Stay up to date with WRAL’s Dad's life news and reporting coverage
There is a quarter-mile stretch of road between houses in my neighborhood. Along the sidewalk and in the grass, trash piles up, presumably thrown by motorists and pedestrians.
My daughter is a snail for Halloween. If you knew her, this would make you smile, for she is a bundle of energy. She is an extrovert, like her mom, and bounces from one activity to the next, from friend's house to friend's house.
Police said a father called 911 to confess he'd killed his children. As a new dad, I'm shaken.
My 7-year-old has started hip-hop dance class. I took her the other night, and now it's been a couple of days, so my ears have just stopped ringing from the high-pitched shrieks of the girls' excitement. It was all unfamiliar to me -- the dance class, not the shouting -- but I jotted down a few notes on essential terminology.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman, WRAL contributor
My middle son turned 10 years old. Any number has the power to draw associations in the mind, and I thought about how he weighed 10 pounds when he was born. He's been at the top of the growth charts ever since, and as you can guess, he has a growing appetite as well.
May my children find their way home, no matter how far they go, what they do or who they become.
I sing a song for the janitors and custodians who are the caretakers of our children's school buildings -- those moppers of long hallways, scrubbers of public toilets, washers of high windows and haulers of trash and recycling.
They say a river is never the same twice. A marriage, like any body of water, undergoes constant change through navigating obstacles and adapting to circumstances.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman relished those final days of summer before school started.
Embark on the back-to-school journey with Andrew Taylor-Troutman's whimsical ABC guide. From Amazon deliveries to Chromebook essentials, discover the A-Z of school life.
In light of the reality of suffering, I can relate to feeling that my actions are insufficient. As I typed and worried about these realities, a neighbor child barged into my house.
Miracle is from the Latin miraculum, meaning "object of wonder," and is defined as a "surprising and welcome event "that is unexplainable" by natural or scientific laws "and is therefore" considered to be the work of a divine agency."
However, my cousin is expecting her first child in September, and during her baby shower, her kind husband inquired if I had any advice to offer.
I've just seen yet another Jeep Wrangler with a row of colorful tiny toy ducks lined across the dashboard.
Being far closer to the ground than me, my young daughter is nearer to kneeling wherever we go. But it's been horrifically hot, and though I attempted to hurry her to the pool, she stopped and knelt: "A bumblebee! Is it dead?"
It's Father's Day, and I am grateful beyond measure, for my dad is alive, well, and fully supportive. Sometimes, I catch him looking at me, half-bemused and half-teary -- a look of pride and wonder that I know, for I see my three kids in the same way as they grow into the people they are.
(CNN) -- Mothers bear much of the burden for a child's healthy development, from pregnancy through their teen years.
By Kristen Rogers, CNN
Andrew Taylor-Troutman shares the lessons he learned from his son while playing catch at the pool.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman was not prepared to address 200 or so family and friends en español.
A neighbor flies a flag from his porch only two times a year. He raises the flag first on Memorial Day and then again on Veterans Day in November.
Wondrously diverse languages all name the person who gives birth by a soft m-sound, either at the beginning or within the word: maan, moer, mere, mutti, matka, ama, eomma, ema, mom, mommy.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman shares his love of this local bookstore.
I know kids whose daily chores include trips to the chicken coop still get egg-cited for the Easter bunny.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman shares 9 lessons he learned on a spring break trip with his family to New York.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman navigates a day with Carrot, the giant stuffed rabbit that has become his daughter's cherished companion.
