Seven years into this parenting thing, I still don’t know how to strike the right balance with anything. Am I too hard on them or too lax with discipline? Do I give them a suitable number of presents or do I spoil them? If there’s one thing I’m sure about, it’s that I overthink things.

This week’s lesson in self-doubt comes from my son’s birthday. By now, he knows the drill: for several days on end, every friend of ours he meets will give him a present of some sort. And I’m sitting here trying to temper his excitement by focusing on that old nugget, “It’s the thought that counts.”

My son, always one to wear his thoughts on his sleeve, has made no bones about how excited he is to receive presents. He’s even approached our friends and asked, “Did you get me a present for my birthday?” When he does that, I squirm uncomfortably because it seems like that’s all he cares about.

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I usually feel like I don’t spend enough time with my family, and that feeling gets worse in the summer. I definitely don’t want to be the dad who works through every vacation. But, alas, I’m a bit of a workaholic. I not only have my normal full-time career, but also two part-time jobs.

So I’ve made a few summer resolutions I’m hoping might help make sure the season goes down as an enjoyable one instead of one that I wasted working, again.

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There are many awesome parts about having a Halloween baby. Then there’s the creepy parts. Creepy can also be awesome, but it does definitely catch me off-guard sometimes.

Kids have built-in weirdness, but my daughter seems to fully embrace her unusual side. As long as she uses it for good, I’m okay with that. Of course, the fact that she was born on Halloween is a coincidence.

Kids don’t need an excuse to creep their parents out. But my daughter happens to exhibit this sort of behavior more than her brother. She’s also great at emoting, which makes anything she does memorable.

Here are just a few of the ways she’s made me raise an eyebrow.

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I’m decent (not great) at avoiding profanity around my kids. But I tend to have loose lips with other topics that I never considered to be a potential issue. For example, after a bad week at work, I made an offhanded comment to some friends that I’m lucky I didn’t get fired.

My son immediately asked me to rewind in my conversation and go over what I had said again. He really looked worried. By this point in his life, he not only realizes that money provides him with safety and comfort, but that my job is the primary source of money in our household.

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I don’t put much stock in New Year’s resolutions, but I do see January as a month for new starts. The new year is filled with new opportunities and challenges. As the parent of two rapidly growing children, here’s what I foresee in 2018.

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Every school day, my daughter waits at the bus stop with another girl and a little boy. The parents chat in the cold until the bus finally rolls around the corner and down the block. As the kids line up, the boy’s father tells his son to show some chivalry and let the girls go first.

Because this has become daily routine, the words “Ladies first” have stuck in my head. I definitely don’t want to fault the dad for trying to raise a gentleman. But I now wonder what the definition of a gentleman really is. Does chivalry serves its purpose in a society where people better recognize gender inequality?

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