How Does He Do It?… with Casey E. Palmer

Family Portrait sitting outside on fall day

Twice a month we interview dads in our “How Does He Do It?’ feature. If you would like to participate please reach out on Facebook and Instagram.

Casey E. PalmerWe are excited to introduce you to Toronto dad blogger Casey Palmer. He is a husband and father to 2 boys.

Are you an urban or suburban dad, where do you live?

Living just east of downtown Toronto on a stretch called Danforth East, I’m definitely an urban Dad—“urburban”, if you will. Enjoying my community in the heart of the city. I actually grew up in the suburbs just west of Toronto but moved more central when I got married. Now there’s no looking back!

Tell us about your children?

I’ve got two boys, aged six and three, who’ve helped me figure out what’s really important to me. In that short time I’ve seen them transform from babies to their own individuals, and I live for their adventures and stories.

The older one’s more hands-on, playing with circuits and LEGOs and blocks. The younger one’s all about his imagination and could play by himself for hours if I let him. But they can be a dream team or a nightmare depending on their moods—they make every day a brand new story!

Tell us about your typical weekday?

I’m an IT professional by day and a content creator by night—my days are always complicated, but I do my best to make it all work.

The day starts with getting the boys ready for school, making breakfasts, packing bags, and getting them dressed for the walk.

Once I’ve dropped them off, it’s off to work, and on the way, I work on whatever projects I can for a half hour. The day’s filled with spreadsheets and reports while at my desk and more writing when I wasn’t, and that’s pretty much it till I find my way home! I take lunches with friends when I can and hit up events now and then, but it’s always good to get home to hugs and tackles from the fam.

I know we parents usually feel like there isn’t enough time for all the things we want to do, but I’m willing to try and make it work!

Do you have help?

We don’t feel alone, by any means. Between our cleaner who comes in once a week and our church community full of friends, babysitters and confidantes, it makes sure that we never feel isolated in this thing called life.

But it still leaves a lot of parenting! We share many of the chores and stay as involved in each other’s and our children’s lives as we can—hopefully it makes for some amazing humans down the road!

Casey posing with his sons that are wearing matching shirts

Who cooks dinner?

Sarah takes on the bulk of the dinners, because frankly, she’s better at it, and she always enjoys experimenting. But in exchange, I take on breakfasts and lunches so it’s not so lopsided.

That said, I did make an effort this year to cook a little more often (it even made my list of 200 goals at the start of the year), and hope to get around to trying even more recipes in 2020!

How often do you have date nights?

Thankfully, due to a number of teens at our church who can babysit and no shortage of things to do in a city as big as Toronto, we get out regularly enough! Parties at friends’ places, dinners by ourselves—we manage to shake it up to keep things interesting.

What clothing lines or stores do you like to purchase for your children?

Plenty of the kids’ clothes are hand-me-downs (shout-out to church and Facebook buy-and-sell groups), but when we need to invest for a photoshoot or something, my go-to spot is definitely Gap. Plenty of our family’s clothes are from their family of stores and help the kids look fashion-forward without me worrying that I’ll end up crying over spoilt clothes.

Casey and his son on a plane

Do you exercise regularly and if so, what and how do you fit in it?

I don’t exercise much, and I really should. I tried a class recently at a gym around the corner after six years away from regularly playing sports, and let me tell you—I felt like I was going to puke at times, but it felt good in the end.

But then I caught my wife’s cold after two weeks straight of her coughing, so I haven’t been back since.

However—once I kick this cold to the curb? It is on. I schedule it in once the kids are in bed and just go. There’s no other time otherwise.

Though… I think a friend at work’s wrangling me into a lunchtime boxing class….

What is your favourite Christmas/Hanukkah gift that you have received as an adult?

I am a horrible person to shop for—it’s why I’m writing a gift guide for impossible people—so this is actually a pretty tough one for me!

I try not to focus too much on gifts at Christmas as an adult, actually. I’m very grateful for the life I lead, and it’s full of new gifts and experiences almost every day. At Christmas, Sarah gets me stuff I like, like Ferrero Rochers or notebooks and pens, but I’m never really looking for that big present under the tree.

After all, it’d be pretty hard to top 1988’s Nintendo Entertainment System or its SNES successor in 1991!

What are you currently watching? 

 

I binge Netflix, Prime Video and Crave TV each night while working away on my writing, so I’ve watched much of what I’ve wanted to watch. But as I wrote this answer, I was watching Quincy, Rashida Jones’ biopic about her father. But let me share a few of the stuff I’ve loved as of late.

  • Rhythm + Flow: A rap competition show on Netflix that starts slow in the audition round but will blow your mind by the end.
  • The Apollo: A documentary on Crave that covers the history of Harlem’s Apollo Theatre and will inspire you to read more Ta-Nehisi Coates as he produces “Between the World and Me”.
  • Wentworth, season seven on Netflix: An Australian show about a women’s prison that makes Orange is the New Black look like Romper Room
  • Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan season two on Prime: I rarely expect a show’s second season to outdo its first, but oh. My. Goodness. They did away with the character introductions of the first season and just went for it.
    And of course, my one true love for streaming content, The Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj on Netflix, which is my favourite way to consume current events. Go check it out if you haven’t already!

We want to thank Casey Palmer for taking the time out of his day to let us know “How Does He Do It.”

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