Father's Day Gift Ideas with Tips from a Dad

Posted by Charlene Prince Birkeland

Father's Day is just around the corner and when you need Father's Day gift ideas, who better to ask than a dad.

Jason Avant is the publisher of the blog, DadCentric; the husband to HipMamaB; and dad to Lucas, 3, with another baby set to make his or her arrival in the Fall. Jason is also a full-time human resources consultant. And did I mention he's my writing partner? He clearly has his own work-life balance juggle to manage.

I asked Jason to offer his tips on the best Father's Day gift ideas. Here's his top five list, snark included:

• The iPod Nano: The essential post-work, pre-home workout companion. It's size really is what makes it great; easily stashed in your briefcase or laptop bag pocket, it's perfect to wear during visits to the gym or during a run. I used to scoff at the Multi-iPod Households, but no more. Beth has her Shuffle, I have my Nano, we share a standard iPod. Yes, the amount of money we've spent on digital music players could house and feed a family of ten in Ethiopia for one year, but Dad can turn up the volume to drown out his nagging conscience.

• The Flip: Using flash memory technology, this little camera can shoot and store up to 60 minutes of MPEG videos. And the expensive one only costs $150. A small price to pay for capturing those family moments that Dads cherish - the dog drinking out of the toilet, the neighborhood kid skateboarding off the roof of his house, the occasional Bigfoot sighting...

• The iPhone. Does everything. For the price, it had better. You may want to hold off on buying one: Apple is releasing the iPhone 2.0 over the holidays and it promises to transform into a giant gun-toting robot that will attack and destroy anything that threatens your home, or the planet Earth.

• The "Jack Sack": Also known by its real name - the Heavyweight Classic Messenger Bag, by a company called Galaxy Army Navy. This is the bag featured on the TV show "24". Whenever government agent Jack Bauer goes on an op, he always brings along this trusty bag. And for good reason - it's durable, has a ton of pockets, holds a 15" laptop with plenty of room to spare, and unlike the $500 wrenches that the government favors, it's actually really inexpensive ($15 on Amazon!). Interrogation kit sold separately.

• B120Wraith: Finally, to ensure that there is a "life" portion of work-life balance, Dad needs to be able to get from the office to the home as quickly and effeciently as possible. For that, I recommend the B120Wraith  Of course, if a $75,000 motorcycle is out of your price range, a crock pot makes a great gift. (Editor's Note: I thought he was kidding but Jason actually loves crockpots.  Mayble he'll enlighten us in a future guest post.)

Thanks, Jason!

Dads - What's on your list of Father's Day dream gifts?

Comments

[landismom]

Thanks for the tips. But I'm keeping the iPhone for myself!

I seriously considered the iPod, but I think I'm going to get that for his birthday (next month). We're going with the new videogame, plus handmade kid gifts.

[Reb]

I was thinking about getting him a monogrammed robe. Do guys like that? I found this site http://elegantlinenspc.com/robessc that has these cool spa looking monogrammed robes and I noticed they carried them for men too. I thought it might be neat to have matching spa robes.