Docs2Dads - A Pediatrician’s Field Guide for Fathers

Well Dads, it’s official.  My wife and I are totally outnumbered. We have more kids than adults living in my house, which will be the most significant adjustment since we brought our first child home.   So I brought in an expert for us to learn from. Josh  Simmons is a successful tech entrepreneur who was once my youth minister. He and his wife are on the journey of raising five children together...

Throughout this podcast, we have spent a lot of time helping men prepare for fatherhood.  As a pediatrician who has coached hundreds of families in the early months of life. I have shared my field guide for how dads can prepare for and adjust to their role as dads to get immense joy and meaning from that role.  But when you go through the process a second time (or a third or fourth), there is some...

Welcome back to the Docs2Dads Podcast. I am happy to be concluding my Raising Resilient Kids series with one last tool for your Resilient Kids Tool box: Perspective Taking.  Overall, these tools are  1) Safety and Security 2) Compassionate Predictable Availability 3) The Emotional Container and now... 4) Building Empathy by practicing seeing the world through someone else's eyes. As will all...

Much is made of children having "big feelings," but in some situations, this is not only understandable; it is expected.  Dr. Viktor Frankl says in his groundbreaking, "Man's Search for Meaning" that an Abnormal Reaction to an Abnormal Situation is Normal Behavior.   We see this in a unique way in kids who have been exposed to various kinds of trauma.  We have talked over...

This week is part 3 of our Raising Resilient Thriving Children Series.  This week, we are talking about the second  tool in the toolbox for parents.  This tool is best emulated by Mr. George Feeney from one of my favorite shows growing up, Boy Meets World. Whenever the students were in trouble, Mr. Feeney was there with a listening ear, a loving correction, or a wise recommendation. I also love th...

This week on the Docs2Dads podcast, we are continuing our series on raising resilient thriving kids!! This we talk about the hopeful side of last week’s interview. What do we do for kids to help them learn from positive stress and prevent the adverse health outcomes from ‘toxic’ stress.  What is the most important variable that determines if kids will have health outcomes from their adversity? Can...

This week, I am excited to bring you an interview I did with some dear friends on their Podcast - " Less Stress in Life " where we talked about my philosophy of being a pediatrician and helping families cope with the stresses that all families face. I start the episode with some explanations of what we mean we discuss "trauma" and "Adverse Childhood Experiences" and s...

Every day you do things that don't necessarily feel important at the moment but are vital to the long-term development of meaningful relationships. It is in these daily seemingly mundane experiences that we find the joy and meaning of our family relationships.  Large romantic gestures and long vacations are nice, but they aren't always practical and will only get you so far if you aren&a...

Sometimes we forget that we are made up of different parts of our lives.  We cannot live as though our personal and professional lives don't blend together or affect each other.  This week in the podcast I reflect on one aspect of this personal/professional integration and consider the ways that becoming a dad has made me a better doctor.  It's possible, that I was going to become a bett...

The second book we are going to explore for our Book Club series is Atomic Habits by James Clear. I've referenced this book a few times on previous episodes, but I wanted to give its proper due by making it the focal point of a full episode. If you want to know all the ways this book can turn you into a super productivity machine, then you should check out other videos and podcasts done by fo...

This summer, I've been making time to read some business books to grow the podcast and develop Docs2Dads into something that will bring value to my fellow dads out there.  One of the things that struck me as I read these books is how applicable these business concepts are to the way that we run our household as well.  This week in the podcast I talk about three takeaways from a recent book I...

As June turns to July, it feels like summer is starting to slip away. This year I am determined to make the most of the time I can spend with my kids as my oldest turns four. This is our last summer before he starts school in the Fall.  We only get eighteen summers with our kids before they are grown and out of the house. We need to be intentional with the time we spend with our children and summe...

Sooner or later you reach a breaking point or at least a moment where you know you have to make a change. This moment for me was when I melted down in a meeting in front of my boss and senior colleagues. I realized that while my energy and passion served me well overall if I couldn’t learn to harness that energy it would be bad for my health and make me less effective as a doctor, husband, and fat...

Our money is a reflection of our values.  This is my biggest takeaway from the excellent conversation I bring you this week.  Financial wellness is one of the biggest challenges for dads. Money problems are one of the most frequently cited reasons for divorce. Children can grow up with an unhealthy relationship with money whether they grow up with too much or not enough. But if we keep in mind tha...

Happy Father's Day from the Docs2Dads Podcast!! This week, I am so excited to welcome Dr. Jeremy Toffle ( @imperfectdadmd ) to the show. In this episode, we talk about dad life and embracing our imperfections when things don't go perfectly. We talk about our generation of dads and how we want to find fulfillment in our personal and professional lives and who fatherhood looks different fo...

Dad life gets busy. It can be difficult to make time for what we need to do in order to care for ourselves.  Spending hours in the kitchen cooking food you hate just to eat it every day for the next two weeks is the only thing worse than spending hours in the gym doing supersets until you can barely move. THERE IS A BETTER WAY and I have invited Nutrition and Fitness Coach Bart Cagara to teach us...

We are just two weeks away from our first Docs2Dads LIVE! event . Sign up with the link or by heading over to our LinkedIn company page or docs2dads.com . This is a FREE event where I share my secrets to maximize playtime take your questions live. Space is limited. June is Men's Health Month and we kick it off with a family physician who has been in practice for over 20 years. We talk about t...

To conclude our development and playtime series, this week I am joined by the love of my life and my partner in building our dream life, Dr. Laura Grant. We share some of the lessons we have learned on our parenting journey and our tips for finding JOY in the chaos of raising two kids and preparing for a third. Above all, I hope you see that we are all on this journey together and trying to share...

Docs2Dads Live is coming June 15th and I want you to be there.  This is a free event, but space is limited. Subscribers to the Docs2Dads Newsletter will get priority access to these events, so go to www.docs2dads.com now to subscribe so you can claim your spot today.  The terrible twos get a bad rep. Sure, there can be some tough days as they start to discover their emotions. But this is another p...

Welcome back to the Development and Play series.  This week, we are talking about children aged 12-18 months.  Kids at this age are perpetual motion machines. They are on the move and don't stop moving unless they are sleeping. There is so much fun and games to enjoy with kids this age.  We cover all the milestones your child should be hitting in this age range and talk a little bit about aut...

WOW!! I can't believe we have arrived at episode #25!! I am so grateful to all of the folks who have made this possible. Your support and participation in this journey has it as much fun as I could have ever hoped for. With your support we will be around for 25 more and beyond!! This week, we are part 3 of our development series talking about 6-9 month olds and this is MY FAVORITE age in the...

Hey dads, did you get our first issue of the Docs2Dads Newsletter last week? If not, it's because you haven't gone to www.docs2dads.com yet to sign up for our mailing list. Each issue will include a key takeaway from the podcast, some inspiration for your weekend playtime, and what I'm doing in my downtime that might be interesting to you or help you up your game as a dad. This week...

If there's one area where dads really feel comfortable and confident when they start their journey as a father, it's play!! Dads want to play with their kids. Dads want to throw a ball with their kids and wrestle with them. We want to play dress up and do tea time. When we daydream about our new baby, even while they are still in the womb, it's about the fun things we want to do wit...

The last few weeks have been full of the ups and downs of fatherhood. I had a couple of days where everyone in my family was sick, which meant more time together as a family, but it's not always easy to find joy in those extra moments together when you aren't feeling well or your kids are sick. I also share the story of a cool professional opportunity I had and the mixed emotions that le...

We are gearing up for our next big series on Development which will include deep dives into all the different areas of development and how dads can use their time with their kids to maximize Developmental Play. Before we get to that, I wanted to spend some time talking about some wisdom I read in a few different places recently in regards to the words we use with ourselves, our wives, and our kids...