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Shawn Bean

Shawn Bean is the executive editor of Parenting Early Years. He lives with his wife and two young sons in Florida, where family time often means fielding questions about body parts, ninjas, cavemen, and lava.

Monday, July 25, 2011 - 16:32
The Download on the Digital Dad
by Shawn Bean
Pop Culture
My dad was an analog dad. Our family vacations were recorded using a video camera the size of a Smart car. His cell phone was mounted between the front seats of a Ford Bronco. When I was in fifth grade, he bought my brother and I a Commodore 64. We marveled at the colorful, dime-size pixels. What a difference a Gates and a Jobs make. I record my kids using a juicebox-size Flip video camera. My cell phone fits in my front pocket. My laptop has a clarity equal to my bedroom window. I am a digital dad, but all the Wi-Fi in the world can’t subdue our old-school evolutionary impulses.Read Full Post
Monday, July 18, 2011 - 17:07
I am a celebrity baby name factory
by Shawn Bean
Pop Culture
There's a macabre voyeuristic rush we get from hearing the screwy baby names that are dreamed up by the pretty people in our magic picture box (Moxie Crimefighter, Tu Morrow, Audio Science, Jermajesty, etc.). People simply cannot get enough of it. If you measure purely by clicks, our site's roundup of the 15 celebrity baby names we love is the greatest thing we've ever done. It's our Gettysburg Address, our polio vaccine. This morning, I realized something amazing: my life is a celebrity baby name factory. The everyday activities I do with my wife and kids actually create weird, unique and compelling monikers.Read Full Post
Friday, July 15, 2011 - 11:32
The Darth Vader Dilemma
by Shawn Bean
Pop Culture
“Cobra Commander is the coolest,” Jackson said as he inspected the action figure in his hand. “Yeah, he’s really cool,” I replied without hesitation. Then it hit me: You shouldn’t be fawning over a psychopathic killer in front of your son. I know, I know, but he’s a totally awesome psychopathic killer! He has a snazzy blue uniform and a mirrored mask. (Imagine Kim Jong Il with Lady Gaga’s stylist.) My boy loves bad guys, and so do I. If given the choice to have a beer with either Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader, I'm grabbing a pint with the pitch black half-human cyborg every time. ("DV, you got a little blueberry ale on your voice processor.")Read Full Post
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - 17:00
What's the deal with "bronies"?
by Shawn Bean
Pop Culture
A brony (bro + pony = brony) is an adult male fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, an animated series based on the mega-popular Reagan-era toy (the show airs on The Hub). That's right: it's dudes who love miniature purple horses with magical powers. And bronies are no eensy weensy demographic.Read Full Post
Friday, July 8, 2011 - 21:20
The Fourteen (Fatherhood) Commandments
by Shawn Bean
Pop Culture
When a colleague sent me this blog post, I felt like someone had illegally hacked into my brain and downloaded my deepest, most introspective thoughts (you’d only need about 2 MBs of storage space for all that). But it actually came from the noggin of a bearded dude named Alex, husband of blogger Joanna Goddard. For his guest blog, he penned his eight confessions of a new dad. After reading it, I immediately started thinking about the other new dad truths that need to be unearthed, the thoughts that guys keep deep down in their cerebellums. So I added a few of my own.Read Full Post
Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - 12:39
A letter to Caylee
by Shawn Bean
Pop Culture
My wife and I have two healthy, happy boys, but we’ve talked about wanting a girl. We like the names Adelaide and Tova. So yesterday, as the phrase “Casey Anthony found not guilty” popped up like a bad rash across every media outlet, I realized there’s so much I want to say - to you, and to the father who doesn't know you.Read Full Post
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - 16:41
Pop-isms, Volume V
by Shawn Bean
Pop Culture
A home movie where Dad films his kid doing something dangerous used to be called Exhibit A. Now it’s a viral video…. My new favorite children’s book is Linda Hogan’s Wrestling the Hulk: My Life Against the Ropes… The timeout chair should have arm restraints, a metal head cover, and a fake electrical cord, just for maximum effect…. Ming Ming from the Wonder Pets is in desperate need of a speech therapist….Before kids, you make slow, tender love. After kids, you microwave it…Read Full Post
Wednesday, June 22, 2011 - 11:04
Mario and Me
by Shawn Bean
Pop Culture
For someone whose last name isn’t Lopez, I sure have a lot in common with Mario Lopez. For starters, he’s in amazing shape, and I have an amazing shape. But here’s the best similarity: We’ve both made a career out of good fertility. I’ve got a dad column, a dad blog, and a dad book. He’s got Mario Lopez: Saved by the Baby, a VH1 reality show about prepping for first-time fatherhood, and Extra Lean Family, a health-and-wellness book targeted to parents. Here’s where our similarities diverge: fame. He has 195,000 followers on Twitter; I have 125. (If only I could get everyone in Erie, PA, to follow me, we’d be even.)Read Full Post
Friday, June 17, 2011 - 08:42
For Paw
by Shawn Bean
Pop Culture
My dad's propensity for quiet is probably why I punish my boys with a nonstop monologue of hypothetical questions, recited movie lines, silly voices, and poorly sung pop songs. They must think, this guy will not shut up. (Benjamin Franklin said, “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something.”) Maybe it’s easy to talk frivolously and incessantly when you didn’t grow up in a home with too much drinking, when you’ve never been drafted and been through war. I can barely handle losing my BlackBerry charger. In an age of iPhone pings and IM, Facebook updates and FourSquare check-ins, stillness has become extinct.Read Full Post
Monday, June 13, 2011 - 10:43
How my book ended up on the set of Jersey Shore
by Shawn Bean
Pop Culture
Even though my new book Show Dad How has only been out for a couple weeks, it's showing up in the most amazing places. People have been sending me photos from all over the world, so I thought I would share them with you. It's almost too crazy to believe.Read Full Post

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