By Rafe Esquith

It'd be nice if there was a secret I could tell you about how to instantly make your kids more successful in school and life. But there is no magic pill, only that old stand-by, hard work. And the funny thing about that is, you can't force kids to work hard. I suppose you could try, but I've rarely seen anything useful come from kids whose parents had to hold their noses to the grindstone. If there's something close to a secret, perhaps it's this: Kids work hard when they want to work hard, and this happens only when are motivated to do so by some positive internal goal, and not by fear or because they are worried about disappointing others. They work hard because they value hard work. Instilling kids with values like this is the first step the long road to real success.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing you can do to make this happen. Here are five ways to put your kids on the path to extraordinary:

This just in from the folks at Supernanny...

Grass Valley, California, March 20, 2009—Why Not Dad?, the short documentary made about and in collaboration with a group of stay-at-home dads living in San Francisco, will be screening at the upcoming Sacramento International Film Festival.

I've been getting a lot of interview requests lately for "dads who are now stay at home dads due to the economic downturn".   If that's you, and you don't mind sharing your experiences with a newspaper reporter (it's usually just a 10 minute conversation on the phone), contact me by clicking here.   Let me know your contact information (name, phone, email, city and state) and I'll pass it along (only to qualified legitimate reporters) or keep it in my files for the next similar request (I'm expecting another one any minute now ).

That said, it's also worth noting that a lot of the dads around here are at-home by choice, not because they were involuntarily forced out of the workplace.   Neither is better or worse, it's just important to realize that there are lots of different reasons that dads are at home.

If you have any comments on this topic, feel free to post them below.

Here are the winners of our ProFlowers.com giveaway.   See the entries here.   Each person gets an gift certificate worth $70 to select Valentine’s flowers or gifts from the ProFlowers catalog.   These are in no particular order:

The folks at ProFlowers.com have offered us five gift certificates to give away to the dads on AtHomeDad.org.   Each certificate is worth $70 to select Valentine’s flowers or gifts from the ProFlowers catalog.  See www.proflowers.com for selections.    In the interest of fairness..and entertainment...we are going to have a little contest to decide who should get them.    The rules are simple:

At-Home Dads Brainstorming Session - February 3, 2009
What: www.Coloradodads.com is hosting a brainstorming session on ways to reach out, support and resource at home dads in Colorado.

Time: February 3, 2009 @ 6:00 p.m.

Baltimore Dads, a chapter of Daddyshome, Inc., is featured in a new documentary by Loud Communications, LLC. to premiere January 25th, 2009 at 4:00 pm.; at The Creative Alliance at The Patterson, in downtown Baltimore.

Much like PBS, NPR, and similar organizations, AtHomeDad.org runs on the support of its viewers. Keeping the site going involves ongoing expenses and an ongoing time commitment from me. The money pays for things like web hosting (the site is too complicated to work on basic free hosting plans) and software. The time goes to things like debugging the site, developing new features, designing pretty pages that people like to look at, editing posts, fighting spam, and responding to a steady stream of inquiries from members, press, and random visitors. Although the ads on the site help a bit, the income they provide is minimal.

It's been about a year since I've mentioned any of this (http://www.athomedad.org/node/1818) and, coincidentally, it's been about a year since I've received any donations (http://www.athomedad.org/donations). So, I thought it would be reasonable to briefly bring it up again. We're not going to have a week long pledge drive, and I'm not going to lay on any guilt or sob stories. However, I will say that any support you'd like to offer will be genuinely and greatly appreciated, as it has in the past.

If you'd like to help keep the site going, buy me a beer, or otherwise throw some money into the AtHomeDad.org hat, click on the "donate" link above, or go here:

http://www.athomedad.org/donate

If you're logged in, your donation will be listed on the donors page. If you want to donate but don't want to be listed, just log out before donating.

Thanks!

-Mike

Another TV show if you're interested... Here's the announcement:

Leopard Films USA is currently looking for male-run daycares, stay-at-home dad networks, and "Daddy and Me" playgroups to profile and feature in a new day-in-the-life documentary series for a top cable company. For this family-friendly TV show, we are looking for dads who are willing to share their day to day experiences as a stay-at-home father, or as a dad who actively runs a daycare/playgroup. If you or your organization is interested, please contact Elyse Wilson at elyse.wilson@leopardfilms.com

Update 11/20/20008...Here's some additional description I got from them (this also matches with Mike Stilwell's comments below). This sounds encouraging and worth supporting:

This is 100% an observational documentary series that follows the group and tells the story from their perspective. What would be exciting is the compelling narratives told from the fathers themselves, for a new perspective into what it's really like for a father to take on the role that has been "traditionally" left for the mom. This show would look to break down these stereotypes in a way that hasn't been shown on television yet. Along the lines of Jon and Kate plus 8 and Little People, Big World - this show would not look to make fun of or embarrass people that are regular, everyday people but who can be in a sometimes different situation than the majority.

If you participate or find out more, please post a comment here.

Here is another study request from the folks at the University of Texas. It's by Dr. Aaron Rochlen, who has done some good research on at-home dads and participates on this site. This one is for your wives. Have her help out if she can.

Check this out. Help if you can:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26867370/
and
http://bringseanhome.org/

The organizers of the At-Home Dads Convention are offering sponsorship opportunities. This is a great way to get your company in front of a great group of involved dads.

Your sponsorship will help promote your business in a positive way. It...

Here's another research request. Although this is an undergrad project, I like this one because it's focusing on the resources available to dads, which is something a little different. So, help out if you can. Here's the info: