Seeking a little extra help with our often overly revved up family life, my wife submitted an application to a reality TV show called Real Life Real Simple. The program took us on and the production was a very good experience, mostly because the producers and crew were some of the nicest and most helpful people we could have hoped to meet in this situation. They even assisted us during our crisis with our son’s dog bites. This Friday night (November 21), at 8/7 C, our episode airs on the TLC network. We have not seen our installment of the show — just the audition tape – so we’re nervous to see how chaotic our life looks on TV.

Intimacy after childbirth and beyond is the topic on the new podcast of Tracey Serebin’s Family Matters. Get the dad perspective from me and the mom view from Tracey on this frank, sometimes funny, and frequently helpful segment. Tracey’s interview with me on her Internet radio program runs 30 minutes, following her talk with Wendy Jaffe, who covers the topic from the angle of a divorce attorney, who contributed an instructive piece to this site. Log on to the new installment and click “Listen Now” or “Podcast.” It’s about sex, so you gotta have opinions/stories to share via the comments option.

Stefan Shepard of the Zooglobble family music blog invited me to join in on the fun of voting for the 2008 Fids and Kamily poll. To be eligible, albums had to be released during the period of November 1, 2007, to October 31, 2008. Twenty-two family music critics, ranging from Bill Childs of Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child to Sienna Wildfield of Hilltown Families, each sent in their 10 favorite picks. This year, the consistently bright and catchy tunes of Justin Roberts earned him the overall top spot in the poll with folk-pop weaver Frances England snagging rung number two. Get the full poll for yourself and read about the wonderful runners-up as well.

And watch for the third annual Family Man Recommends list of the year’s best albums to be posted in January.

As a high-school teacher and advisor, I’ve been working with teenagers for years. Now I’ve got teens from OnTeensToday.com reviewing my Web site, as evidenced by my appearance on the list of the top 50 dad blogs (yay, me!). Vanessa Van Petten, who has literally written the book — You’re Grounded! — on the teenage view of contemporary parenting, publishes a growing site that addresses what 13-18-year-olds think about their lives and their relationships with their moms and dads. Van Petten herself has become a highly sought-after expert on teens for publications such as the Wall Street Journal. Whether you have a teenager or are on your way to living with one, OnTeensToday.com can give you a window into everything from discipline that works to what vocabulary they’re using.

Thank you to Vanessa and her teen interns, Juliette, Rachel, and Steve, for your kinds words: “Love his tagline, which says what this blog is all about: ‘Connecting to the heart of fatherhood…day by day.’” Its kid feedback like this that makes the day by day part worth it…and it’s something I’ll show my own children when they’re complaining about me in their teenage years.

On November 4, 2008, I watched Barack Obama give one of the most humble and moving political speeches I have ever seen. As he spoke, I said to my son, “Listen to this man speak. The way he says his words and the meaning he gives to them. That is a role model.”

Two days later, my son delivered his own election speech, to try to become president of his school. Although he lost the race, he had practiced his words carefully, adopting some of Obama’s cadence and calm passion.

This nation of ours has diverse opinions on our President-Elect, not all of them positive. However, I am brimming with pride at the choice of this man — our first African American president. His selection shows we are a country willing to listen to new voices and to hope for better days ahead as led by this dedicated man.

I am also absolutely tickled that we have a new first family that reflects my generation of parents and my children’s generation of kids. I look forward to seeing how he balances work and family for himself, how his wife embodies a working woman with two school-age kids, and how his daughters reflect their own issues of growing up, albeit in the fishbowl of the White House.

I will watch with a critical eye as Obama endeavors to unite a nation and improve our quality of life. But I am also inspired to help him as much as I can by being an active member of the fatherhood party he now leads.

I stood in line this morning at 7:30am and waited 45 minutes to vote. I hate waiting in lines, but today was different. Everyone was buzzing excitedly, high-fiving each other for making our voices heard. So much is troubling in this country of ours, but this presidential election shows how much hope is still left within us. I am convinced, no matter how this particular election turns out, that citizens are showing the kind of care about the future — both immediate and more distant — that will continue. Tonight, I will be staying up as late as possible with my older son so we can watch the election unfold. He’s excited too and I want him to see history happen. How will you share this election with your children? For more thoughts, check out Meredith O’Brien’s piece from earlier on the campaign curve.