While I never felt I would be the type to write about the daily minutia that occurs in my life, I am a recently unemployed guy, with nothing to do. Well if nothing means being married and raising 4 kids. My wife and I have 3 beautiful daughters,17, soon to be 14, and just turned 13. Yep - 1997 and 1998 were really busy years for us. Then in 2000 we finally put the stem on the apple and had our son. For the better part of that time I have been out of the house every morning at 8am for work and most days not returning home till after 8pm. I have been laid-off since the beginning of December and I will admit that I have really enjoyed the new found family time.
I said to my wife the other night that I felt that our son had finally gotten to an age that he had become really fun. She gave me that look - you know the look a woman gives you - when you know that whatever you just said could not have come out of your mouth anymore wrong. She said "Your son has always been fun. Its not his fault that you have been working 60 plus hours a week. And after giving it some thought, as usual she's right. So how to have fun with and teach a 10 year old boy how to be a man is the basis of my blog. Like I said I don't know much about blogging but my idea is to share my thoughts on turning a cave boy into a caveman.
I already told you that I have 3 teenage daughters - so yep I spend a lot of time in my man cave, the garage. Now I plan to spend time in there with my cave boy, Bam-Bam. He is gonna need to know basic man things like how to use simple tools and how to lift heavy things. I'm not talking about clubbing cave women over the head and dragging them back to the cave, but I want him to grow up to be a MAN. He should learn how to hike and camp and hunt and fish,build a fire with two sticks and for crying out loud change a flat tire. More John Wayne less John Wayne Bobbitt. Don't get me wrong Bam-Bam has never asked to get his eye brows done, thank goodness. He plays Pee-Wee football and just this year he started wrestling.
I went with RaiseACaveman cause while a mom can teach a boy many many life skills, what I am aiming for is FATHERS to spend time with their sons. I have a 10 year old boy, and I got 4 nephews that are all under 4 years old. I want to spend lots of time with all of them and their dads doing all the stupid guy things that make us guys. Now in order to do that you gotta have a MAN CAVE. I'm not talking about a T.V. room with a bar where you watch football and drink beer. I'm talking a GARAGE (Tim the tool man style) with a pull-up bar and a punching bag. A work bench with a cross bow over the top. Ratchets and tackle boxes, a chop saw and a dart board. A place where you can hang out with your kid and teach him to be a man.
Now I'm also not so naive as to think that all boys wanna hang out with their dads and be subject to a guy like me yelling at him "WORK HARDER ON YOUR ROLLING HALF NELSON!" So I figure we gotta meet the kids half way, which is where your X-BOX skills are gonna have to be sharp. Your gonna need to know all the tricks to Madden, Modern Warfare 2 and of course Halo. Now don't panic. Yes, video games have come a long way from Donkey Kong or Zelda, where ever it was you got off the cycle of upgrading your system. Trust me its like riding a bike. You'll be whipping that kid at guitar hero before you know it.
I think the big thing is that when I think about what kinda man I'd like to see him grow into, it makes me think about what kinda man that I am. Every kid needs a good role model and maybe as long as I'm writing this thing it could help me to be a better one. One that doesn't put his job in front of his family, one thats not 40 lbs over weight, one that brushes his teeth after every meal, it could happen. Anyway thats the point to see if it can happen, and to see if its interesting enough for anyone to follow along and put their 2 cents in. Most importantly its your forum PARENTS, so if there is something you and your son do together, let us know. We will get the word out. For the women it takes a village. For the men it takes a clan - an ancient clan of man cave dwellers to RaiseACaveman.
