To the Man Behind the Door

I know that you are scared.

You have no idea what is going to happen on the other side of that door. The world as you know it is about to change. You think life is moving pretty fast now, but as soon as those doors open up, it's going to get exponentially faster.

I know why you are crying.

You aren't sure if you are ready for this.  Trust me, nobody really is. The door that sits in front of you is like a portal to the unknown.  It's a whole different universe; filled with sleepless nights and hours upon hours of worry. You will worry if you are good enough. You will worry if you are doing enough.  You will worry that you worry too much.

I know what you can expect because I sat in that same seat.

I was you.  I was the guy that really wasn't into your wife's pregnancy that much.  I was the type that needed it to be over and have the baby arrive before I showed any sort of emotion.  Nothing was real until I heard a tiny baby cry and the doctors yell out, "It's a boy!" That's when it hit me; it was no longer just about me.

I know what you are feeling.

What if I'm not a good dad? What if I yell a lot? What if the baby cries? What if they hate sports? What if they hate me? All of that will happen and more.  There will be so many emotions that hit you as a parent that you didn't even know you had. You will cry when your baby takes his first steps, you will cry when your baby scores their first soccer goal, you will cry when you drop off your baby for the last day of preschool. The point is, you will cry all the time.

And that's OK.

I will leave you with one bit of advice before I leave.  None of us really have any idea what we are doing.  None of us are experts. We're all in the same boat. Just go through those doors and be there.  Be there for your kid.  When they need you... BE THERE.

Go through those doors and thank your baby for the man you are about to become.

This Father's Day Pampers celebrates the incredible feeling little ones bring to the hearts of dads through unconditional love. On Father's Day as well as every day Pampers is giving thanks to babies for making dad feel exceptionally special and empowering him to discover new roles through fatherhood. Pampers is honoring dads for all that they do.  Please join them in tweeting why you are most thankful for baby using the hashtag #ThanksBaby.

You can find Pampers on the web at Pampers.com or on Facebook and Twitter.

DISCLOSURE: I partnered with Life of Dad and Pampers on this promotion.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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I am the King of Rest, But That's Not a Good Thing

A solid sleep schedule is something that I gave up a long time ago.

As soon as we gave birth to our first son, I pretty much gave up on my health and well being to focus on his.  For years I had been working at a job where I didn't have a set shift.  The only constant were my days off, but my schedule would change from day to day.  There were times that I would work at 3:00 in the morning and others where I would work at 3:00 in the afternoon.  With a newborn and a wife that works we decided that we needed consistency.  We couldn't go week to week with an unknown schedule and try to juggle childcare around it.

I approached my bosses about me working the early morning shift.

I began working steadily at 2:00 in the morning shortly thereafter. The idea being that I would be home around 11:00 to take our son from our nanny who would be there in the morning while my wife went to work.  The timing worked great and our son wouldn't be stuck being raised by other people.  The only problem was I was tired ALL THE TIME.  My first son was not a very good sleeper so getting him to take naps when I got home didn't always happen.  That left me exhausted and miserable.

I thought at first that the early morning shifts would allow me to spend time with my family in the evenings, and they did... until 9:00 when I had to force myself to go to bed.  Once in bed, I would usually toss and turn and fall asleep seemingly right before my alarm went off at 1:00.  I'd drag myself out of bed and spend the next eight hours at work in a semi-conscious state.  I'm not going to lie, there were a lot of times that I fell asleep at work and in some pretty bad places.

I remember one time I was sent to the river to capture beauty shots for our live television show.  I can honestly say that I set the camera up and fell asleep for the next two hours.  I would have my equipment all rigged up so that nobody could steal it without waking me up.  All of us who worked the morning shift had our little hacks that got us through the day.

Two years after our son was born, we had another kid and sleep was basically something that I would do when I died.  I was able to manage OK with my first, but with two I was falling asleep everywhere.  Afternoons with two kids at home meant me falling asleep on the floor with them playing around me.  I was really of no use them.  I would take them to the park and the same thing would happen.  Something had to give.

Falling asleep at the park was probably not the safest thing

That's when I became a stay at home dad.

It's been a lot better since that decision, but if you have kids you seem to get tired all the time regardless of how much sleep you got the night before.  I swear nowadays I could sleep for 24 hours, but be physically and emotionally exhausted after spending even an hour with my kids.  I don't know what they do to our bodies, but they seem to drain the life out of us.  Now I get catnaps wherever I can.

It could be before my son's football game

Or between innings

The one thing I have learned in the past 11 years of being a parent is that if you have the chance to get some zzz's DO IT. My in-laws are great at this sort of thing and learned this years ago. They have an amazing ability to be having a conversation and two minutes later be sound asleep. I'm afraid to ride in a car with them as I never know if they are going to doze off at a red light. Movies, shows, roller coasters... you name it, they have slept there. I am well on my to doing this as well.

The worst thing about all of this is that the kids have started to pick up some bad habits too. We have never really been that strict about bedtimes especially as they get older. What used to be 9:00 has turned into whenever, as long as they are in bed at some point. They do need to know that healthy sleep is a lifestyle choice. Much like a healthy diet and exercise are important, so too are good sleeping habits. Everything in their lives are powered by sleep. Those meltdowns they have... go away with a good nights sleep. Illnesses... a little rest is sometimes the best cure. Feeling stressed... take a nap (ha!)

All good sleep starts with a good PLACE to sleep. While all these little naps you're taking at the park or the ball fields are fine, in the long run you need to focus on good bedtime routine and that starts at your mattress. Restonic wants you to know that they are in the business supporting the dreams of the people that sleep on their mattresses. Every Restonic mattress is handmade with better quality materials and greater attention to detail than their competitors.

Now you have a chance to win a mattress yourself!

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Find a place to follow Restonic yourselves and see what they are all about:

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• Restonic on Pinterest: pinterest.com/restonicbeds

DISCLOSURE: I have partnered with Life of Dad and Restonic for this promotion.  All opinions are my own unless my wife tells me otherwise.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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Mother's Day Shopping Made Easy

Mother's Day is always one of those days that seem to jump up on you.  It's the same time every year, but you always seem to forget about it until the last second.  I think it has to do with the fact that you think it can't be May already because Christmas seemed like just yesterday.

I've been pretty good in the past with getting my wife something that she would enjoy.  I usually make her a photo album of the previous year and write a poem around it, trying the best I can to match the photos with the words. It's not always easy, and the pressure starts to mount as Mother's Day fast approaches.  Some years I wait until the last possible day to finish it and I end up paying a ridiculous fee to have the whole thing expedited.

This year I got it done early... or so I think.  The book has yet to arrive and as Mother's Day gets nearer I will start to sweat it out.  I wish there was a way that I could order it online and then pick it up on my own later that day.  But alas, creativity takes a while.

I am a big fan of online shopping, but I also don't like waiting for things to arrive.  Sometimes I will keep refreshing a web page to see if my items have shipped.  And then when they are shipped, I refresh the page again to see the item's progress.  It's so annoying.  Two whole days for something that I really wanted that instant?  It might as well be a lifetime.  I wonder where my kids get their impatience from.

I know that I am not alone in waiting until that last minute.  According to my own personal polls, 93% of all men wait until the morning of Mother's Day to get their wives and mothers a gift.  Have you ever seen the card aisle at the drug store on the morning of Mother's Day?  It's a bunch of sad looking men trying to figure out how to make "Get Well Soon" cards sound like they were meant for Mother's Day.

But I found out that there IS another option! Enter Sears and their "Buy Online, Pick Up in Store" option.

My wife is a hard working woman who travels often.  She has a carry-on suitcase that she uses, but it's just big enough that sometimes it's NOT a carry-on, so she needs a slightly smaller suitcase so she doesn't have to check anything at the airport.  When you are constantly flying to a different city for a meeting, the last thing you want to be doing is waiting at baggage claim for you luggage to arrive, or worse have the airline lose your bag and you have to go to a meeting in your yoga pants.

I logged on to Sears.com to see if they had what I was looking for and fortunately they did.  I had a few different stores that I could choose from.  Being from New Jersey, every town has it's own mall.  You can't go more than 10 miles without finding a Sears around here.  I picked the store that had the suitcase in stock and when I checked out I chose the In Store Pickup option. I went out to run some errands and waited for Sears to text me to let me know that the item was ready.  When it was, I headed to the store and logged into their mobile app.

I pulled into my own VIP parking spot and let Sears know through the app that I was outside waiting and the clock was ticking.  Within two minutes a man walked outside with my wife's new suitcase and I was on my way.  It's a perfect service when you have the kids in tow and the last thing you want to do is interrupt their 53rd viewing of some stupid YouTube video to walk inside a store.  This couldn't be easier.  And bonus for you, if you use the service between May 3rd and May 7th, you are automatically entered to win a $5000 Sears gift card.  That is a lot of luggage.

Find a great gift for your wife or mom this year at Sears.com/allformom.  They have gifts for all types of moms:

• The Fashionable Mom: Apparel, footwear, accessories, beauty and fragrances
• The Outdoor Mom: Patio decor & furniture, lawn & garden equipment, bikes, swimwear, sandals, luggage, digital cameras and camping gear
• The Fitness-Focused Mom: Activewear, fitness equipment, headphones, juicer/small kitchen appliances.
• Master Chef Mom: Kemore appliances, cookware, plateware, cutlery and more
• The Techie Mom: Smart technology, tablets, cameras, TV’s and more.

It's nice to be done shopping now and not have to wait for something to arrive in the mail.  The pressure is off now... I just hope my wife likes her gift.

DISCLOSURE:  I have partnered with Life of Dad and Sears for this promotion.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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The Road Always Leads to Somewhere

Disclosure: I have partnered with Life of Dad and Kia for this promotion.

"Is this a road?" My wife asked?

"I'm not sure," I replied. "The GPS says it is so I'm going with it."

In the back of my mind I thought this was some kind of joke and that this "road" was leading us to somewhere that would certainly lead to our death. I've seen these roads before. They are usually named after the one legged hillbilly with the moonshine still and the collection of shotguns that lives at the end of it.  Only this time we were in rural Cornwall in Southwest England.

The roads in England had been tight up to that point; mainly wide enough for two cars to slowly pass each other, but this road wasn't even wide enough for our ONE car. The thicket of shrubbery was scratching at the side our vehicle and with every passing mile I could only think that I should have purchased insurance on our rental car. I had been on some harrowing roads in Italy and France, but these were unlike anything that I have ever seen.

“Be careful going around that corner,” my wife warned.

“Which one?” I wondered.  “The whole road is one big corner.”

Not having seen a car in what seemed like an hour, I really began to wonder where the hell we were going and why nobody else was following us.  Looking at the map, you could see that there was a town somewhere ahead and the Celtic Sea was no more than a stones throw from our car window.  The only problem though was that we couldn’t see it.

When we are in a new place, we are not ones to take the highway.  We didn’t travel to Cornwall to see a road like we could at home.  The idea is to explore; to see the sights that you would never get to see otherwise.  Here were were on a road that seemed like it would do just that, but the road was so small and the shrubs were so high that our lasting memory was of the road ahead of us and the bushes above us swallowing our little vehicle.

We didn’t regret taking the road to nowhere because in the end every road leads to somewhere.  Sometimes in order to see things that you wouldn’t normally see, you have to go places that people don’t normally go.  In our case, the payoff was huge.

Not every road is going to lead you some place amazing, so you might as well make the ride there as comfortable as possible.  The Kia Sportage is the type of vehicle that is small enough to fit on the tiniest of roads, but also large enough to make the ride to your destination one that you will enjoy.  Wherever the road leads you, ride there in style.

I was fortunate to ride around Washington DC in a Kia during the Dad 2.0 Summit.  I love what they are doing to celebrate dads as everyday heroes.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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If Only I had a Smarter Car

Not sure how this car was supposed to make it to Long Island

I'm not sure where we were, but I do know that we were far from home.  I could sense something was wrong with my car, but not being a mechanic, I wasn't sure exactly. The check engine light had been on for the past 100 miles and the engine temperature gauge was entering the dangerous zone.  I'm not quite sure what would happen to my car, but not being anywhere familiar, my buddy Sal and I had no choice but to press on.

My friend Joe was turning 21 that night in Long Island and there was no way that we were going to miss it.  Here we were though somewhere in New Jersey with a car that was seriously overheating with no idea how much longer it would last.  It was one of those things where we would just take it mile by mile and hope for the best.

I have two fears when driving; that my car will break down in the middle of nowhere or it will break down in the middle of a city.  We weren't in the middle of Kansas and with New York City on the horizon, my second fear was likely to come true.  We approached the toll plaza to the George Washington Bridge when everything that could happen, did. Smoke began billowing out of the air vents and from underneath the hood.  My car was going to explode and leave me and my buddy dead in the middle of the George Washington Bridge... in rush hour traffic no less.

I was about to be THAT car that shut down a lane of traffic causing a backup on the busiest thoroughfare in the Tri-State Area.  Fortunately though my car didn't explode and we managed to make our way to the Bronx.  This was not the 2015 South Bronx, but rather the 1996 version where two flannel wearing Upstate New Yorkers were completely out of their element in more ways than one.  We managed to find a garage, or so it looked like a garage, it was most likely a chop shop where they took stolen cars, chopped them up, and sold off the parts.  It wasn't the ideal place to stop, but we had no choice.

A big burly black man approached our car with an equally big bucket of water.  He lifted the hood of the car and emptied the contents of the bucket on the overheated engine.  After a few minutes when all the steam dissipated and the engine cooled, he filled up our radiator with water and we were on our way.  I don't know if we tipped the guy or not, but I didn't want to spend any more time in this part of town so we got back on the highway as fast as we could.

We ended up making it to Long Island where we found out one of the engine hoses had a leak and needed to be replaced.  I'm still amazed that we made it to our destination and didn't end up dying somewhere along the way. Looking back I have no idea how we made it without cell phones or some other communication device.

I can't help but think how this situation would have been different had I had a device like the Hum by Verizon.  It's a small speaker that sits on your visor that connects you to an operator at the touch of a button.  You can get things like roadside assistance, emergency assistance, and they can locate your car if it's stolen.  Fortunately I haven't had to use any of those yet, but for a low monthly cost, it's good to know that it's there.  It also comes with an on-board diagnostic reader so you will always know what is going with your car. It will send maintenance reminders to your connected phone, so you never have wonder when it's time to bring your car to the garage. The Hum makes every car smarter and safer.

It's also perfect for your kids car if they decide to take a road trip to Long Island.


Hum by Verizon has been kind enough to offer one of their units in a giveaway. Please enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was supplied a Hum by Verizon, all opinions are my own.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

________________________________________

I've Got Friends in Snowy Places

By all accounts this was going to be the storm of the century, well this season's storm of the century anyway. Bread was bought, milk was procured, and the eggs were purchased; all we had to do was sit and wait for the storm to hit.

This winter hasn't been a very harsh one here in the northeast.  We've set record highs left and right and it was 72 degrees ON CHRISTMAS EVE.  While my wife loves that kind of weather, the kids and I were longing for some snow to fall.  Up until last weekend, we had none... but that was about to change.

My oldest son Tyler swears that his favorite season is winter.  I'm not so sure that I believe him because he's always asking when baseball season starts. My other son Carter seems to be indifferent about the cold weather; he will play any sport in any type of weather.  However it always seems like we play basketball outside when the temperature is the coldest. As for myself, having grown up in Western New York, I've always had an affinity towards the cold.  Like a lot of men my age and older I can vividly remember walking uphill five miles in the snow to get to school and I liked it.

We don't get as much snow as I used to get when I was a kid.  Back then in Western New York a lot depended on which way the wind blew.  You could get four feet, while your neighbor a mile away might not even realize that it snowed.  When I was younger, the snow would fall before Halloween and last until Mother's Day. Now it snows, then it melts, then it snows, and melts again.  I'm under the feeling that if it's going to be cold outside, it might as well be snowing.

And last weekend it snowed... did it ever snow.

Twelve inches may seem like a lot, but at this point we were only half way through the storm.  It would go on snowing for another 12 hours and the storm would dump 21 inches of snow all together.  I'm not one to let the snow finish falling before I get out and clear my driveway.  I would much rather clear our seven inches three times than the entire 21 inches as once.  I'm tough, but not "clear 21 inches at once" tough.

I was sent a pack of lozenges by the folks at Fisherman's Friend and asked to take an EPIC picture.  I didn't want to fake a winter scene like Patrick Quinn did, pretend to know what snow is, like James Zahn, or never leave the house like The Thirsty Daddy. Much like Chris Burnholdt, this Winter Storm Jonas (can we stop naming these storms please) was the perfect opportunity to get out and show how tough I was.

A photo posted by @jdubs44 on Jan 28, 2016 at 8:46am PST

I like to call this one "The First of Many."  This was about 10:00 am and the plows had barely been through our neighborhood (which is another story).  The snow was really falling at this point; probably two inches an hour at least.  I think one of my kids was still asleep and the other was at a sleepover party in the neighborhood.  I didn't need to get out of my driveway, but I'm a guy with a snowblower... I HAD to get out of my driveway.  By the way, I took this photo myself (#SELFIE!)

The only problem with getting so much snow at once was that it made it almost impossible to sled in. We had to really wait until the next next day before we could get out and play in it.

A photo posted by @jdubs44 on Jan 29, 2016 at 12:32pm PST

Sadly, it's only a week and a half later and all the snow has melted... but there might be more on the horizon!  Better go get bread, milk, and eggs... and Fisherman's Friend Lozenges.

Fisherman’s Friend throat lozenges are the toughest on the market, originally formulated in 1865 for deep-sea fishermen from Fleetwood, England. And they are now perfect for a dad who shovels snow in New Jersey. It's good to have friends in snowy places.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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Kindness is Contagious

It seems like the only news we hear nowadays is bad news.

With terror attacks in Paris, wars raging in the Middle East, and mass shootings in California, it's hard to realize that there is a lot of good in this world as well.  We don't celebrate the random acts of kindness like we do the random acts of terror, but perhaps we should.  

Good news is boring.

As a news guy I've always worked under the "If it bleeds, it leads" mantra.  Watch the news and there is always a murder or a fire as the top story. It's never about the guy that held the door for the little old lady at the mall.  If you go by what's in the paper or on the nightly news you would think that nothing good ever happens.  But it does.

The world is filled with good people. Some times it just takes a little kick for people to realize that.  For every person filled with hate there are literally MILLIONS of people who are filled with good. But some times we forget that.

A photo posted by @jdubs44 on Nov 29, 2015 at 6:22pm PST

Last weekend I was in my hometown of Geneseo, NY driving around looking at all the old sights like I do every time I visit my parents.  I stopped in Cricket's Coffee Company on Main Street and bought a $50 gift certificate.  I told the two workers behind the counter, Mike and Jordan, that I didn't want to use it; I wanted THEM to use it.  I asked them if they could buy people coffee as they came in.  Thanks to them I was able to spread a little holiday cheer in my home town.

I got a message from the coffee house later in the day telling me that thanks to my random act of kindness people began paying it forward and they ended up serving $100 of gifted coffee that day. If that's not proof that kindness is contagious, I'm not sure what is.  You never know what one good deed will lead to until you do it.

A photo posted by @jdubs44 on Nov 30, 2015 at 7:39am PST

I decided not to stop there.  When I got home I went to the nearest Toys "R" Us and bought a $50 gift card. I asked Caroline if she would find someone who could use it a little more than I could.  After looking at me like I was nuts, she of course said she would find someone buying Christmas presents for their kids.  I don't know what happened after I left or who she gave the card to, but I like to think that that person paid it forward as well.  Maybe they didn't buy someone else a $50 gift card, but perhaps they did a little something like holding the door for a little old lady.

Perhaps we don't celebrate the random acts of kindness like we should because they are happening all around us.  We seem to focus on the bad, but forget to realize that people are inherently good. People don't do nice things to draw attention to themselves or to gain praise, they just do it and hope others do it as well.

A photo posted by @jdubs44 on Nov 24, 2015 at 10:27am PST

I've partnered with KIND Snacks and Life of Dad to draw attention to people doing kind things. Their #kindawesome campaign spreads kindness by celebrating kind acts.  KIND has been on a mission since day one to inspire kindness and their hope is that it resonates with parents as they try to instill kindness in their kids.

It's important now more than ever we teach our kids the RIGHT thing, the KIND thing. If you know of someone doing something nice and would like to reward them, hit me up on my Facebook page and let me know.

*I've partnered with Life of Dad and KIND Snacks for this promotion.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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My Teams Stink, But I'll Smack Talk Anyway

I haven't had much success with my sports teams lately.  In fact my college football team is so bad (and has been for 15 years) they just fired their head coach... again.  My basketball team had one of their worst seasons last year and look to be equally as bad this year. The head coach is going to serve a nine game suspension, the team is loaded with freshman, and they had a bunch of scholarships taken away.

It's really been a disaster for me, because it seems all of my friends have teams that are doing well.  One guy is a Patriots fan who won't shut up about it, another is an obnoxious Yankee fan who claims he's been that way his entire life, and another is a Rutgers fan for some odd reason.  Fortunately none of us root for Duke, so we can all agree how much we hate them.

Sports are funny though.  It doesn't matter how bad your team is, you are going to defend them to the grave.  Unless of course you are anything like my eight year old son, who seems to have a new favorite team every week.  I'll admit that I have jumped around with my fandom in sports like baseball and NBA basketball.  But there is one thing I will never waiver on, my love for the Syracuse Orange.

I grew up in Western New York and while they weren't my favorite team, they were in my top two.  When I decided to go to Syracuse for college that all changed.  Gone were my allegiances to Nebraska football and North Carolina basketball (can you say FRONTRUNNER?) I was now solely an Orange fan.  After graduation my love for all things Syracuse only grew.

There are four days that stand out in my life... the day I married my wife, the days that my kids were born, and the day that Syracuse basketball won the 2003 National Title.  My wife isn't so certain that they should be placed in this order.  She seems to think that my basketball team winning was a way bigger deal than marrying her.  After all she says, getting married isn't a once in a lifetime thing like Syracuse winning a national championship.

That's the kind of smack talk that I like; subtle, but direct. Talking smack with my friends turns into the same conversation every time.  The Yankee fan always gets ragged on for buying championships, the Patriot fan hears about conspiracies and cheating, and the Rutgers fan... well, you can say pretty much anything to a Rutgers fan because they stink.

I'm always wearing a Syracuse shirt, hat, or hoodie which should be enough to talk smack with, but now there is another way... by wearing your fandom!  Smack Apparel makes doing that easy. They make T-shirts for sports fans who love to talk smack and want the world to know it. It's not a Lexus with a bow on top, but what better gift can you get your smack talker this holiday season?  When they open up their gifts and see a Smack Apparel shirt it won't end up in the crappy presents pile.  They will put the shirt on and talk smack the rest of the day.

I'm going to get my kids a couple of shirts this holiday out of their rookie wear collection... I just have to figure out which team they are actually rooting for.  Sadly it's not my Syracuse Orange.

Smack Apparel is offering free shipping on direct website orders from now until December 31st. They are running a Black Friday/ Cyber Monday special where you can get 25% off your order.  Follow Smack Apparel on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to continue the smack talking conversation.

**This is a sponsored post for Smack Apparel.  I was compensated, but they didn't tell me to root for Syracuse in any way.  My diploma did that.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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What I Want For Father's Day... Part Three

**I was compensated by JCPenney for this post.  All thoughts are my own unless my wife tells me otherwise. #JCPStyleByMyKid #Ad**

This week I have been telling you what I want for Father's Day.  It's all about gadgets and clothes.  I kind of would like some really good beer too, but that's not something that you can send your kids to the store and get.  Kids in a liquor store is kind of sad. So we will stick to gadgets and clothing.

The other day I went shopping with my son at JCPenney to have him pick up and outfit for me for Father's Day.  The shopping experience could not have gone any easier; he was totally into it and so was I.  There were some limitations that I put in place.  I couldn't get anything that would make me look fat, and I couldn't get anything that would make me look stupid.  He struck out on the first two attempts, but he hit one out of the park on the third one.

I let my son pick out my Father's Day outfit at @jcpenney the moose antlers were free. #JCPStyleByMyKid #ad

A photo posted by @jdubs44 on Jun 17, 2015 at 5:43am PDT

Maybe we didn't go crazy shopping like we could have, but my son knows that I will only wear certain things, moose antlers being one of them.  If you want to get in on the #JCPStyleByMyKid fun just enter the contest below for your chance to win $50 from JCPenney.  Then go online and get you shopping done or head on down to the mall where you and your kid can pick out an outfit for you (or dad.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks to JCPenney for sponsoring this whole collection of posts.

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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Daddy's 7 Summer Road Trip Essentials

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #FuelTheLove #CollectiveBias

I am NOT a car guy.

Sadly this is one area that I will not be able to pass along my expertise down to my kids.  When they get older I will teach them how to change a tire, but for the most part I will tell them to have roadside assistance on speed dial.

My dad isn't really a car guy either, but he always changed his own oil.  I remember him being under the hood of the car, draining out the old oil, replacing the filter, and filling the car back up.  It looked messy.  There was always a piece of cardboard with a huge oil stain and a bucket with old dirty oil.  I have no idea what he did with that bucket; he could have dumped it in the woods for all I know.

Changing my own oil was something that never interested me.

A lot of it comes down to time and convenience.  I want to instill in my kids that their time has a value.  If you change your own oil, the oil costs around $20, the filter around $5, and then you have to find a place to dump the old oil.  So before you even begin the process you are $25 in.  Throw in how long it is going to take you and it's well over $30.  There are places like the Automotive Care Center at Walmart that change your oil for you cheaper than that.

I've never seen my son so happy to get an oil change

Don't tell the dealership that we leased our car through, but I have been putting off getting my oil changed for a while.  I treat cars like I do my teeth.  Unless something is noticeably wrong with it, I won't take it to the shop/dentist to get it fixed.  Who has that kind of time to wait around?  But with summer here and knowing that we had a few road trips coming up, it was time to take the car down to Walmart because I knew I could drop the car off and pick up a few essentials along the way.

My garage doesn't have all of this

I've taken my cars to other quick service places, but the difference here is that I could drop the car off and go get some shopping done.  Everywhere else I have to sit in the waiting room and read a year old People Magazine.  My son happened to be off school that day, so I let him help me figure out everything that we might need.

As we said good bye to our car we decided to hit the store to pick up a few things that we just HAD to have; or at least HE had to have.

First and foremost you have to have candy.  Nothing helps a kid sit still in a six hour car ride more than a box of candy.  Fortunately there was a big bin of candy right outside of the automotive center.

Second, you have to have games.  You can never have enough games.  I've made the mistake in the past of not bringing along any games.  Just when you think your kid only wants to play on his iPod, they yell out that they are bored and want to play a game.  Have you ever been on Interstate 81 north of Scranton and all of a sudden your kid wants to play a game that you don't have?  Good luck finding a place to get one.

Third, you NEED toys.  I'm not sure how many toys we need, but it seems that we never have enough.  Grandma has plenty of toys at her house, but why would the kids play with them, when they can play with all new ones?

Fourth, SNACKS.  I'm not sure I need to explain this one, but they always need snacks.  The need for snacks is compounded the moment that you pull out of your driveway. You need every variety of snacks that they make.  DON'T SKIMP ON SNACKS.

Fifth, you need highlighters.  No idea why this is the case but apparently my youngest, along with everyone else in his class at school, is obsessed with highlighters.

Sixth, you need movies.  My kids haven't watched a movie in our car since we bought it, but I know that the moment that we forget to bring a movie along they will want to watch one.  Six hours in a car goes much faster when the kids are quiet with their headphones on.

Seventh and probably most importantly, is playing cards.  I have no idea how to play this game, but I know that we have spent too much money on these things. We've all had our obsessions in life and right now my son's obsession is this game. 

Once we were satisfied with our road trip essentials we headed back to the Automotive Care Center where our car was waiting for us. It couldn't have been easier.  Probably the most essential thing you need for a road trip is an engine that is running right.  Had I changed my own oil, I probably wouldn't have tightened all the nuts and bolts and my car would have leaked all over New Jersey.  Thanks to the folks at Walmart and their Pennzoil products I know that won't be the case.  Their conventional motor oil will make my car run smoother and with less friction than other motor oils.  Let's face kids in a car is more than enough friction for any parent.

So you can save money for your road trip essentials, Walmart is rolling back prices all summer long.  From now until September 9th, you can save four dollars off both Pennzoil High Mileage ($35.88) and Platinum Full Synthetic ($45.88) oil changes. That's quite a savings considering their already low prices.

With that savings I will be able to buy ANOTHER pack of playing cards and that deserves a thumbs up!

So where are you going this summer and what will you be taking along?

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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What I Want For Father's Day... Part Two

Yesterday I talked about wanting gadgets for Father's Day.  Any shiny, metallic, battery operated device will suit me just fine. I honestly don't care what it does, but I will find some use for it.  What I also want for Father's Day are clothes.  Not a tie, or one of those shirts with the kids hand prints on them, but real clothes that I could wear everyday.

I'm pretty typical when it comes to fashion.  I wear cargo shorts in the summer and jeans in the winter.  I probably should own some fancier clothes for date night, but I will let my wife buy me those.  Wouldn't it be interesting to see what the kids actually think we should wear this Father's Day  I partnered with JCPenney on their #JCPStyleByMyKid campaign to put that to the test.

While we dropped my youngest son off at Jurassic World with his buddy (let's face it, things like this are much easier with only one child around) my oldest son and I went shopping.  I had no idea what to expect or where we were going with this, but the experience could not have been any better.

I'll have to save what we bought for another post, but lets just say it's something that I can wear any day of the week... including Father's Day.

JCPenney has made it real easy to shop for dads like me this Father's Day.  You can head to the store like I did, or shop online in the comfort of your own living room, but what's the fun in that?

*I partnered with JCPenney for this #JCPStyleByMyKid campaign.  I was compensated for my time, but all opinions are my own. #ad

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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What I Want For Father's Day... Part One

I will take one of these

Like any dad, what I want for Father's Day is a gadget.  I don't care what the gadget does, but if it's something that you plug in or has a battery, chances are I will use it.  I could use anything for the grill, a new weed whacker, something related to golf, or video equipment.  If my gift has to access some satellite or a wifi signal to operate more efficiently then that's a huge bonus.

In my past life (sometimes now life) I was a television news photographer.  I love to tell stories using video.  Part of the reason that I started this blog was to continue telling stories after I became a stay at home dad.  Much like TV news was my creative outlet in the past, this blog became the place for me to express myself artistically.

While I no longer work in video for a living, that hasn't changed my passion for it.

I have never considered myself to be much of a writer.  I always thought that I was someone who captured moments and brought them to life.  Whether it's through the written word, still photos, or using video this blog has always been more than just me sharing article after article after article. I'm not a newspaper or a magazine.  To me certain stories can be told with only words, but this is a visual world and video is a necessity.

Surprisingly I don't own a fancy production style video camera.  I find them to be bulky and unnecessary most of the time. My iPhone can capture most things that I need and my GoPro is there for everything else.

You might think that the GoPro is only used to record surfing videos or skiing videos but it's not.  When my brother in law got married last year I noticed that he didn't hire a videographer to record the day, so I stepped in with my GoPro and gave him this video as a surprise gift.

Bradley and Ivan's Wedding from John Willey on Vimeo.

Needless to say, everyone cried... which is kind of the point to these types of videos isn't it?

At the time that I shot this video, I was kind of shooting it blind.  My older model GoPro isn't equipped with an LCD monitor like the current version is.  I was able to link it to my phone using wifi and Bluetooth and the GoPro App, but still I had to look down all the time to make sure I was recording what I wanted to.  Of course you know with the GoPro, the video is going to look awesome with it's 1080p60 video and 8mp photos.

So this Father's Day, one thing that I want is a new GoPro Hero+ LCD so I can shoot video a little easier.  I want my wife and kids to head down to Best Buy and pick up a GoPro Hero+ LCD.  Not surprisingly, the cameras are in store just in time for Father's Day.  To make things better you get a free 32GB Extreme Plus memory card valid from 6/14- 6/20.  Also you can get a $50 Best Buy gift card with the purchase of a GoPro Hero4 Silver or Hero4 Black from now until 6/20/2015.

How about it?

I have been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.  All opinions are my own

John Willey - Daddy's in Charge?

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