PORT ANGELES — Discipline doesn’t have to be a drag.
And being a dad is a whole new ball game.
So Michael Burrow, Joseph Stuntz, and four other Port Angeles men learned in Daryl Trowbridge’s free Fatherhood First class for dads only at Family Planning of Clallam County.
On this Father’s Day, the guys have a new view of life as modern dads, and it’s thanks to the mix of insights from the eight-week course’s participants, who included married and single fathers and ranged in age from 23 to 49.
Burrow, the 23-year-old, gave a real-life example of the positive approach to discipline he learned in Fatherhood First.
“I took the class with a friend who takes care of two kids,” he said.
“One kept getting kicked out of school, so he told him, ‘Next time that happens, I’m going to empty out your room, and you’re going to have to sit in there, alone. It’ll be just you and your bed.'”
Trowbridge, the Family Planning health educator who led the course, offered another idea.
“Daryl suggested talking to him and saying, ‘If you don’t get kicked out of school this week, we’ll do something fun, like go to the park or out for ice cream.’
“So instead of focusing on how to punish the kid, you can look at how to reward him. Since he tried that, the kids have been 100 times better,” Burrow said.
