What the heckin’ heck? Is this really Naror’Nj, taking the stick out of his butt and playing with his kids? Maybe Syr’Nj’s human-in-disguise theory isn’t off base.

I needed very little outside inspiration to write this parenting guide. For one thing, I actually had some experience to fall back on, having written a few articles (often pseudonymously) for Parenthood.com. For another, this was basically just the philosophy I’d developed through years of being responsible for one kid or other as a big brother, big cousin, godfather, uncle, et cetera. Father someday, maybe… the biological clock’s ticking, but I still have some hope. We’re working on it.

One thing about parenting we don’t often admit is that parents are often better at dealing with some phases of a kid’s life than with others. Consciously, Naror’Nj is cool with his kids growing up, even encouraging of that. But as should be clear already, he’ll never be able to handle their developed selves as well as he could handle them at this stage of their youth.