Parenting as a Christian Single Dad

This weekend will be Madalyn's 4th birthday, however she will be with her mother so I decided to give her presents early. Grandma and Grandfather got her a Barbie, car, and clothes for the Barbie. Pretty cool! I am curious to know if anyone else has problems getting toys out of their package without wanting to destry them? Is it just me or are the toy companies trying to make it difficult. It is probably me... So we get to putting the clothes on the doll. I think the top is a bit tight, I struggle getting the pants on and mind you I spent a good 5 minutes wiggling this Barbie into these clothes for my happy little girl. Finally, I get to put the shoes on and they are way too SMALL. I mean there was no way to cram those feet in there at all. It dawned on me the clothes must of been for a different Barbie. I just figured it was lifelike and I have seen women work their way into a pair of pants not to mention the ones that purposely wear to small of shirts. Anyhow I have lea...

HELP!! The power struggle amongst Madalyn and I has been getting intense lately. I continually pray for wisdom and patience but the situations just seem to be getting worse. I ask Madalyn to use her words and talk to me about what she needs or what is wrong but she just “grunts” at me. She doesn’t want to listen until she gets in trouble and then she tells me, “I am ready to listen, daddy.” Then the cycle continues all over again. I don’t know what to do, the timeouts are not that effective and I feel like much of our time together is spent arguing, and “no” I am not talking about my exwife. :-) I just hate feeling like my kid is always mad at me or that I am a drag but I tell her I am just trying to help her to get what she wants. We have things we need to do before we can have a treat, like eat dinner. Going any place turns out to be a nightmare. I am incapable of controlling her and I don’t know what to do. My words are empty to her and my actions have no real effect....

Here it is another Friday night and I am finding myself lonely, alone and depressed. I feel like I am the only one that has no plans or no one to spend quality time with. At least when I have Madalyn I have companionship and something to do. I guess it is not all bad, I do enjoy the time to myself but for so long I have prayed for my best friend. I continue to pray that God will make the way for her soon. On a different note: I have been praying for ideas and places to meet people that don’t have to do with bars and clubs and as I checked my mail this evening I found a neat publication that listed classes for next month at local high schools. All sorts of classes, it was a total answer to prayer. The opportunity to be around others and learn something, WOW! I know God worked that out for me and I am thankful. I can’t wait to check some out next month. Tomorrow will be better, I can see Madalyn running to daddy for a big hug, I can’t wait. I can’t wait for some adult companio...