Catharsis of the Bogue

Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Category: stay at home dad (Page 1 of 11)

Stay at home dad stuff, domestic tasks

Relativistic Physics for 7 year olds

February 8, 2018 / / 0 Comments

This morning was interesting.  I poured my 7 1/2 year old son a bowl of cereal for breakfast while I was finishing making lunches.  He sat and ate for a few minutes and then he asked, “Dad, if someone from the future takes someone from the past on a time machine to the future, are they the same age or is one really old?”  Yea, ponder that for a minute.

English: Relativistic formula

English: Relativistic formula (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I sat there for a minute or two and finally said “Yes, to both questions.”  Needless to say he was confused.  So here I am trying to figure out how to explain relativity and time travel to a 7 year old so he can understand it.  Yea, his brain is unique.

I started with a bit of relativity, glossing over the theoretical science and math and got to “If you are on an airplane you don’t notice you are moving unless to look out at the ground, but if you are standing on the corner watching the plane it is going fast.  It is all how you are looking at the same thing.”  Confused look for a minute and then, “Oh, so it is like watching a car go by on the road.”  Bah, bested by a 7 year old.

“Yes,” I said, “it is like that.”  And then we get into what happens with time travel and people.  I hold 2 fingers up, one on each hand.  “OK, these are people and they are both 10 years old and they were born 100 years apart.  In normal time they would move at the same rate.”  As i move my fingers at the same time, “each gets older the same but they will never meet.  When the guy in the future goes to the past, he is getting older to himself, but hasn’t even been born yet to the past guy!”  Eyes began to glaze a bit but he stuck with it.

“Ok, if they both jump back to the future, the future guy is still 10 to himself and 10 in his world.  the past guy is 10 in his body, but 110 by his birthday?  Make sense?”  He looked for a minute and said, “So if they guy from the past goes to the future he is still 10.  Got it.”

Yea sure Tristan, you got it.  I am still waiting for a call from the school, either from his teacher, “What are you teaching this kid?”  or from the principal, “Your son got in a fight about time travel and how old he will be in 103 years.”  We will see what happens.

-Justin

SAHD Friday: You Have Your Own Bed!

March 12, 2015 / / 0 Comments
Black recliner (arm chair)

Black recliner (arm chair) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For quite a long time now, it seems my wife and I have not had our own bed.  Starting with my oldest, when she was just getting into her own “big girl” bed, she would join us in our bed at night.  Made for a long night some days, with a wiggly toddler in the bed.  We ended up putting a “princess bed” on the floor that she slept in until she got tired of that and then stayed in her own bed.  That worked for her and my older son, but hasn’t worked out as well for my younger daughter and now my youngest son.

Amelia, my youngest is the one with a kidney transplant.  She has been very clingy since the transplant, and she doesn’t do too bad staying in a “princess bed” or on the recliner.  My youngest son however…… He doesn’t want to stay anywhere, except our bed.  He says his bed is “itchy”.  at least he has a reason.  We are trying to get him into his own special bed or the recliner, but it is a fight.  He likes “mommy’s bed”.  It wouldn’t be too bad, except that he likes to kick and push and keeps us from sleeping well.

Hopefully, this is a phase that is wearing out.  Last night, he managed to stay in his own bed.  That is either a happy coincidence, or the start of something good.  Has anyone else had this problem?  Is this just my problem?  Anyone?

Comments are below…

-Justin

Lessons learned in the Desert. part 1

March 9, 2015 / / 2 Comments

Happy Monday!  So this weekend we went down to see my elderly Great-aunt.  We finally had the time without dialysis or Dr. Appointments to contend with.  All in all it was a great trip.

During the trip we all headed out to the boonies to do some target shooting.  A bit of explanation here.  As you probably know by now, I live in Utah.  I have since I was about 3 months old and my dad got out of the Navy and came home.

He was raised ina small coal mining town in eastern Utah called Dragerton, now East Carbon.  And it is in the desert.  Interesting thing: this is not the blowing sands and pyramids type desert, there are animals everywhere.  Sagebrush, juniper, cedar and a myriad of grasses cover the land.  It gets hot and dry in the day and can be downright cold at night.  It fits all definitions of a desert.  Not much rain being the big one.

It is also a place where dinosaurs once roamed.  There are still fossils they are finding in the area.  I have found chunks of dinosaur bone while we have been down there.  It was also right around the land where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid used to roam with the Wild Bunch.  Legend says there is still gold down there somewhere.  I havent found it yet.

Back when I was a kid, we would go down there 3-4 times per year to visit my aunt and my Great Grandparents who lived there.  We would go out hunting for rocks, or worm’s teeth (yes teeth from prehistoric worms, I have some and it was a professor who told my aunt and Father about them, 8-10 feet long at least and as big around as a car tire.  The ants bring them up from way underground.  You search through gravel and pick them out.) or just run the desert.

We would always go out shooting for practice and it was always a good time to get out with my father, grandfather and great grandfather and blow away cans or paper targets.  We would go out to the desert and shoot for hours, totally lost in the moment.  During all of those trips I learned how to shoot, how to handle the weapon, and how to interact with the surroundings.

I always liked doing something that my forefathers valued so much.  In the past 15 years or so, I haven’t had much of a chance to get out and go shooting.  I lost my Great-Grandfather in 2002 and my Grandfather in 2006.  My father is always busy and while we talk about going, it isn’t going to happen any time soon.  This is sad for my kids, because they really need to spend that time with their grandfather.  Besides he is a kick ass shot, that was all he did growing up.  Then they made him a sniper in the Navy because he was that good.

I once saw my dad try to hit a coyote from about 50 yards and he didn’t.  A while later he hit another coyote from the top of a ridge at over 500 yards.  I only aspire to be that good.  I have only told the story to my kids, I hope they get a chance to see it.

This weekend we did get out to go shooting, Me and my family. This turn I was the one in charge.  I was the instructor.  I was the safety master.  I had assumed a new role.  We had gone out to a remote place in the desert just like we used to.  We set up targets (those happy meal toys from McD are awesome to shoot.  They get a couple of good hits and explode.  Buzz Lightyear meets Mr. .22 slug and doesn’t fare well. ).  We shot and shot.

Part 2 is waiting right Here!

SAHD Friday- A Lack of Naked Barbies….

March 6, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Hello all.  So I am back to writing my Friday posts all about being a Stay at Home Dad.

Last night I had a strange thought.  I was getting in the shower and there were no naked barbies in the tub.  Let me tell you, there is a creepiness that Mattel never intended with a Barbie doll that is your daughter playing with them in the bath, and subsequently leaving them there.  Without clothes.  Why? “Well Daddy, she can’t bath with her clothes on.”  was the logic from my oldest daughter, though she would probably deny that now.

 

Playing with the barbies in the bath would not be so bad, it is when I would go to take a shower and there were 10 of the things naked in the tub.  Made me feel quite creepy to tell the truth.  But last night there were no naked barbies.  Sure I had to clean up some hot wheels cars and a boat, but no barbies.  I had almost a nostalgic twang before the elation crept in.

 

My kids are growing up.  My youngest daughter is almost 9, and she rarely plays in the bath anymore, and when she does, she cleans up the toys.  The older kids just shower.  It is only my 4 year old son who has the bulk of the bath toys, and his are not barbie.

 

Mainly, I start thinking about how my kids are growing up, and the things that we are losing, or more correctly, just done with.  We start cleaning out things to send to charity, and many of the toys that we have accumulated over the years are not relevant or just not being played with anymore.  We don’t want to hang on to these, we don’t want to move them again.  We have thought about saving some for grandkids to play with in the future, but, looking at it, why bother?  By the time we have grandkids and unpack these wonderful (?) toys that we have saved, the plastic will be brittle, pieces will be lost, and there will be so many other new toys out there that it doesn’t make sense to save anything.

 

Some other things have gone away as well.  My favorite thing to get rid of was the diaper genie.  Now, the diaper pail is a great invention, and the diaper genie is great because it holds in some of the smell, but I’ll tell you, the day we thew that thing in the garbage 2 years ago I danced a jig.  We have finally now got rid of all diapers and pull ups.  Some days I am not sure if that is a good thing or not, it is easier to toss a pull up than wash out tiny underwear, but….I have a whole other post about potty training coming up.

 

In the end, there are some pangs of nostalgia for the things that we had to have when the kids were babies and now don’t need anymore.  There are strange feelings when you realize your daughter, your little girl, the one you held most of the first night when she was born the day before yesterday (now 14 years) now needs deoderant, or a bra….don’t get me started.  Or when your son starts to leak body odor like an Exxon tanker, and it is time for his deoderant.  Or when it is finally time to stop helping your kids bathe because they are just too old and it is not appropriate.

 

Yes there will be new things.  in about a year and a half, there will be a drivers license for my oldest, some pretty significant church stuff for my son, and school starting for the youngest.  Holy cow, I am getting old.  But I wouldn’t trade this for the world.

 

Until later,

 

-Justin

 

 

 

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