Our 700th Dad in the Limelight is Yale Nogin of The Hero Dad Blog. I want to thank Yale Nogin for being a part of this series. It has been great getting connected with him and now sharing Yale Nogin with all of you.
1) Tell me about yourself, (as well as how you are in the limelight for my readers knowledge)
I am a lover of this wild ride we call life. I believe in appreciating every day, the amazing, fun and great days as well as the tough, scary, or overwhelming, days that come along with being married and raising 4 children. From the time I was a small kid working in my parents grocery store I had the opportunity to connect with many people from many walks of life. I would hear people’s stories and they would open up to me and always wanted to help any way I could. I always had a desire to help people.
I started my journey helping others as a Chiropractor. I left my Chiropractic practice after 10 years to work on my real passion which is family and helping families by helping men make a smoother transition into fatherhood and husbandhood with baby version. I started teaching a prenatal class for men called “The Hero Dad’s Infant Manual” 12 years ago and still do today. I recorded my class as an audio class and is online at my website www.TheHeroDad.com and my book will be out later this year which I am really excited for.
On a personal note, I think of myself as a renaissance man as I can hold my own in many areas from cooking to camping to axe throwing to sewing to active listening. With being good at many things I do feel I am the best at being an active, involved parent to my children and having a healthy relationship with my bestest friend, my wife Michelle. My dream is to be a healthy, active, involved grandpa one day.
2) Tell me about your family
Michelle and I will be married 16 years this September and we have 4 children together. On our first date we both said we wanted 4 children, and we were blessed with Eliana 13, Jonah 12, Sarah 9, and Lila 7. We are all about preparing our kids to survive in the world when they are ready to fly the coop. We spend a lot of time teaching them life skills like having patience, working together, cooking, how to keep the house clean, how to manage their “work pay”. For fun we go camping, do archery in the backyard, watch movies and hang out. All of the kids love music and play instruments which they get from Michelle. This summer I got a job at my kids summer camp and we all got to go to sleepaway camp for the whole summer which was an amazing experience and the kids were happy I was there which I feel proud about.
3) What has been the largest challenge you have had in being a father?
The largest challenge I have had being a dad has been developing my patience. I learned staying home and being a full time parent really takes an enormous amount of patience and I needed to develop it which I did through meditation and yoga. Before I actually worked on strengthening my patience, and did not understand that children learn from consistent repetition, I would find myself frustrated a lot which is not productive, healthy or rewarding for me as a parent or my children.
Learning patience has helped me to grow as a parent, a partner and as a person.
4) What advice would you give to other fathers?
The advice I always give to fathers is to take care of your partner! She or he is the best friend that you have. No one else knows what really goes on in your home and there is a real opportunity to develop an incredible, beautiful, intimate relationship with your partner if you put in the work and listen to each other and support each other and have a unified family goal together.
5) How have you come to balance parenthood and outside life?
Still working on this one!! Balancing, the time it takes to raise and guide my children and having a meaningful and real relationship with my wife plus teaching and promoting my class, grocery shopping, exercising, cooking and cleaning takes it’s toll on the hours of the day and some weeks are better than others with balance. I do always come back to the fact that my primary job is taking care of my family and that helps me to put everything in perspective.
6) What have you learned from the fathers that you have interacted with?
I have learned that there is a great group of fathers today caring for their families. I have also learned that I am not alone which I felt for a long time.
7) What else would you share regarding your experiences as a father thus far?
Fatherhood is a real privilege, not everyone gets to be a father. We have a real opportunity to teach our kids about life in a way that is unique to our experiences. We have the opportunity to give them tools and do an even better job than our own father did, even if he did a good job. Always in awe of the real impact fathers have on our families.
It is amazing how emotional I get about my family. I have always been in touch with my feelings, however it always amazes me the passion I feel around the survival of my children and family and preparing them to survive out on their own when they leave the safety of our home and also when I am gone.
8) What have been the most memorable experiences that you have had thus far as a parent?
With four kids in the house we have memorable experiences on a daily basis. I did share a very memorable experience with all four of my kids this summer. I got a job working in their summer camp and got to see them everyday having fun and making memories while not having the daily responsibilities of feeding and managing them. When they would run into each other on their way from here to there, they would hug each other as opposed to the fighting and bickering that goes on during the regular school year. It was beautiful for me to enjoy all of the hugs and kisses and high fives and then they were off with their bunks on adventures.
The most memorable experience of the summer for me is that I got to experience a real sense of pride as many of the adult staff that worked at camp who got to interact and spend time with all four of my kids in many different activities all shared that Michelle and I have parented genuine, respectful (most of the time) and nice young people that were quick to be helpful and were kind to their peers and counselors.
If you have any questions for Yale Nogin, 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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The post Dads in the Limelight – Yale Nogin of The Hero Dad appeared first on Dad of Divas.