Matthew McConaughey says love isn't a 100-watt bulb, it's a 30-watt bulb
"I don't see how the honeymoon period lasts forever. The honeymoon is all on hope and the possible. We don't know each other as well as we're going to. Now we're getting into real stuff. Real pains, real pleasures, real fatigue, real wins together"
"If you try to hold onto that 100-watt bulb to be the light all the time, you're Wonder Woman, I'm Superman. It seems humanly impractical to live up to and unfair to each other"
"There's a preacher who said love is more like a 30-watt bulb. Dim the light a little bit. It'll last longer. Not as bright, but it'll illuminate longer. It's more realistic. It's more human"
Dr. Becky Kennedy flipped how I think about kids’ meltdowns and frustration
She says true resilience isn’t avoiding hard things, it’s learning to tolerate them. When your toddler is losing it over a puzzle and begging “do it for me,” that’s actually your Super Bowl moment as a parent. Those are the times you’re wiring their nervous system for how they’ll handle life later.
Her line that stuck with me: “A parent’s words become a child’s self-talk.”
This one really made me pause. I’ve jumped in too fast to fix frustration instead of sitting with it. Being the “dimmer switch” for big emotions instead of the off switch feels like such a better approach.
We’re not raising kids for an easy life. We’re raising them to handle a hard one. The small moments of tolerated discomfort build real strength.
Have you caught yourself rescuing your kid from frustration too quickly, or are you learning to sit with it?
This kind of “traveling” is overrated. Tourist destinations are all the same. A resort in Florida is like a resort anywhere else. These kinds of people think they’ve “seen the world” but they’ve seen less of the world than someone who reads books instead.
Before battle, Roman soldiers heard an eerie, otherworldly wail rising from the Celtic ranks. It came from the Carnyx, a towering bronze war horn used from 200 BC to 200 AD, and it was designed to terrify.
Interesting stuff from Aaron Rai talking about how he played golf as a kid, and a pretty stark juxtaposition of how 99% of kids are taught today.
He didn't play from a real set of tees until he was 12, learning how to take it under par at a very early age.
Being a parent changes this perspective. It’s easy to check out as an adult, but when you have kids you have to rage against defeatism.
You have to find the hope in the darkness, because your kids are born happy and naive. They aren’t cynical like you, so you get to reopen your eyes to the world from a new perspective. You have to dig for genuine meaningfulness in life without ceasing, because nobody wants their children to give up on their lives, or think there’s no point to anything.
The goal of a melody is not the end of the melody.
People without children are more biased to cynicism and selfishness then parents, no matter how hard they try not to be.
A few things to consider here. First, if he has to get up and go to work so that you can stay home with the baby, yes, he needs to sleep. If you are nursing, you’re going to be up all night to keep your milk supply up. Nursing a newborn is a 24/7 job. That’s just the way it goes. This is why I support mothers staying home. Trying to do all this while having a full-time job is a nightmare. Also, motherhood is not meant to be something only the mother and father deal with. Mothers historically had their own mothers, sisters, and the other women in their lives to help them with things like this. It’s not all supposed to get dumped on the husband. He has other very important functions that he needs to be able to perform in order to support his family. I think expecting husbands to share equally in newborn duties is ridiculous and not in the best interest of most mothers. A little help here and there? Sure. Expecting him to do 50%? Not reasonable if you still want him to be the protector and provider. We came up with this 50-50 equal parenting stuff when we pushed mothers into the workforce. The truth is that things will equal out overtime but they are not going to be 50-50 at all times through all stages. Mothers put in the most work on the front end of the child’s life. By the time the child reaches the age of reason, the fathers start taking over a lot more of the discipline and other duties, especially with sons. They also bear a lot of other burdens that mothers never will, including being the breadwinner. It equals out over the long haul. This is why I think the strict egalitarian view is damaging and set up unrealistic expectations for couples.
These are universal Dad moves that transcend time, place, and dignity
Which is a Dad job. Cause our little gals grow up
I think they secretly love it. But that is just me !!