I wanted to talk a little about a telling statistic: 85% of all youths in prison come from fatherless homes.  This is according to the US Department of Justice.  A youth from a home without a father is 20 times (2000%) more likely to end up in prison compared to youths raised with Dads who are living with them.

There is no doubt as to the importance of Dads.  Why in the world does Hollywood and other pop-culture outlets continue to promote having children without a Dad???  Are these people really trying to run our great country into the ground, or are they all just really that ignorant?  Overwhelmingly, Children- healthy, self-confident, well-adjusted, and intelligent children… have involved Dads.  THAT is what we should be promoting, celebrating and teaching.  Involved parents, Mom AND Dad.

It infuriates me to continually see young girls wanting to get pregnant.  Some don’t even WANT the man to be involved, so they get a sperm donation, which I am strongly opposed to… except for very specific cases.  It’s not fair to the child to raise him or her without their Dad.  Do the research, it’s very clear.

Isn’t it obvious to everyone else that the majority (not ALL, but the large majority) of children who don’t have strong, loving and involved Dads end up in trouble?  Why do you think this is?  It’s partly because the child lacks a role model.  If the child grows up without seeing how a man is supposed to act, that child will rely on television, movies and popular culture for the information.  Have you seen how men (especially Dads) are portrayed in these outlets?  They are not portrayed well.  More often than not, they are portrayed as uninvolved, selfish, detached, dumb, lazy and immature.  That is NOT the message we need to be sending our children.  And that is NOT the reality for the majority of today’s Dads.  Dads today are more involved than ever!  Let’s not only give the children that great role model (Dad), let’s show the world just how involved we are.  Let’s get the corporations, advertisers and marketers to wake up and start promoting the right things. 

A child needs to see the Dad treating the Mom with love, affection and kindness.  That child needs to see the Dad working hard, solving problems, struggling and succeeding – all while being a gentleman and a capable leader.  Setting a good example of how a MAN is supposed to act, that’s what Dads need to do.  And it’s what the media should focus on.  Dads today are better than ever at being involved, loving and spending time with their children.  Yet we still see the same worn-out, tired cliche’s of bumbling moronic Dads.

Help Dadsworld.com change that.  Tell others about our site, and encourage them to be involved as a parent.  Encourage them to spread the word and make it the “in” thing to do.  Wear your Dadsworld.com shirt with pride.  Help us create a movement.  Dads matter.  Read the statistics section of our website, you will be shocked.

Be involved.  Encourage others to do the same.  And don’t tolerate anything less.  Our children really do depend on us.

We had originally gone to see Iron Man, as I am a big superhero guy and she likes them as well.  Unfortunately, when we got to the theatre, we were basically 5 minutes early for the movie, and the line outside looked to be at least 10-15 minutes long.  Neither of us want to see a movie from the front row of the theatre, or come in 10 minutes into it.  We got in line and saw that Indiana Jones was playing in 25 minutes, so we figured we would see that. 

Unfortunately again, as we were waiting in the slowest moving of the 6 lines (no kidding, the line next to us could have saved us about 5 minutes!) Indiana Jones sold out.  So we were down to our third choice, and the only one left that played anywhere near our required time-frame, Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian.  We opted for that one, and got our tickets.  After about 25 minutes of waiting in line for popcorn and a drink, we settled down to watch Prince Caspian.  The movie was fine from my point of view, not fantastic but entertaining.  We had seen the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe previously, and my wife and I read some of C.S. Lewis’ books when we were younger.

What really bothered my about the movie is the fact that most of the scenes in the entire movie were less than 3 seconds long.  Many scenes were under 2 seconds!  This led to me having a raging headache by the end, and it left me wondering why modern movies do this.  Doesn’t anybody remember when actors actually had to act?  Not the cinematogrophers and effects people doing the acting?  What happened to the still shot with the characters having a dialogue?  No wonder kids today have ADHD, the movies flash from scene to scene and image to image in 1 or 2 seconds!  You are subjected to over 2 hours of this!  Unbelievable.

I guess I expect too much or am getting older, but I can hardly stand to watch these modern films.  The previews are even worse.  MANY of the previews didn’t have ANY scenes that lasted more than 1 second.  ONE SECOND.  Really.  I know it’s a good way to create energy, drama, feelings of chaos, action, etc.  but I would really much rather have the script and the actors do that.  Not cutting and dicing constantly to a new scene.  I just don’t like the way many movies are made these days.

What’s next?  Sensory overload films with nothing but flashing images for 2 hours?  The images come at you at a rate of about 10 per second, loud music will be blaring and they will call it a movie.  No thanks.

The other thing that bothered me is the number and ages of the children in the movie theater.  This was too violent a film for kids under 5-7 years old, in my opinion.  Yet I see kids younger than that watching it,  and watching Pirates of the Carribean, etc.  Violence is acceptable, I guess, to many parents of young kids.  Film and video game ratings seem to be more of a joke than a guide for parents.  I know many kids playing M (18+ mature) video games when they are under 10 years old.  I have seen many kids under ten watch rated R (17+) movies and PG-13 might as well be G.  What happened to our innocent youth?  Looks like for many kids, they are long gone. 

When you read the book as a child, your own imagination created the scenes in your head.  Violence in a book was reletive to your ability and experience with it.  Seeing a person in a movie get stabbed, violently beat-up or shot is too graphic for young children.  These kids should be reading these types of stories, not seeing the movies yet.  But then again, I guess I am a little old fashioned. 

I was thinking earlier about the 1980’s and what a fun decade that was for me.  I was 10 in 1980, so it was a decade filled with life-change and high emotion for me.  Those years from 10-20 are some of the most turbulant of your life and you really remember what was going on during those times.  To this day certain songs and movies bring me right back to the emotional state I was in back then.  Some of the number one songs for the month of March in the 80’s were:  1987- Livin’ On a Prayer by Bon Jovi, 1983- Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, 1986- Sara by Starship, 1982- I Love Rock n’ Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, 1981- 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton. 

I vividly remember the movie Back to the Future starring Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd.  It is still one of my favorite feel-good movies.  The Olympics were a big deal to me, as I was really into Hockey, Track and Field and Cycling.  The Coors Light Water Ski Tour was a big deal for me as well, the sport has never regained that success it had in the late 1980’s.  The Chicago Bears Washington Redskins and San Francisco 49er’s were great NFL teams that I remember watching a lot of. 

Who can forget the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers NBA teams back then?  Michael Jordan was just getting ready to Dominate the NBA.  Really the glory years of the NBA to me.  I also remember watching the World series in 1989 when the LA Dodgers won, thanks in large part to Kirk Gibson.  That was the very first World Series that I had actually watched every game.  It was also the last.  I figured it would be hard to top that, and I never really liked watching baseball much.  I loved playing it though.

The 80’s was a decade of blockbuster movies.  Unbelievable decade for the silver screen.  Here are some of the top movies from the 80’s:  The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Stripes, E.T, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rainman, Top Gun, St. Elmo’s Fire, The Breakfast Club, Terminator, Rambo, Silverado, Footloose, Nightmare on Elm Street, Batman, Lethal Weapon, Star Trek-the Wrath of Khan, An Officer and a Gentleman, Ghostbusters, National Lampoon’s Vacation and Christmas Vacation, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, Fatal Attraction, Goonies, Weird Science, Airplane, Superman, War Games, The Right Stuff, Beverly Hills Cop, Flashdance, Porky’s, Sixteen Candles,  and The Karate Kid.  Wow.  That’s just a small list of movies that came out in the 80’s.  Their influence is still very strong today.  The country seemed to be very creative in the 80’s.

I graduated from High School and moved away from home to attend College in 1988.  What a year that was.  Talk about life-change.  I’ll never forget being on the campus of the University of Oregon and thinking that everyone else had it all figured out.  Everyone else but me.  I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, or be when I graduated.  It always seemed like everyone else had a plan and a clear direction.  Of course I found out later that most people were like me, uncertain and somewhat overwhelmed, not the other way around.  But the stress of new surroundings, new responsibilities and uncertain life goals really imprints on your mind.  I still get a little twinge of nervousness whenever I go to the campus, those old memories come bubbling up to the surface when I see the busy college kids rushing around.  It’s a good stress now, motivating.  But back then it wasn’t always fun.

It’s those feelings of stress that make the decade so memorable to me.  I can remember several years of the 10 very vividly.  I remember what I was doing, what was important to me, etc.  The 90’s are not nearly so clear to me.  Neither is 2002-2005.  Those years just melted together somehow.

I guess I’m not alone, judging by the continued popularity of 80’s music and movies.  There are a lot of other 30 somethings that feel the same way I bet.

We are over halfway through March already.  We are compiling the information for the April Newsletter and the Dad of the Month.  We will also be unveiling some new car reviews and products.  Thanks for all of your support, and keep helping us grow.

I will reminisce some more later.