How Does He Do It?… with Tyler Ingram

Twice a month we interview Dads in our “How Does He Do It?” feature. If interested in participating please reach out on Facebook or Instagram.

We are excited to introduce you to Tyler Ingram. He is a married dad with three children. His family lives in White Rock, BC. He is a photographer, at Tyler Ingram Photography and has a blog, A Dad’s Adventures.

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

I guess suburban as we live in White Rock, though it doesn’t really feel like suburbia where we are.

Tell us about your children?

We have 3 of them, crazy right? Boy age 6, Girl age 4 and another Girl age 17 months.

Tell us about your typical weekday?

I’m a 9-5 sort of dad. I get up to do my thing, then get the kids out of bed (if they are not already) and make them breakfast and try and prep them for school. This allows Mom to sleep in a tad longer and have a shower before she has them all day. Mon, Wed, Fri I take my son to school on my way to work so we’re out of the house by hopefully 8am. Tues and Thurs our middle Girl goes to preschool so Mom takes all 3 kids with her to do the school drop-offs I get home around 530-6pm where they have usually eaten dinner already and we’ll get the girls into bed by 6pm and our son into bed by 7pm before we have adult time (hopefully all kids stay asleep). Although sometimes adult time doesn’t happen till 8-9pm.

Do you have help?

We do have family around the Lower Mainland. My wife’s dad lives on the top floor of the house we’re in and is good for last moment school pickup or watching a child or two if something else has come up. My wife’s mom also helps out and typically comes over on Fridays to help my wife after a long week of having all 3 kids.

Who cooks dinner?

My wife does. As I don’t get home in time and the kids are ravenous so she’ll make dinner. I’ll try and make dinner on weekends.

How often do you have date nights?

What’s date night? Unfortunately, it is really hard to find the time or someone who will look after all 3 children at the same time.

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

My wife does a lot of swap-site clothes shopping. Helps keeps the cost down when all the kids are constantly growing.
Brands we typically have in the house are Carters, Gap, Old Navy, Hatley, MEC – Of course, this changes as the kids grow older. We would love the boutique brands but found they are too expensive and most of the time they haven’t been able to survive the outdoor play.

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

Not regularly, though we’re getting back into it lately. We have an elliptical in our house that we try to use 20-25mins every other day. We’re too exhausted after wrangling the kids to want to exercise. When we do, we alternate. I’ll do the bedtime routine with our son, my wife will exercise. The next day my wife will do bedtime routine with our son and I’ll exercise.

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

I don’t know what my favourite Christmas gift has been, but my favourite birthday gift (it’s 2 days after Christmas) was a Tattoo of my son’s first legible drawing and the way he writes his name. My plan was to have my kids artwork tattooed on me as they grew up.

What are you currently watching?

We’re bouncing between shows but recently it has been The Mandalorian (Disney+), The Witcher (Netflix), V Wars (Netflix), The Purge (Amazon Prime), Carnival Row (Amazon Prime). When they come back: Chicago Med, Chicago PD, Law & Order SVU and Ink Master (among others).

Thank you to Tyler for taking time out of his day to let us know “How Does He Do It.”