Wanted: DadWagon’s Newest Suckers (only moneybags need apply)

It’s possible that some of you have noticed a certain downturn in the number of DadWagon posts in recent months. I want to assure you that while my name hasn’t appeared much on the site, the real culprit here is in fact Nathan. I’ve been writing lots of things—poignant, amusing, wry—and he just fucking deletes them.

There’s a whole passive-aggressive competition thing that goes on behind the scenes at DadWagon that most people (okay, no people) know about, but frankly it’s reached a boiling point. The result: while I can’t actually replace Nathan—he has the only key to the executive washroom—I can reduce his importance to the overall project.

In short: DadWagon is hiring! Well, not so much hiring—we don’t really make any money—but we are looking for a fourth guy (or a huskily voiced woman) to join the team at what very few people other than ourselves consider the best Dad blog on the Internet.

Readers, dear, dear, readers: Who should it be? You? Steven King? The guy hogging the couch at your local cafe? We’d like to hear your thoughts. And remember: blame Nathan.

 

UPDATE: Hey folks. Tell us in the comments why you are the man (or woman, seriously) for the job.

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About Theodore

Theodore Ross is an editor of Harper’s Magazine. His writing has appeared in Harper’s, Saveur, Tin House, the Mississippi Review, and (of course), the Vietnam News. He grew up in New York City by way of Gulfport, MS, and as a teen played the evil Nazi, Toht, in Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. He lives with his son, J.P. in Brooklyn, and is currently working on a book about Crypto-Jews.

18 thoughts on “Wanted: DadWagon’s Newest Suckers (only moneybags need apply)

  1. Yeah, OK, fine, I have a uterus.

    And having a website called “thecrazybabyMAMA.com” kind of blows my cover, but hear me out: A few months ago, my husband and I split, and since leaving the kibbutz where he lives with our two children, I have found myself filling the “traditionally male” role in our post-divorce family: In other words, I’m the one in the seedy apartment sending child support twice a month.

    I see my kids. Three to four times a week. But in Israel where the mother almost always retains primary custody of her children, I am an anomaly.

    Strike that. I am a leper.

    While I know you’re looking for a fourth Dad blogger, perhaps you’d be interested in taking me on for a guest post or two… I am a contributing editor for Kveller.com, and I write for Jezebel.com and Parenting.com, and I’d love to write for you as well.

    Best,

    sarah

    PS
    Here are some links you might find relevant:

    “WHIRLING TOGETHER OUT OF THE DARKNESS” – KVELLER.COM:
    http://www.kveller.com/blog/parenting/whirling-together-out-of-the-darknes/

    “THE DAY MY RABBI FOUND MY VIBRATOR” (Really.) – KVELLER.COM:
    http://www.kveller.com/parent/down-and-dirty/when-the-rabbi-finds-your-vibrator.shtml

    KVELLER.COM AUTHOR PAGE: http://www.kveller.com/blog/author/sarah-tuttle-singer/

    “EMPTY BREAST SYNDROME” – JEZEBEL.COM: http://jezebel.com/5838865/i-have-empty-breast-syndrome

    PPS
    I would also like to point out that before I’ve had my morning coffee, I make Kathleen Turner sound like a chipmunk. On steroids.

  2. DANIEL—We don’t need someone who lives in NYC. Could be, but doesn’t have to be.

    EVERYONE ELSE—Great stuff. Keep it coming!

  3. I’m a ‘newish dad abroad’, expat dad living in Thailand with my very American family (wife & 2 year old). Might be fun contrast, though might be hard to relate. Good stories, though, about raising a somewhat bilingual and very extroverted American kid in a very hierarchical, demure, and formal (though child-loving) place. Old dead blog writing samples on request.

  4. I live in Portland, Fucking, Oregon. DadWagon needs a hipster.

    Not sold yet?

    My wife and I raise chickens. Okay, three of them. They’re named after the sister wives on Big Love.

    My 2-year old son likes speed. And ketchup. He has yet to set foot on a trampoline, but there is no question he will like trampolines.

    The other day he articulated his first dream. “Daddy, I saw a cow. Iss mooing at me.” It was epic.

    Writing sample: http://marriedwithchickens.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/were-9-months-pregnant-faqs/

  5. I can’t compete with Portland, Oregon… however… I am from Seattle currently (Oregon previously) 🙂

    I have three and I have already been through the wars. Two are 19 year old twin girls and One is a 23 year old man-boy (adopted) doing some time after a misguided youth. I always joked that I procreated once but ended up with three… and I was a step dad to another son now 30. I divorced when the girls were barely four from a piece of work and I did the single dad routine on a shoestring for many years caring for everything from school work to tangled hair to training bras to the Seattle Police Department anti tagging unit. I remarried to a Public School elementary Teacher who is a beloved hard ass with the kids and we are now new grandparents to a wonderful little girl who is going to have a tough road given my son’s situation. Everyone else we know is just getting started with parenthood.

    I own a business now and I am working like hell to make retirement… starting in my mid-fourties.

    My time is limited but what the hell… if you want some salt and someone who can put the fear of god into the droves of idyllic new parents who still think they can engineer their child’s existence to create the ultimate human member of society while still remaining better than everyone else’s child… I am your man.

  6. I currently blog but too infrequently to make a big deal about it. Okay, since you asked, check out http://admansdiary.blogspot.com

    I haven’t posted this year because I’m…well I haven’t posted this year.

    But I’m the man (for this gig) because I offer a perspective I don’t see too often in the world of dadbloggers: fathers with kids who are over 4 years old. Yes, little kids are soooo cute and say the darndest things. But then they get older. They turn 12 and develop attitudes (like my 12-year old son). They turn 9 and become divas (like my 9-year old daughter). Plus, I’m in therapy so you’re sure to have the occasional post laden with self-loathing. Good times!

  7. See what you’ve done Nathan? Now I’m in this fray of bad dads competing for the 3-wheeled wagon gig. Jeez.

    Why me? Maybe because I have to change the oil in the car, get some provisions for the little one and make a deadline today, but instead, I’m pitching myself to you guys.

    If you’re interested in a voice from way off the beaten path (the other Georgia), well, here I am.

    It would be fun.

  8. Pros: I am a dad. I am tall. I live in an actual outer borough (wherever Matt lives doesn’t count). I know a little bit about almost everything and a lot about almost nothing. I could write faux-commandingly about cooking, commuting and working a “9-5”, the New York City Department of “Education,” sports, and the extreme sport of puttering.

    Cons: I’m even lazier than Karen. I’m not Jewish; worse than that, I’m in a same-race marriage. I can actually be stopped in my tracks by the “why don’t you do it if you think you can do better?” argument. There is no one in the world less tech-savvy. And I just read the Steve Jobs bio so I’m insulting people a lot and not using deodorant these days.

    So . . . if it doesn’t work out with literally every other candidate, you know where to find me.

  9. @Paul: “the other Georgia”? On a blog like this one, where at least two of us are bound to be in an airplane at any one time, the other Georgia could be the ex-Soviet one, or it could be the one surrounding Atlanta. From now on, please distinguish by revealing the khachapuri availability in your neighborhood.

  10. Of course, silly of me. My Georgia is where hungry men can say “vbrdgvni” when they eat a Big Mac without spitting a fleck.

  11. I’m 30, two kids, a stay-at-home dad. My 10-year Harvard reunion is coming up this spring. I’m already trying to figure out how I’ll spin it to my newly rich and famous classmates that while they’ve been off conquering the world I’ve chosen something different. Like what kind of accomplishment is being a parent? Just about everyone gets to do it, after all.

    I blog about fatherhood and family life at growingsideways.net. My style on the blog is generous and thoughtful- I want to share my personal experiences, but I want to do it in a way that provides readers an opening to consider their own experiences in the same light. I tell stories. I reflect on the things my two boys do- what those things mean to them and to me. Occasionally I broaden out and talk about how I see cultural or demographic trends playing out in our split-level in Ann Arbor. Mostly, though, I try to take some of the big questions in life and answer them on a scale I can understand: me and my wife Caroline, our two boys Jay and Wally, figuring out how to live our lives and live together.

    Thanks very much for considering my blog. Here are a links to a couple posts that are particularly representative of what I try to do:

    When you were a child we tried to deprive you of delicious things:
    http://wp.me/p1Cc0R-bP

    We don’t get to choose what we love:
    http://wp.me/p1Cc0R-gg

    The feeling you get when a baby is born:
    http://wp.me/p1Cc0R-7c

  12. You guys are still on the internet? Cool.

    I could use another non-paying gig for tax purposes. Also, I lived in Russia (then USSR) as a kid, and my wife is Asian. I have no legitimate claim to Jewishness, but I could pass. Finally, I invented the Anti-Single Dad Laughing genre.

  13. My friend Chris would be the perfect addition. He blogs now at http://www.herbietown.com/blog/ and would add a great new perspective to the site, since he commutes (lengthily) into Manhattan from way the hell up in CT every day. Plus he’s an MBA, so clearly doesn’t need the money. I’m sure it’s way too late, but I sent him the link so hopefully he’ll chime in as well.

  14. hey. check out my husband’s blog. he writes honestly.

    www,pencilsinmyeyes.com

    he and I are about to try to get pregnant. we will start trying in april. he is an amazingly talented writer who has a past that many men will be able to relate to (divorce) and a future that many men will want to follow (it is uncertain in the work area, growing in the family area, and all other areas i will let him elaborate on).

    like I said, he is honest…sometimes to the point where he gets into trouble at home.
    I figure that’s the only way to write.

    francesca

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