Tag: True Story

When Skin Attacks!

Posted under NOTEBOOK

This post is sponsored by Cetaphil. This is the best pyramid scheme. Circus performances coming soon. A photo posted by Charlie Capen (@charliecapen) on Aug 2, 2014 at 5:11pm PDT Taking care of yourself, after you become a parent, can be super difficult. You have tiny people relying on you for everything. So, relying on […]



What I Worry About

Posted under NOTEBOOK

Occasionally, a parent-to-be will come and ask me for advice about parenting. Crazy, right? They’re so focused on what could happen or what to do, they miss one of the most important elements of the whole process. It’s not for lack of trying or thoughtfulness, but most of us start off with a mindset that […]



Diaper Changes

19 Times You Realized You Were A Parent

Posted under NOTEBOOK

Talking to a parents before you have kids is a surreal experience. Some of them hold back and don’t want to scare you from the weight of responsibility they face, while others use scare tactics to shock you into wondering whether you’ll be up to the task. No matter how you felt before kids, you […]



The Antidote

Posted under VIDEOTAPE

One of the hardest parts about being human is our inability to travel forward or backward in time on a whim, to gain instant perspective. We can look at our day or our month. We can look through the telescope of our mind at these moments scattered about us, but how does time affect our […]



Forest of Memories

Posted under NOTEBOOK, SNAPSHOTS

A photo posted by Charlie Capen (@charliecapen) on Jun 11, 2016 at 9:42pm PDT Around five years ago, I got my son Finn’s name inscribed on my arm by this man, Dr. Woo. Last weekend, I got myself an early Father’s Day present and etched Arden’s name on my other arm. It felt like things […]



What Would It Be Like

Posted under NOTEBOOK

Sitting in the darkness of a campsite, stars above and the light of a campfire licking my face, I was struck with a thought that made me feel like I was living an alternate future. I stared harder into the flowering flames. What if social media hadn’t been invented? Boys, this is my happy place. […]



When They Outgrow You

Posted under SNAPSHOTS

May 1st, 2016: The date when you started drawing better than I could, Finn. A photo posted by Charlie Capen (@charliecapen) on May 1, 2016 at 9:54am PDT Do you remember that scene in Raising Arizona when H.I. had a dream that stretched far into the future? It was the end of the movie and […]



5 Reasons My Single Mom Helped Me Become A Better Father

Posted under NOTEBOOK

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at the White House. From morning until the early evening, we heard from panels of educators, researchers, marketers, brand representatives and parents all talking about the topic of gender disparity and stereotypes that face our children. We heard how girls are driven to great lengths to achieve […]



7 Dads Share Their Movie Inheritance

Posted under NOTEBOOK

Dads speak in a language all their own. For me and my father, our language was a combination of inside jokes, movie quotes and a shorthand we found from our experiences together. I was thinking about him the other day, all the movies he made me watch and the unique dialect we spoke. We laughed […]