When I was looking into residency options for pediatrics I never intended to actually move a plane ride away from my family.  However, when those match cards came in I found myself staring at a name I had almost forgot I had placed at the top.  Nebraska.  

Moving to the middle of the country from my hometown of West Virginia was a shock at first.  Yet overtime it began to feel like home, and eventually when we had kids we decided to stick around.  

Now I love where I live including the community I am a part of, coworkers I get to see daily, and friends we have made along the way.  Yet, one of the hardest things has been being away from my family.

If you are like us, my kids don't get to see their grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins very often.  Typically they get to visit them about twice a year, usually during the summer and winter months.  At their age I do not think they recognize the distance, considering this is all they have known.  For me, it is a very different feeling.  

Recently my wife was gracious enough to buy me a plane ticket home for JUST ME as she cared for our boys.  5 days round trip to go spend time with my parents and one of my sisters child free - how incredible is that?  The experience of it left me reinvigorated and excited.  It also taught me a lot of valuable lessons. 

Listen in today as I talk about the experience of it and why I think YOU need to start planning your next trip soon!

Remember to SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A REVIEW!  I want to be able to help as many dads and parents out there, and I can't do it without YOUR help!

Interested in more topics not covered here?  Check out my blog at https://www.imperfectdadmd.com  to see if I discussed it there. 

Can't find what you are looking for?  Send me an email either at my website above or at imperfectdadmd@gmail.com and I can try to cover it in my next show. 

This past month an article was released by the Brookings Institution (and thus several news agencies) focusing on the cost to raise a child in 2020.  They estimated that by the time that child finished high school at 17 years or age, you will have spent over 300000 dollars on them.  That's a lot of money!

However, the topic of money and how much you spend on your kids is not as simple as this estimate suggests.  This estimate would have you spending about 18000 a year on them.  I know physicians that spend more than that on private schools alone.  

When we look at the cost of raising our children, it is important to understand where our money goes and WHY we spend that money in the first place.

Listen in this week as I discuss my thoughts on the numbers above and how it applies very differently to physicians than it does to the general population. 
 
Remember to SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A REVIEW!  I want to be able to help as many dads and parents out there, and I can't do it without YOUR help!

Interested in more topics not covered here?  Check out my blog at https://www.imperfectdadmd.com  to see if I discussed it there. 

Can't find what you are looking for?  Send me an email either at my website above or at imperfectdadmd@gmail.com and I can try to cover it in my next show. 

The topic of "love" is one that is frequently discussed but never fully agreed upon.  

When our kids looks to us and ask us, "What is love, daddy?" I should have a quick easy answer for them to understand, right?  

Sadly, love is not so easily explained, let alone understood, by most of us.  

In the last few weeks I had a patient ask me this specific question.  The topic had never been brought up at home, and he was concerned he did not KNOW how to LOVE.  Not exactly a medical question, but we spent the better part of 45 minutes discussing it in the clinic.

To be able to explain love, we first need to know what it means to us and how it varies between our spouse, our kids, and others around us.  

Listen in this week as I discuss my thoughts on the topic of love and how to approach it with your child. 

Remember to SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A REVIEW!  I want to be able to help as many dads and parents out there, and I can't do it without YOUR help!

Interested in more topics not covered here?  Check out my blog at https://www.imperfectdadmd.com  to see if I discussed it there. 

Can't find what you are looking for?  Send me an email either at my website above or at imperfectdadmd@gmail.com and I can try to cover it in my next show. 

Today's episode is an interview with Dr Ryan Stegink.  

Dr. Ryan Stegink majored in physics before going to medical school, ultimately specializing in general pediatrics. Previously bringing many charts home and going through burnout less than a year out of training, he now leaves work at work, so he can be more present at home as a husband and father. Not content to keep this transformation to himself, Dr. Stegink has started a podcast and now group coaching program to help physicians with their charting and wellness.

Learn more about his program, and get home sooner with your charting done at ChartingMastery.net

The MedEdWell Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mededwell-podcast/id1577516330
Website: https://www.mededwell.com
Instagram: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mededwell
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mededwell

Have you ever talked to your kids about "wants" versus "needs"?

How do you approach every day purchases versus luxury purchases when discussing them with your kids?

Does your kid spend all their allowance money on rocks?  (yes, one of our might just do that)

In this week's episode of the Imperfect Dad MD podcast I focus on the topic of saving versus spending and RECOGNIZING what your kids do.  It is interesting to watch our kids and how they utilize currency, be it money they gained from allowance or birthdays to the tickets they "earn" playing video games at the arcade. 

I think money can be a hard topic depending on how you approach it with your children.  However, we ALL want our kids to thrive in society when it comes to their finances.  It is never too early to approach the topic; yet, like last week's show discussed, it is important to know the difference in your kids' personalities when it comes to saving and spending BEFORE you start to talk about it. 

Listen in this week as I discuss this important topic and how I recognized the differences in our own kids. 

Remember to SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A REVIEW!  I want to be able to help as many dads and parents out there, and I can't do it without YOUR help!

Interested in more topics not covered here?  Check out my blog at https://www.imperfectdadmd.com  to see if I discussed it there. 

Can't find what you are looking for?  Send me an email either at my website above or at imperfectdadmd@gmail.com and I can try to cover it in my next show. 

I recently released a Reel on Instagram of our two boys sword fighting.  It was under the premise that I usually discourage our boys from fighting, yet I encouraged them to fight with swords and targets on their bodies.  

As I watched the videos back, I very easily recognized the difference in fighting styles between the older and younger son.  One was more reserved and calculating, while the other simply berserked his attacks with no interest in hitting the target.  

Correlating these behaviors to every day life, it was easy to deduce the differences in our boys and how they handle daily situations.  Stress, discipline, friends, school - each of them uses their own specific personalities to respond to these external stimuli, and if I wasn't aware of this then it would be difficult to know how to talk to them in times of stress.  

We all attempt to raise our children in a similar fashion.  However, we all know at once that this is folly.  Each of our kids handles our normal mannerisms when it comes to handling time-outs, eating behaviors, bed time, school concerns, etc.   Some of our kids may thrive on the way we parent, while others may tumble.  

Today I discuss these differences in our kids and how I use that to determine how to manage every day topics with them, be it school, friends, discipline at home, stress, or other situations.  

Remember to SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A REVIEW!  I want to be able to help as many dads and parents out there, and I can't do it without YOUR help!

Interested in more topics not covered here?  Check out my blog at https://www.imperfectdadmd.com  to see if I discussed it there. 

Can't find what you are looking for?  Send me an email either at my website above or at imperfectdadmd@gmail.com and I can try to cover it in my next show. 

I didn't want to record this episode.  I had a completely different episode planned for this week.  

However, we are now 1-2 weeks out from school starting for our kids and this thing we call Monkey Pox is becoming a hot topic.  How Hot, you may ask?  The WHO (World Health Organization) has just deemed to to be a Global Health Emergency.  They don't use those words lightly.  

Here in the United States we are starting to see more and more cases of this spreading.  As kids plan to get back to school, the thought of small hands touching many surfaces continues to drive my mind into concern for how this illness may spread.   

Today's episode focuses on what we do know about monkey pox - the symptoms to watch for, the potential (or lack thereof) treatment and vaccination for it, the time table to develop symptoms after exposure as well as how long you or your kid is contagious once you start to show symptoms.  You probably are not going to like what I have to say. 

Listen in this week, and let me know how I am being way to paranoid about this specific topics.  I truly hope I am. 

Remember to SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A REVIEW!  I want to be able to help as many dads and parents out there, and I can't do it without YOUR help!

Interested in more topics not covered here?  Check out my blog at https://www.imperfectdadmd.com  to see if I discussed it there. 

Can't find what you are looking for?  Send me an email either at my website above or at imperfectdadmd@gmail.com and I can try to cover it in my next show. 
 
 

In the medical community the term "Imposter Syndrome" has become very popular.  The concept began back in the 1970s by Drs. Clance and Imes.  They met with many high accomplished academics, admins, and students who felt their accomplishments were not their own and were, in a lack of a better term, frauds. 

This idea of being an imposter as grown exponentially in the physician community.  In fact, some studies show the rate of physician imposter syndrome to be close to 60%.  I personally blame the COVID era for this statistic, as we have seen the social media community go from physicians being heroes to being villains very quickly.

However, when the topic of imposter syndrome relate to physician PARENTING gets searched, there is very little to go off of.  Many of the articles are either opinion based or surveys, and many times they focus on the physician mother.  This makes sense.  I have discussed in past episodes how the gender gap and changes in regards to parenting has negatively affected both sexes, but moreso females versus males.  

HOWEVER, there are basically NO articles out there related to the physician dad and the imposter syndrome associated with being a parent. 

Today I discuss my thoughts on this, why I feel like it is a VERY IMPORTANT topic to discuss, and what you can do as a physician parent to address this.  

Check out this week's episode on Imposter Syndrome as a Physician Dad and let me know what you think!

Remember to SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A REVIEW!  I want to be able to help as many dads and parents out there, and I can't do it without YOUR help!

Interested in more topics not covered here?  Check out my blog at https://www.imperfectdadmd.com  to see if I discussed it there. 

Can't find what you are looking for?  Send me an email either at my website above or at imperfectdadmd@gmail.com and I can try to cover it in my next show.