Just Some Dads

Welcome to the first episode of a four part series on being a new dad! In this episode we talk about what happens leading up to labor and delivery, as well as what you can expect to happen in the first 24 hours of being a new dad. It's an exciting time and a lot happens. This is the first of many steps for you on your road to becoming the ultimate dad. Are you a new dad? Do you know someone who will be a new dad soon? Share this episode with all your new dad friends!

In this episode we jump head first into how to be supportive of your spouse and how they may be supporting you. We take a look at using personality tests, understanding love languages, and some practices we've used in our lives and had other share with us that have helped us become more supportive of our lovely wives.

Find us on Facebook and Instagram and let us know about all the creative ways that you've come up with to be supportive of your spouse.

Here is a link to a FREE Enneagram Test, similar to the ones we took for this episode. 

Collin and Michael tackle whether or not to tackle a DIY. They even went so far as to create a decision tree to help you out. Go look for it on our Facebook and Instagram.  Huge thanks to one of our listeners for submitting a question about DIY that prompted this whole discussion. Hopefully this helps you out in your future projects and dad awesomeness!

There's no beating around the bush on this one. We all know what key events have been happening and also what is happening this week (Wednesday). Now, we're not a politics focused podcast. But we can try to help other dads out when it comes to disagreeing. So we turned to one of the few things Collin and Michael disagree about, pickles.

In this episode we provide examples and tools to help you turn arguments into disagreements, help you avoid negativity when you disagree, and work out ways to apply these tips to your own life.

We know we don't always agree on everything, or most things it may seem. However, we can get along and support each other as dads trying to raise our families in the best way that we can.

Here is the list of articles we referenced in this episode:
https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/tips-disagree.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/9-tips-talking-people-you-disagree-ncna1059326
https://www.inc.com/kat-boogaard/6-key-tips-to-respectfully-disagree-with-someone.html

In this episode we talk about the future! We address how to make it all yours and go just the way you need it to, all the while, doing it like pirates! Okay, not really, but we do have a fun little section where we talk about pirates and how they can help you in successfully planning for your future. Trust us, it works. 

We address topics this week that include setting meaningful goals. What does that look like? How do you do it? What are the practical dad applications and examples? 

We also talk about planning to achieve those goals. Different ways to plan based on the ways that your brain handles planning and thinking things out. 

We do this all in the scope of building a 5-Year Plan for you and your family. Listen in Dads and go make that plan!

We had a completely different topic planned for today's episode and we ended up scrapping it during recording in favor of a different topic. Interested? Well, it was interesting for sure. Especially since we didn't edit it out and we just let the tape roll. Was it worth it? You tell us.

Are you running on fumes too? These past few (hours/days/weeks/months/longer), take your pick,  have been hitting us everywhere. We scrapped our original topic to share with you some of the things that have rattled us lately and we try to help each other talk through our difficulties and lift each other up. Hopefully, some of the encouragement that we share with each other will encourage you and give you the boost that you need to keep pushing through.

Sometimes life is just tough to go through. Talk to someone about it.

P.S. Stick-to-itiveness: A real word, not invented by Collin, that means "dogged perseverance".
P.S.S. Listen to the end....we left you all an Easter Egg.

For our the original discussion on turbulence and trees that we mention by Dieter Uchtdorf, click here. 

This episode it dedicated to dad self care. This isn't your lavender bath bomb, candle-lit, romance novel self care. We break down self care into a couple of categories that you can apply in your daily dad life to boost your morale, energy, and ability to be the epic parent that you are. 

In this Christmas Episode we discuss some of our favorite Christmas stories. It just so happens that Collin and Michael have stories related to major wars. Listen in to hear about some phenomenal experiences of finding some Christmas light in the darkest of moments.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and we hope this episode helps you grow in your Holiday Spirit, especially with the kind of year we have all had.

We are grateful for you all, our listeners. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.


The First Noel by Yoshinori Tanaka / 田中 芳典 | https://soundcloud.com/yoshinori-tanaka-guitar
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US

We talk to total epic dad, Michael Mastaler, former SWAT and K9 officer and dad to three boys just as epic as he is. Michael shares a lot about his experience when his K9 bit his oldest son (who we call Hunter the Brave) bad enough that it led to amputation.  He talks with us about his time in law enforcement and how he worked with his family through those difficult and uncertain times. The last thing you don't want to miss in this episode is the insight that this giant among men gives us about the way he conducts his life in order to manage some of the world-rocking experiences that he's had. Please join us for our 10th episode!

You can follow Hunter the Brave and his shenanigans here.

If you've been inspired by the experiences of the Mastaler family, we invite you to check out the Ronald McDonald House Charities. This is a wonderful organization that provided much needed services to Michael and his family in their weeks of need. 

This week, we talk with Hunter Steed, the man who just lost 18 inches of his intestines. Do we have your attention yet?

Hunter is a fairly new dad with a beautiful little girl. He talks us through some intense health issues that he, his daughter, and his stalwart wife have gone through and how they have managed to survive this crazy year together, coming out on the other side stronger.

Hunter is a pro at siding houses, who has a hobby as an amateur film critic (which is hard to do when theaters are closed...). Check out his website here!