the ones you want to endure into the distant future. Then, ensuring they’re printed into a book is a solid way to protect their ongoing existence. (How ironic.)

So think of these school yearbook photos as possibly the only images of your child (as a kid) that future generations will ever see. (No pressure.)

On the bright side, you can also create a larger lifeboat for more of your digital photos. Simply generate your own annual family photo books to document your children’s stories.

There’s Always Next Year
It’s become clear to me that parent ads can be so much more than simple congratulatory messages. These ads should do their part to help encapsulate your child’s school experience.

If you’re feeling deflated that you didn’t maximize the potential of your ad this year, or even worse… you didn’t create one, don’t despair.

You’ll get another chance next year.

It’s Time to Create the Next Chapter
Capturing your children’s stories through photos and the written form is a gift for posterity.

Think of each school yearbook ad that you create as the next chapter in your child’s story.

Enjoy it!

March 28, 2021

The Power of Anticipation

Though the effects of winter are still weighing heavy, I found spring at the base of the forest.

I always look forward to snapping pictures of spring. There’s that special window of time when nature suddenly reemerges. The early colors. The bright greens. The young buds. It’s nature’s celebration of life returning to normal.

As I peer out of my home office window, we’re not quite there. Not yet. Sure, there have been several warm, sunny days in Fairfield County, CT. And there are some early signs of reawakening outside. Yes, spring is officially here, but nature has its own schedule.

If you think I’m drawing a parallel to our present pandemic existence, I am. Our lives are frozen in so many ways, but thankfully thawing with the rollout of vaccines.

In Search of Life as We Know It

I headed out on a hike this past weekend to Collis P. Huntington State Park in Redding, CT. I brought along a couple cameras with the intent to capture nature’s visual equivalence of our current state of anticipation.

As I took in the forested area, much was still in hibernation mode. But when I looked closely, the rebirth was already well underway. Not so much high up in the trees, but closer to ground. The foundations of the ecosystem was kicking into high gear.

These photos promote a near future when spring fully arrives.

I can’t wait.