Babble doesn’t know about my blog or at least I don’t think that they do. Because if they did surely I would have been includedon their fabulous list of the Top 50 Dad Blogs.
I am told that it will sound bitter if I say that I don’t recognize a bunch of the boys they have listed and that I shouldn’t mention that I have been blogging longer than most. I am told that if I paid more attention to writing great headlines and SEO I might not have this problem of flying under the radar.
All those things might be true or they might not be. Because the fine boys/girls at Babble might have wandered through this joint and decided that it is not up to snuff. They might have decided that this blog is not Babbleworthy which in the grand scheme of things is not as bad as not being spongeworthy.
I really shouldn’t say “Bite Me Babble” because I am not bitter. But I can’t help myself because “Bite Me Babble” just has this ring to it. Certainly more fun than saying “Blow Me Babble” and I am good with that.
Why not talk about healthcare
Why not talk about healthcare. That is not really a question for me because it is something that I think about each month. My health insurance covers myself and two healthy children. Did I mention that the monthly cost is second only to that which I pay to keep a roof over my head.
But there is a significant distinction here. We sleep under that roof every night. We use the house daily whereas healthcare is used on an as needed basis. Â Provided that we all stay healthy that means we hit the doc around a half dozen times a year. I don’t even want to tell you how much that averages out to be.
And I don’t dare change plans because if things go to hell the already expensive medical costs will hit the “holy fuck we can’t pay this but don’t have a choice because we don’t want to die or be permanently crippled” level. Did I mention that a trip to the dentist for two kid just sucked $240 out of my wallet.
I think that the toothmeister and I are going to have a conversation about what the real costs are and then I am going to start looking for a new doc for the kids.
The Top 50 Get What
Now if only I was one of those Top 50 dad bloggers the dentist would quake in fear, refund my money and offer to pay for my children’s college education. It is only fair because I know the dental work I had done last year paid for their new kitchen and a vacation in Tuscany. Instead I am shilling for my blog and looking for excuses to include  include Why Your Post Sucks and Everyone Hates Your Blog, A Father’s Burden and The Hypocrisy of Charitable Giving During the Holiday Season.
Really it is hard not to be irate about these things. I don’t begrudge paying for quality healthcare any more than I do for a quality education but this is unreal and unreasonable. BTW, do yourself a favor and don’t tell me about how the Republicans/Democrats want to destroy the country because I am not interested in hearing it. Don’t want you to tell me why Liberals/Conservatives are the devil because I don’t want to hear that either.
Nor do I want to know about how the fine folks at Occupy Wall Street. All I care about is action. Tell me what you want to change, why you want to do so and how you intend to make said changes. And please for the love of all that is good and holy don’t send me a PowerPoint presentation that is so poorly done Crystal Meth addicts fall asleep while watching it.
This reminds me that it is probably time to revisit Dad Balances Fear Versus Reality because as you said in that post you have a goal:
The goal is the same as it has always been. Raise good children, smart children. Raise children who are self sufficient and productive members of society.
And the bottom line is that goal is more important than all of this other nonsense.
As one of the elite “Babble Boys” and false modesty aside, I really shouldn’t be slumming it over here. I mean really, even Daddy Files made it on the list so you know they were really letting everyone onto it 🙂
Jokes aside. Despite the awkwardness of stumbling onto “a list”, albeit for the first time and for unknown reasons (given that I rarely post these days and cannot objectively think that my content could be interesting beyond family and a few of you crazy guys commiserating with me), I will say that I enjoy some of the lists because they do not have the usual suspects (not to take anything away from them because they are a great bunch) and I discover some great new content out there (and I’m also a lazy bum so I let others do the leg work for me!). I am frankly very surprised that you have not stumbled onto a list yet (maybe you’ve been blogging so long that in blogger years you are considered a grandfather), but I will say that your content really does go way beyond the pigeon hole of “daddyhood” so I would say you should expect (as I would) to appear on loftier lists than these. I know it’s not “a list”, but you’re on my “Who’s your daddy?” blogroll (and have been since the beginning since you were one of the first bloggers I followed and connected with a few years ago) and frankly I prefer being on the list of someone I read and know and with who’s readers I have a better chance of connecting.
Oh and I pay more for healthcare here in NYC than I do for the roof so I prefer to stare dreamily at the Top 50 badge on my screen and block out the pain.
I agree with you about the benefits of having a list of blogs to read. Any time one comes out I try to make a point to review the blogs on it to see if there is anything worth adding to the list of daily reads.
If you live in the city and pay more for healthcare than for home I hate to think how much that is.
Hey Jack,
I have to agree with Craig, I didn’t know Babble had a “Top 50 Dad Blogs†listing. But don’t worry Jack, you made our list for the most entertaining and down to earth blog posts around.
I think we all feel your pain with healthcare issues and just the overall cost of living these days. You are so not alone and I refuse to go off on those topics too. Does not one any good but get everyone all upset.
So let me hop on over to Babble and give them an ear full. Hey, it will make me feel better. 🙂
Have a great day Top Dad!!!
~Adrienne
The kvetching about the lists is sort of an ongoing joke- but healthcare costs that is just not funny.
Irks me to no end to think about how much we pay.
Great. Now I am thinking up “Babble” puns. The Babble Blowhards sounds like it could be a kickball team or something..
A good kickball team is worth something.
Jack, Babble might not know who you are but I do and once you have me as a fan then your fortune is all but made.
Our healthcare industry is about to collapse in upon itself. Hard choices need to be made, but spoiled brats that we are–still convinced that we’re the greatest country in the world and therefore deserve everything–we aren’t up to making hard choices, and so the whole thing is going to have to implode first.
As far as Occupy Wall Street? I was politically abused as a child–my mother was a knee-jerk liberal and my father was a Nixonian Republican.
Forced by my mother to hand out Hubert Humphrey campaign buttons in front of grocery stores while my father was serving as an advisor to the South Vietnamese Army, I break out in a cold sweat at the mere mention of politics. Years of therapy have not helped.
It’s hard not to feel that blogging is a popularity contest. It brings up all my social and worthiness insecurities. But then I know that there are some shameless self-promoters out there and those contests aren’t what they seem to be.
And that’s it for this disjointed comment.
Chloe
Hard choices do need to be made and I am growing more concerned with our willingness to make them. Too many people are more interested in finger pointing than solutions.
I have a bunch of friends who grew up with parents who had significant political differences. Some of them have some great stories and others have…great issues. 😉
Blogging is fun- it is silly and it is nonsense with a dose of high school antics included just for fun.
I just follow Chloe around and say “What she said.”
I try not to get hung up on lists and scores. Unless there’s money in it for me.
Well, it sounds like we need to figure out how you can make some money at this.
Not there either, and like the president of my company who walks by and doesn’t recognize me even though I play an integral part in the success of the company, I too wonder if they know my lil ol blog exists. Then again, I am afraid that the answer might just be, yes, and they have deemed me not worthy. Maybe I don’t want to know.
I really don’t know if they know who I am or if anyone from Babble has visited here.
It would be nice if they did and cool if they liked me but it won’t make or break me. I suspect that you care about as much about it as I do.
It is a lot more fun to blog about our little Jedis than to worry about whether we are funny, insightful or interesting.
Hey, I’m in good company!
(And as for not making Backpacking Dad’s list… At least my wife considers me Top 25…)
Mr. Burns is a fine fellow, but you are better served if your wife sees you as being in the top 25 or so it seems to me.
Dude, I’m going to let Babble know about you right now. For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure Babble knows who I am and that’s why I didn’t get the call. Yeah, the recognition is nice, but you are well respected and loved. And shit.
Hey Brother. I was just thinking about you and how you must miss living in the snow this time of year. 😉
How are things in the LBC?
I wasn’t on there either. Nor did I expect to be since I didn’t pimp for votes like I did with Parents.com (for which you could nominate yourself, lol) Maybe if I actually used Babble or even knew what their site was about or who their audience was, I would care. But I don’t. I just keep dadding no matter what the metrics say about my status. No need to get in a virtual pissing match with my fellow dad peeps. Keep on writing great stuff.
Hi Matt,
Most of the time I don’t care about any of it because I have too many other things to worry about, like paying my bills.
I wasn’t kidding when I said that healthcare costs are outrageous and that I wonder about priorities in this country.
Jack,
Don’t sweat the lists. You make some, not others. They’re arbitrary, like most Later fans’ allegiance to the team.
Hey, I’m still bitter about not being included on the sexiest dads list. Because I’m sexy dammit. On the inside. Kinda. At least a little…
Damn Laker haters left me off of another list, but like you said I made the important one and that is all that matters. 😉
You are the 4th sexiest dad blogger in the world.
Never forget it.
BD, absolutely. There is no better list to be on. Negotiating photo shoots as we speak.
I didn’t make the list either…after today’s debacle with @Klout I am convinced NONE of these lists or measurements mean a thing! WE need to do it for ourselves!
It’s about the clunkiest list I’ve ever seen. Why can’t we just view the list? We have to view one. at. a. time. It’ll take me 2 hrs just to click through them. I’m assuming I didn’t make it either, but whatever. I don’t much care about top 50 lists or Klout scores disguised as online popularity contests anyway. 🙂
babble can bite me too.
The set up is irritating. If it weren’t so clunky I would take the time to read what they wrote about blogs I am unable familiar with.
Bruce, it is up to us to make it happen- point, period, end of story. And we are going to do it.
Maybe next time I’ll spell check before I post 🙂
🙂
Jack,
I didn’t know about Babble until I read this post, and I honestly didn’t know there was a “Top 50 Dad Blogs” listing. The Babble 50, huh? The proposed Babble responses are pretty damn funny, but the cost of healthcare is not. Between health insurance premiums and visits to the dentist, I’m feeling the pinch too. Now it’s time to replace tires on both cares, replace the timing belt / water pump, pay mortgage and office rent. Maybe I’ll need to cut down on wine and beer, my doctor would be happy 🙂 Sometimes I feel like ranting too, but I often come here because I know I might read about a pissed off Jack, which is always and enriching experience.
I don’t know what to think of the Occupy Wall Street scene. Plenty of people with good intentions and plenty with not so good intentions. Not sure if things are coming to a head or it’ll just blow over. Same as it ever was.
Really liking the clean, new look and the Groucho quote. I had a few friends like that.
Craig,
My family says that no one is better at Babbling than I am so clearly the list is off.
If you are interested in a rant you’ll always find one or 50 here. I have to take the car in to have the brakes done- did the timing belt last year.
Sometimes I miss doing that work myself.
The OWS scene makes me crazy. I am sure that many people have good intentions but good doesn’t mean that it leads to a good outcome.
I want a plan. I want structure and I want action. Maybe I am missing something but I don’t see that happening there. I support the right to gather and speak, but we need to move things along to the next step.