The Good Life – November-December 2020

FATHERS | DAD LIFE
WRITTEN BY: PAUL HANKEL • PHOTO BY: PAUL HANKEL
As the holidays approach, I wanted to share with you
all some tried and true mantras that I have developed
through years of painstaking trial and error. My hope is
that it will open the door to a more peaceful, restful, and
quality holiday season.
Download the phone app that allows you to expel all
the negativity from your life.
There’s this great phone application out there that,
believe it or not, will help you root out and expose all
of the potentially negative people in your life. Its free to
download and, in my experience, is extremely effective.
It's called Facebook.
Facebook is especially effective over the holidays, the
time of year when mulled wine and PBR tallboys, shared
at family get togethers, tend to loosen people up and,
“let their true colors show”.
Social media is great. Applications such as Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter allow billions of people to
connect and to share what is important to them with
others. I love this concept (huge 1st Amendment guy).
However, with this great power often comes great
stupidity – in the form of over-sharing, sharing non-
2 / THE GOOD LIFE / urbantoadmedia.com
factual information, and the ability to be a jerk on social
platforms.
I would highly suggest that you harness the power of this
free-to-use social tool to not only digitally unsubscribe from
negative people, but also consider doing it in real life. Just
PLEASE ... don’t publicly announce that you’re cleaning up
your friends list ... its kind of rude.
When road-tripping for the holidays, just bring the tablet.
I, much like many other parents out there, always intended
on being the, “perfect parent,” especially in regard to
screen time for my son. And then ... he turned two and we
started taking road trips during the holidays.
This stance quickly evolved into frantically waking up early
on the day of road trips to ensure that my kiddo’s tablet is
fully charged and smudge free.
The alternative is a hearing a three-hour detailed
accounting of all the latest Fortnite updates and
reenactments of Youtube videos. To me, the choice is clear!
Just do your best, in relation to your child’s mandatory
school fundraisers.