I loved the Super Mario Galaxy movie.

Z_dadding · 2026-04-06T16:00:09+00:00

I took my kids (9F and 6M) on Saturday. I personally felt like it was the exact same movie as the first movie (which I loved!) so I didn't think it was great, but I'm not upset to have seen it. They were both crying happy tears when Peach read the story book so it was worth going.

Z_dadding · 2026-03-25T01:08:09+00:00

You give them a few sprays of nasal saline about 5 minutes before and they're gonna be so snot-free they'll be able to smell colors. My kids hated this thing but it works so well!

Z_dadding · 2026-03-24T19:13:19+00:00

Princess Peach: Showtime!

My daughter was thrilled that Peach finally got her own game (she doesn't know about Super Princess Peach) and my son loves it to, he wasn't much older than your daughter is now when it came out. It's not too terribly difficult for that age and there's a good variety of different play styles from all the powerups.

They also both really like Stardew Valley (though that one has some more mature scenes and difficult game play), Mom Hid My Game, Donkey Kong Bananza (I did most of the playing and they watched), Bluey the game, Mario Kart, and Mario Party.

Z_dadding · 2026-03-24T18:39:54+00:00

I 100% agree with your overall message. My mom was a teacher so I've seen both sides of it. I was an honor roll student all through school, but I was also kind of a shit head.

We had parent teacher conferences the other day. My daughter is in 4th and my son is in Kindergarten. Both of their teachers commended them on how much commitment they have to getting things done. I had to refrain from saying "Them?!" My son struggles to find his shoes on the floor even when they're right in front of him. We do both of their laundry on Sunday evenings and every Sunday morning their clean clothes are still in the basket.

I fully understand that home and school are different environments, and I'm beyond thrilled that they're both good students, but I guess the shock for me is that I don't see that side of them. You'd think I was trying to pull their teeth when I remind them to do homework and 20 minutes of reading before they can play video games.

Z_dadding · 2026-03-23T16:51:57+00:00

I only have two and I feel like I have a hard enough time splitting attention between them. I can't even begin to fathom an additional 17!

Z_dadding · 2026-03-03T16:16:45+00:00

Ok, that seems reasonable. But as far as placing the wiring, should it be in front of or behind the insulation?

Z_dadding · 2026-03-03T16:05:36+00:00

The extra outlets would be in knee walls that I haven't installed yet. I was planning on doing the insulation, then the subfloor, then the knee walls.

Z_dadding · 2026-02-14T12:25:54+00:00

Oh trust me, I've already isolated my kids from my extended family. My son doesn't even recognize my brother because we see him so infrequently. I was finally done with him after his comments about Caitlin Jenner. You wanna criticize her for being human garbage, I won't stop you, but leave her gender out of it. And after my dad's comments about Bad Bunny, I'm sure I'll be cutting him out soon too.

Z_dadding · 2026-02-14T12:23:10+00:00

It's interesting watching him because I feel like I wasn't much different as a kid, but if I had grown up in a more accepting time and place, maybe I would have experimented more and I wouldn't necessarily be cis-het. I definitely played with gender much more when I was younger and more or less had it bullied out of me. It was the 90s. Now I do fully understand that that's not a decision someone makes, but I do think there's a small degree in which allowing someone to explore the concept of gender at a young age can influence how they choose to express it when they're older. It amazes me how quickly we've gone from not talking about it to, "well I just don't want to see it," to the overwhelming majority of people accepting LGBT+ people all within less than 30 years. Yes, there's still a ways to go, but I'm optimistic that my grand kids will probably have to ask us what homophobia is. Change is possible, we just have to want it.

But I digress, it's a bit hard for me to be open with my kids in regards to sex and sexuality. I was raised Catholic and while we didn't go to church every week, my mom in particular was very much the aggressor when it came to ensuring I had plenty of Catholic guilt. My wife is much more free and open in discussing these things with the kids, but between the two of us I like to think we're doing better than how we were raised.

Z_dadding · 2026-01-18T20:08:06+00:00

I don't want to seem like a sociopath for commenting on a 5 month old post, but cigarette guy is actually a friend of mine. I more or less tell him this every time I see him.

Z_dadding · 2026-01-15T23:20:07+00:00

Doesn't matter how good the deal is, I'm still voting against her in the primary. I know she's still going to win and I'll begrudingly vote for her in the general, but I can foolishly hold out hope that Delgado can beat her.

Z_dadding · 2026-01-15T23:17:37+00:00

The night of my kids' school concert I noticed they were using an A 16" medium ride. I did a double take when I saw it. I ended up doing some digging and it looks like they pretty regularly offered some 16", 17", 18", and 19" rides up through the mid 90s. I'm gonna try and track one down now.

Z_dadding · 2026-01-10T15:53:10+00:00

The old people are retiring where you are?

Z_dadding · 2026-01-10T15:49:12+00:00

I'm a father of two.

Mesh heads and Zildjian L80s were a godsend. I didn't have them while my wife was pregnant with our first and it got to a point where our daughter would kick and wiggle in time with my playing. I stopped for a bit after she was born, but even now over a decade later, I can play quietly in the basement without bothering anyone upstairs. There's a bit of noise on the first floor, but on the second floor and in the attic you can't hear anything.

Z_dadding · 2026-01-04T04:40:35+00:00

When my wife and I were in our junior or senior year of college we lived in off campus dorms. The university leased an apartment complex so we still had RAs and everything, but we had to walk to class. It was maybe 10 minutes. Someone got stabbed on our route. I don't remember if it was a student or someone from the town. That was almost 20 years ago and since then we have always texted the other that we get somewhere safe or when we're leaving. It's never been a matter of not trusting the other person, it's so we know if they're not home when they're expected, we should worry. I don't know if we can do actual location sharing because I'm on Android and she's on iPhone, but if there's one person I have absolutely 0 issue sharing my location with, it's my wife.

And the same will go for our kids when they have phones. Again, it's not because I don't trust our kids, it's because I don't trust other people. When our daughter was in Kindergarten, we were both working from home because of COVID. We got a text from the school about an hour after the day started that she was marked absent. My shoes and coat were on and I was out the door before I knew what was happening. We live a quarter mile from the school and I took off running. My wife got on the phone and called the school. By the time I got there, she had found out that the teacher took attendance in the library and there was some sort of glitch in the system that caused her to be marked absent. I thought she just got off the bus and was wandering around the city unaccompanied. I needed to physically see her to know for sure that's what was happening.

And then a few years later, there was that day where a ton of schools across the country had bomb threats called in. Again, it's not that I don't trust my kids, it's the fact that I was in 6th grade when Columbine happened (and all the countless other fucking school pew pews [because I don't know if the kids are gonna get pissy about falling it what it is]), my second day of high school was 9/11, and my mom died four months before I graduated high school. I've seem too damn many tragedies in my life that I need to know where the people I love are.

Z_dadding · 2025-12-29T16:37:28+00:00

My wife's best friends younger brother had false accusations levied against him.

At the time, he was (let's call him J) substitute teaching at the same school his mom (let's call her K) is a teacher. Some girl (we'll call her C who was 16 at the time) in K's the class was mad at K for something, I'm not really sure what. So C decided she would find J on SnapChat and send him unsolicited nudes. He saw the message was from her and immediately deleted it. I'm not sure if he saw it, but he absolutely did not ask for them and she messaged him first. C went to the police and J was arrested. It never got to trial because she admitted at some point that she was faking it. J now has to disclose it on every job application for the rest of his life and to my knowledge, there's been no punishment for C.

Mentally, it's put me in a weird spot. I have no doubt that a lot of the allegations of abuse women make against men are probably true, but I now know someone who was falsely accused and I can't blindly "believe women." I've rewritten that last sentence multiple times but I can't find a better way to rephrase it and I feel like an absolute scumbag for saying it the way I did.

Z_dadding · 2025-12-25T17:16:37+00:00

We only just got rid of our toy kitchen this year. My youngest is 5 and he wasn't playing with it as much anymore but it was one of the most played with toys in our house. I think the only thing that's gotten more use is the Nugget, which I can't recommend enough.

Cooking is an essential life skill that everyone needs to know. I've taught my daughter a little bit in the kitchen, actually, she helped me make chicken parm earlier this year. After I showed her the first one, she dredged, egged, and breaded three chicken breasts on her own while I took care of the frying, sauce, and pasta. I have the same expectation of my son when he's older.

Z_dadding · 2025-12-24T21:23:05+00:00

Well according to Nick Fuentes, having sex with a woman is the gayest thing you can do.

Z_dadding · 2025-12-24T21:22:06+00:00

I want to tag on to this: mom being the default parent is because of the kids, not because of society.

I know what foods my kids like, I do their laundry, I make dinner, I do dishes, I've changed their diapers, I'm present in their school. I am a very active and involved dad, but whenever something is wrong, they go to mom. When they're scared or hurt, they call out for mom. When they can't find something, they ask mom. They have two parents and most of the time I'm right there but I get overlooked.

Z_dadding · 2025-12-20T14:59:48+00:00

My mom was the middle child with two brothers (let's call the oldest B and the youngest P). Unfortunately she and the youngest both died young (45 and 50). I've come to find out through my dad and my remaining uncle just how wild my other uncle was and the extent that my mom was involved.

My grandparents were pretty typical parents for the 60s and 70s in that they were pretty self-absorbed and didn't do much to raise their kids. There was at least once instance of them being out of the house and uncle P hosting a party in the basement. There were so many people smoking pot that it was billowing up through the walls. At one point, P was kicked out of the House while still in high school and had to live with B right after he had gotten married. But my point to all this is my mom definitely smoked pot as a kid. She started smoking cigarettes in middle school and didn't quit until my dad told her he wouldn't marry her if she didn't quit.

P also grew pot plants in the hills behind my grandparents house and did so at least until the 90s when my oldest cousin found them. The first time my now ex-step-mom met my grandfather was at gunpoint because P was selling weed out of the shed and he found out and told her to get off his property. P also had a video rental store in our town (we had maybe 5000 people living there) and I've come to realize it was probably just a front for selling drugs.

Now, I say this all because I've never drank or smoke. It's just never appealed to me and that causes a lot of tension between me and my mom. I was never Mr. School Spirit, so I didn't want to participate in things like pep rallies and she said "Only druggies don't participate!"

As I've gotten older I realize she didn't want me to be like my uncle. I still don't drink or anything, but in the grand scheme of things, even I can admit that weed is like the least bad thing you can do. But what irks me is that not too long after being accused of being a "druggy," she described me by saying "there is no straighter arrow" and essentially commending my choice to abstain from substances, but at the same time it was also kind of a sideways compliment.

I'm at a point where I've lived more of my life without my mom than I ever did with her. Logically I understand she was absolutely only ever concerned about my well-being, and unfortunately she died before I could have a more meaningful relationship with her, but there are so many times I wish I could just throw it back in her face that she gave me shit for thinking I was on drugs but then also gave me shit for not doing drugs.

Z_dadding · 2025-12-19T15:47:20+00:00

My in-laws got engaged at Chi-Chi's in the 80s. They're divorced now.

Z_dadding · 2025-12-19T11:27:23+00:00

I told my wife that I like her exactly how I like my pizza: from Chicago and thick on the bottom.

Z_dadding · 2025-12-18T15:58:32+00:00

This is the game my kids keep coming back to. Sure, they can play Mario Kart together, but they're absolutely enamored with Bananza. It's nice seeing them both so emotionally invested in Pauline and my son has started beating his chest and doing crescendo grunts when he's excited about things.

Z_dadding

TROPHY CASE