It is quite the feeling when you play one of your all-time favorite songs for your kid and they love it. When this happens — no matter their age (or yours) — you and your child add another layer to your ongoing bond. Traditionally speaking, the “acceptable” songs many parents share, recite, and make a big deal about with their 0 to 3 year-old’s are nursery rhymes. This has always seemed foolish to me. For example — doesn’t singing a duet with your toddler about a half-egg/ half-British-boy getting dismembered and permanently disfigured from a disastrous fall seem foolish to you? That’s why I’v ..read more

Recently, I was driving around town with my daughter, jamming out to the pleasing sounds of Steve Winwood’s “The Finer Things.” This musical gem officially became the Summer’s most requested song from my backseat. It also helped spark the inspiration I needed to begin writing this post — one that proudly ends a three month blogging hiatus for me at The DadaDADiest. Working through uncertain times during the Summer of 2020 — while dealing with daily temperatures hot enough to make Satan’s butthole proclaim “This is hot, even for me” — took away some of the zest I require to spend the hours it t ..read more

Roughly six months before my daughter was born — on the early morning of June 12th, 2016 — the unfortunate events of the Pulse Nightclub Shooting took place in Orlando, Florida. 49 innocent people were slain. 58 others were injured. Hundreds of lives were changed forever. Fast-forward to almost four years later. I was driving through downtown Orlando with my daughter, brainstorming about a unique place I could take her for lunch. I got off at the Anderson St. exit and made my way into the SODO neighborhood, just south of downtown O-Town. As I took a right-hand turn onto Orange Avenue, Pulse ni ..read more

MY INTRO TO LET YOU KNOW Yep, it’s the 2020s. Nope, I’m not writing this to talk about the globe-changing year we’ve all experienced thus far. I’m here tiptapping away at my keys to offer a first-hand view of what it was like growing up in the 1980s, compared to now in the 2020s. Why? Because my three year-old daughter will experience 56% of her childhood in the 2020’s. I experienced 44% of my youth in the 1980s. I became interested in examining the differences in our childhood backdrops. The cover of my 1987 kindergarten report card, which basically says anyone that wants to, can walk in to t ..read more

Well hello there and thanks for joining us at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom! Pictured below, me and my daughter are leaving the character concert at Cinderella’s Castle. Never before in my life have I related so much to a worm who’s slowly baking to death on a hot sidewalk. Next, we hopped on a ride that had shade and required me to walk nowhere — The People Mover. As we passed Cinderella’s Castle, my daughter asked “how come we never saw any fireworks over the castle?” Every Magic Kingdom commercial portrays an almost frightening, fireworks fantasy-fest when showing Cinderella’s mansion, so h ..read more

I grew up in the Midwest, the oldest of three kids raised by our two loving, involved and supportive parents. My parents are still married. I had a very happy childhood and that is exactly what I want to provide for my own daughter. Soon after my daughter’s 1st birthday, her mom and I divorced. Although my daughter won’t be raised by her parents together in the same household, I don’t see why that has to change anything about how happy my daughter can be and how loved she can feel. When I was eight, I stood behind Bill Murray to pee at Wrigley Field. Late at night, I once played dress-up at ..read more

The goal of TheDadaDADiest.com is to provide entertaining content, inspired by my journey as a dad to my daughter — a blend of real-life experiences, satire, and advice (advice I probably shouldn’t be giving). I want to properly represent our slogan: “Dadlife. detailed.” I aim for it to be interesting, clever, and unique for those who visit. I chose the name The DadaDADiest because I am a Dad first and foremost. “The DadaDADiest” has a couple of hidden meanings in its name. First, it says “Dad” in it three times (dadadad)iest. Three is the same number of names most Dad’s will be called by the ..read more

*CLICK ON THE ABOVE IMAGE IF THE VIDEO DOESN’T AUTOMATICALLY START. It’s the backbone to this post.* Last night, I was digging through old home movies. I came across a video of a family party at my childhood home in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. On both of our TV’s, a Chicago Bulls game was playing — in the middle of the day — and it was live. The date of this party was Sunday, May 7th, 1989. I first assumed this Bulls game was nothing more than an unimportant, 31 year-old NBA game. No one in our 1989 family room was particularly glued to the TV or even talking about this game during the ..read more

Nirvana’s song “Smells like Teen Spirit” has touched generations of people. Rolling Stone magazine has even ranked it as the ninth greatest song of all-time. Kurt Cobain’s song lyrics to all of Nirvana’s songs are open for interpretation, as they are all non-linear jumbles of thoughts and words that rhyme, rather than filled with specific statements or stories. With that said, the lyrics to “Teen Spirit,” currently ring true if you interpret them into our new way of life amongst the world’s Coronavirus pandemic. Just sayin ..read more

— Friday, March 20th, 2020 — It’s not her fault that she can’t read — she’s three. I’m not even sure she comprehends that she actually doesn’t know how to read, and that’s OK. I asked my little girl to read to me. I wanted to see what she had to say and how she said it. I gave her my full attention, to assist her with gaining confidence in her narration skills. Perhaps most important, the book I asked her to read had zero illustrations, thus preventing plagiarism, while sparking her memories & land of make-believe. I recorded her story-time session, because I w ..read more