Our 823rd Dad in the Limelight is Jake Monaco. I want to thank Jake Monaco for being a part of this series. It has been great getting connected with him and now sharing Jake Monaco with all of you.
1) Tell me about yourself, (as well as how you are in the limelight for my readers knowledge)
Hi! My name is Jake Monaco and I’m a composer for film and television based out of Los Angeles. I started playing guitar and writing songs when I was a freshman in high school. I played in a band through all of college, toured around a little (while bartending at night in order to actually survive) and eventually found myself attending a post graduate program for film scoring at USC. After that, I worked with another already established composer, Christophe Beck, for about eight years until my personal career began to take off. I’m a bit of a nerd… I love video games, techy computer stuff and Game of Thrones.
2) Tell me about your family
My husband and I started dating in 2006, a few months after we met, when we both lived in Richmond, VA. About two weeks in, I told him I applied to this program in Los Angeles and half jokingly, asked him if he wanted to move with me if I got in. So, here we are, almost 12 years later! We were married in DC on 9/10/11 — I had to choose a date I would remember. A couple of years later, we agreed we were ready to start looking into adoption. We started working with Lifelong Adoptions in the summer of 2013 and on April 29, 2014, we were at the hospital when our son, Ryland Thomas Dodge-Monaco V (or Tommy for short) was born. He is now about three and a half and has a strong opinion about everything.
3) What has been the largest challenge you have had in being a father?
Balancing my career and family has always been a challenge. I don’t have a job with set hours, so depending on how busy a certain time is, that may require me to work more hours. I always do my best to maintain at least an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening to my son. We like to make Mickey Mouse eggs together!
4) What advice would you give to other fathers?
A job is job. No matter what, your family has to come first. Make those sacrifices whenever possible, because you will never get that time back. If I have to be gone for a week for work, I feel like my son has grown so much (mentally) and I don’t want to miss those moments!
5) How have you come to balance parenthood and outside life?
Well, I’m still working on the outside life portion of that… My life pretty much consists of work and family. Finding the time for me, and me alone, is something I value greatly, but have a hard time following through with.
6) What have you learned from the fathers that you have interacted with?
That we are ALL going through something very similar, whether we realize it or not!
7) What else would you share regarding your experiences as a father thus far?
These kids absorb EVERYTHING. Every morning after breakfast, Tommy and I will spend 5-10 min watching youtube videos answering some question that he has asked me over the course of the previous day. A month ago, he wanted to know what happens to your food after you swallow it. He can now tell you the ins (and more specifically the outs) of the digestive system, from the esophagus through your duodenum and beyond (I wouldn’t have been able to tell you half that stuff prior to watching How the Body Works with Chloë and The Nurb — seriously, look it up!). Today he wanted to know about “hot lava” and now he can tell you that lava is magma that come up from the earth’s core, through the mantle and after it comes out of the earth’s crust, it is then technically lava. We love learning!
8) What have been the most memorable experiences that you have had thus far as a parent?
His third birthday (this past April) was a Mickey Mouse themed party. The previous year, we had hired a costume character and I was a little disappointed with how the actor was not sticking to the traits of the character he was portraying (I know… a little silly… but Pablo the penguin from The Backyardigans was a big part of our lives two years ago!). So, this year, Tommy wanted to invite Mickey… I went on eBay and found a pretty good mascot costume, which was much more inexpensive than one might imagine, and for 45 min during his party, I got to be Mickey. No one knows Tommy better than my husband and I, so I was able to play to things I knew he would love. He was so insanely happy and never noticed I was missing!
If you have any questions for Jake Monaco, please leave a comment here and I will make sure that he gets them so that he may be able to respond!
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