HiTech Dads

Interview with Derek Semmler of DadBalance

I have been reading DadBalance for a while now and was interested in interviewing the man behind the scenes Derek Semmler. Lucky for me he agreed to the intense grill from me.

What does your family look like?

My wife and I have been married for a little more than eight years and we have two terrific boys.
We fall into the category of what many consider to be the average American family consisting of a husband, wife and two kids. Although instead of a dog and a white picket fence, we have motorcycles, skateboards, tattoos and mohawks.

When did you get started blogging?

I started with blogging in August of 2006, so I really haven’t been doing this too long. Although when you consider that many blogs do not make it past the first few months, I kind of feel like an old-timer already.

No, Dad Balance is the newest blog out of the three that I currently operate and was launched in mid-September.
My first blog, My New Choice, was started back in August of 2006 and discusses topics related to personal finance and how to eliminate debt in order to become financially independent.
In March 2007, I launched my second blog and ventured into the world of the narcissistic bloggers. This blog was created in order to give myself a place to develop more of a personal community that was beginning to form at My New Choice.

When Dad Balance was first launched, the idea was to create a resource for tips, advice, and discussions for dads that are trying to find a healthy balance between their career and their family.
As Dad Balance continues to grow and develop, it has started to include tips and information on topics such as parenting, finances, and entertainment. While the original idea was to focus solely on work life balance, I believe that dads are looking for more than that and sometimes just need a place to escape from the stress and responsibility of being a dad, husband and businessman.

Sleep? Sleep is for the weak, lol.
Seriously, I know that I don’t get as much sleep as I probably should as an average night consists of only four hours of sleep. It isn’t the healthiest routine but it seems to work pretty well for me.
Here is an example of a typical day: wake up between 4am-5am to leave for work, work until 5pm-6pm, spend 2-3 hours with my kids before they go to bed, spend an hour or two with my wife, work on my blogs for a few hours, realize it is after 1am and I better get a few hours of sleep.

The best dad tip that I have learned is that you can say no to work. It is often easier to say no to our families than it is to work, meaning longer hours at the office and less time with our loved ones.
There is a fear that saying no to work might result in losing your job or missing out on a promotion. When we say no to our family, we are pretty confident that they will still be there and love us unconditionally. Jobs are replaceable, your family is not.

Do you feel like less of a man being part of the Emoms network?

Have you ever been the only man in a group of women talking about your desire to be a better husband and father? Let me tell you that the attention and appreciation you receive from those women would never make you feel like less of a man. =)

That is a great question. I’d have to say that the best tip that I have learned from my dad is to encourage your children to pursue their dreams. There is nothing more demoralizing to a child than to be told by their father that they will never be able to do something or that they are not good enough to do something.
If your child wants to be an astronaut, encourage them by getting books about space or taking a vacation to a space center. If your child wants to be a baseball player, practice with them out in the back yard and support them by attending their Little League games.
Chances are that your child will have moved on to a new dream long before they attempt to become that astronaut or baseball player, but by supporting their dream and encouraging them to pursue their dream you will have taught them that anything is possible if they believe in themselves.

The word balance is really a misnomer in my opinion because I don’t really look at work life balance as an attempt to find equality between my work and my life. Instead, I look at work life balance as having the ability and freedom to focus on the aspect of my life that is most important at that time.
As an example, earlier this year I had a crucial project at work that was falling behind schedule. It was important to me that this project be delivered on time and that meant an increase in the amount of time that I was working each week. As summer began and my son was playing baseball, it was important to me that I find a way to attend his games and I adjusted my work schedule accordingly.
The struggle with work life balance occurs when any one aspect of our lives becomes the dominant force and prevents us from focusing on what is really important at that time.

Thanks again Derek! I encourage everyone to head over and check out DadBalance right now!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 7:02 am. It is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.