about

Who is the Lost Parent?

Krakow My name is Andre and my hometown is Carlsbad, California, USA. For the past four years, however, I have been living in Poland where I teach English as a foreign language. EFL teaching is very interesting work. It’s a lot different than traditional K-12 teaching, in both good and bad ways. In the end, however, I enjoy it a lot because it assures me a decent financial level for Poland as well as gives me professional freedom that would be hard to find in the United States for someone of my age. I also get to meet very interesting people. All this for just speaking my own language naturally.

In the summer of 2007, K honey became my wife after years of dating and engagement. We also have a pet M dog, who enjoys eating and rolling around in smelly stuff. To the right you can see a picture of the three of us together in Krakow.

In Sept ‘08, we are expecting our first child. She is the motivation for this blog, of course, and I’m interested in developing this blog further as she comes into the world and grows.

Why “lost” parent diary?

Learning about fatherhood was a moment filled with mixed thoughts and emotions. On the one hand, our efforts to begin our own family had materialized and we were taking the serious steps in that direction. On the other, it’s one thing to talk about doing it, and another to know it’s actually happening! It occurred to me that as a future father, I know almost nothing…. I felt lost.

With this blog, I hope to find my way through fatherhood. I know I won’t be a perfect parent, but with a little bit of help from my family and readers, I can be the best parent I can be.

What do you mean by “interactive ‘best practices’ parenting blog”?

I address my motivation, goals and vision for this blog in one of my first posts.

interactive - I hope to make my blog one of the most commented parenting blogs out there. At the end of posts I’ll try to provoke conversation by asking questions, stating my opinion, etc. We learn together and from each other. As an educator, I know I learn just as much from my students as they do from me.

“best practices” - I want to throw something out there right now: there is no such thing as a perfect parent or a single best way to do something. In fact, there are several good ways of doing just about anything, especially when it comes to parenting. But, if you compare two ways of doing the same thing, chances are that one of them will be the better way. If you compare three or more ways of doing something, chances are there will be a best way of doing things from among the given options. So, why can’t well do things the “best way”?