Name: John Petersik
Occupation: blogger
Kid: Clara, age 2
Location: Richmond, VA
Where to find me online: Young House Love
1. A song I'll be really bummed if my kids don't end up loving: Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again." I'm already bummed my wife doesn't like it.
2. A parenting trick that works for me and not for my wife: Those awkwardly giant race car shopping carts? You know, the ones that make grocery shopping bearable? I'm the pro driver of the family.
3. My favorite toy from childhood: I was a LEGO nut. My parents actually just gave me two big tupperware bins of my old LEGO's that I'll break out when Clara's a bit older.
4. A product I would recommend to another dad: I just put an iBert child seat on my bike so Sherry and I can take Clara on nice long rides (thankfully Clara loves it).
5. My favorite children's book: Wacky stuff like Where The Sidewalks Ends and Sideways Stories from Wayside School will always have a place in my heart.
6. A website or blog I visit regularly: I tried to think of something cool to say, but really I'm just addicted to Facebook.
7. A question I hope my kid never asks me: Anything about feminine hygiene products. My first job involved advertising tampons, so if Clara ever asks me I'm afraid I might reveal how much I actually know. And that could be awkward... for both of us.
8. My favorite way to spend a few hours with my kids: Singing and dancing to the radio in our kitchen. She's got the moves like Jagger.
9. A myth about modern dads: That being a modern father means you spend more time playing with your kids. It also means more time dressing, diapering, bathing, cooking for, shopping for, and cleaning up after your kids. It takes cajones.
10. My parenting superpower: Making diaper changes fun. It usually involves improvised songs... sometimes with lyrics about poop.
Thanks John!
Justin's Contemporary Contrast
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Flatwa...
On Saying No to Paleo: Why Eating Isn't One Size Fits All
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
i don't believe mr petersik has 3 boys....
"3 boys: Clara, age 2" ???
I am a devoted YHL reader, and love to see John and Clara featured here. But I have to take issue with his assertion that "diapering, bathing, cooking for, shopping for, and cleaning up after your kids... takes cajones." I, like most moms I know, do the heavy lifting in all of those departments in my family, and I can aver that one bit of anatomy it does not take is cojones. Unless he really *does* mean "cajones" (drawers), in which case I wholeheartedly agree. Drawers are very useful for stashing away all those kids' toys and diapers, and I really wish I had more drawers in my kitchen for wrangling all those sippy cups and kid snacks (drawers are so much more functional than plain door cabinets). ;) Kidding aside, I like to see the features here on dads, and I love anything that encourages more dads to step up to the plate like this and do more of the every day hard work of raising kids. John really does seem like a great dad!
The Petersiks have a very positive corner of the internet right at YHL. I really liked this interview, and my husband will agree with him that modern fathers need guts to deal with everything their own fathers never touched.
^ What HYZEN said. While I am an avid YHL reader, I also took issue with the notion that taking care and sharing parenting duties takes "cajones." C'mon, John! You're cooler than that!
Settle. I read it takes cajones as it takes a man to be a dad. He's not saying you have to have cajones to take care of a child at all.
I agree with Brittany, you guys read WAY too much into it. For crying out loud.
I love YHL and I have an especially warm spot in my heart watching John be a "Modern Dad". I love seeing John fold baby girl socks one minute and build a patio the next.
I think men one or two generations ago felt that raising children and all the day to day responsibilities that entailed was women's work and feminine. I remember having a male teacher once brag that he had never changed a single diaper even though he had three children. I love that John is confident in his "manhood" and understands that by helping out with ALL the responsibilities he is being a great father and husband, which doesn't detract or diminish his masculinity, it adds to it. It does take a real man, or "real cajones", to set aside old prejudices and stereotypes and do things our fathers and grandfathers deemed feminine and beneath them. Next year for Father's day, I'm going to have a shirt printed for my husband that says "It takes real cajones to be a Modern Dad"