Teens Provide Hope on Thanksgiving
As Thanksgiving comes upon us, I am deeply grateful for my wife, sons, extended family, and friends who love me, even when I’m not at my best. I am also thankful for the high school students I get to...
View ArticleFamily Man Recommends: Quick Picks for November
Reviewed by Gregory Keer This month’s FMR: Quick Picks include some holiday-oriented goodies and a couple of other tasty morsels. One of my favorite music people, Debbie Cavalier, releases her third...
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Family Man Recommends: Quick Picks for December
Reviewed by Gregory Keer Heading the year-end recommendations is Lisa Sniderman’s What Are Dreams Made Of? A wildly creative brew of story and song by the San Francisco-based 2012 finalist for the John...
View ArticleFamily Man Recommends: Best Children’s Music of 2013
Reviewed by Gregory Keer I’m joining the Top Ten fray with my annual list of the Best Children’s Music albums of the year. For 2013, the entries had to be released between Nov. 1, 2012 through Sept....
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Great Expectations
By Gregory Keer I always think I’m going to enjoy the holidays more than I do. I imagine the days off as time that will allow me to reduce my stress, live in the moment, and enjoy family and friends....
View ArticleFamily Man Recommends: Quick Picks for January 2014
Reviewed by Gregory Keer The beginning of the year in family music offers a trickle of reviewable discs (lots more starting next month), but there are a couple of nifty educational children’s music...
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Words for My Father
By Gregory Keer Today would have been my father’s 75th birthday. We had been planning to celebrate it for months and months prior to this date, July 12, 2014. Cancer had other plans, and it took him...
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Math Mayhem
In third grade, I was a multiplication whiz. I had memorized most of the times tables with the help of Schoolhouse Rock’s clever cartoons such as “Three is the Magic Number” and “Naughty Number Nine.”...
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Jacob Doing Work
Dear Jacob, When you were born, your eyes opened wide like window shades snapping up to let daylight in. Your big brown peepers compelled everyone’s attention as if to say, “That was a long 40 weeks....
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Be the Light
By Gregory Keer When the trailer for the new Star Wars movie came out, my eldest son was appalled that I waited two weeks to see it. Lucky for me, waiting allowed time for parodies to be created, and...
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Spinning the Presidential Election for Kids
By Gregory Keer Name calling, whining, blaming. If our children do anything of these things, we call them out and explain why these practices are bad. If we see our kids repeat the practices, we give...
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Purple Pain
By Gregory Keer In 2011, I published the following piece about taking my sons to a Prince concert. I don’t get a lot right in my typical daily parenting, but this is one I nailed. Forcing my kids to...
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Letter of Recommendation
By Gregory Keer Dear Benjamin, I am writing to spill my guts about your high school graduation and the beginning of your new journey at college. You know much of what I’m about to say, but try to hold...
View ArticleMass Love in the Wake of Mass Tragedy
By Gregory Keer In the wake of the horrific mass shooting in Orlando on Sunday, June 12, what heartens me are the persistent waves of love pouring out from all over the country and the world. I believe...
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Schooling Boys About Girls
By Gregory Keer Throughout my schooling, it wasn’t English or History that stumped me. It was girls. There was my second-grade test in flirting that ended with a classmate bashing me over the head with...
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Adolescent Fears Strike Out
By Gregory Keer During my tenure as a dad, I’ve weathered enough horrors to rival anything the architects of Halloween could imagine. The middle-of-the night variety of nightmares has been enough to...
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Life is a Sandwich
By Gregory Keer If you ask my wife, I am forever trying to catch up with her. When we walk the dog together, she’s booking down the road like a New Yorker trying to catch a cab while I mosey behind...
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The Gift of Boredom
By Gregory Keer My children are masters at finding my parenting weaknesses. One of them is the simple phrase, “I’m bored.” When I hear those words, I wonder how they could be bored with me as their...
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Soldiering Toward Tolerance
By Gregory Keer The soldier is someone’s child, a boy raised with lessons of love, the value of tolerance, and the benefits of friendship. Eight months into the soldier’s tour of duty, all those...
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A Road Well Traveled
By Gregory Keer It was my eldest son’s first winter break since he started college, and I was so happy to have him home that I had all kinds of plans. We’d watch movies, take in a concert, hit up a...
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