Any Major Dad Will Tell You: CC Chapman

For those of you who read my ‘Five Questions: Podcasts‘ over at ‘The Crossroads’ on Dad-blogs, you will be familiar with our next contestant: C.C. Chapman. C.C. and I went to Bentley together and had friends in the same circles, but didn’t really know each other until after school when we were seated at the same table at a mutual friends wedding. C.C. is the father of two, a son, Dylan, who is 10, and a daughter, Emily, who is 8. He and his wife Laura have been together 20 years now.

C.C. is the epitome of a digital dad and I’ve been following his online exploits from his blogs to his podcasts for years. What I’ve always admired about C.C. is his ability to follow his passions while at the same time staying very grounded in his family life. As a partner with new media consultancy The Advance Guard he travels extensively and speaks at a number of conferences in his role as a jedi master of social media. Still his passions and creativity have extended to his family, as Emily has gotten into the family business and has her own video blog called ‘Emily Explains It‘.

RMDM: How has being a father changed your life?

I knew my whole life that I wanted to be a Dad. Having younger sisters and my mother running an in home daycare while I was growing up made me always love babies. I still to this day have a very close relationship with my father and I couldn’t wait to start my own family.

The thing about being a Dad is that your priorities instantly shift. Everything you do in life now effects another human and that is a BIG deal that you must come face-to-face with. Every time you punish them, teach them something or just have a conversation with them you don’t know how they are being shaped by it. I think about that a lot and it is an interesting challenge and one I love.

RMDM: What characteristic do you possess that you hope your children inherit?

I really hope they get my all around good naturedness towards people. What I mean is that I’m a firm believer in helping people out whenever possible and I hope that gets passed onto them. My dad was a pretty easy going guy and yet strict at the same time. Looking back I have no idea how he did it, but I know I got this approach from him so I hope it gets passed on.

RMDM: Are there any specific life lessons that are important for you as a father to pass on?

That everyone is different and even if you don’t like it, that isn’t a bad thing. I have a VERY open mind. Even when I see someone hating on something or just being a total jerk I can sort of brush it off and move on. I want my kids to have very open and accepting minds.

I also hope they realize that in order to succeed you have to work hard. Nothing comes easy in life and that a strong work ethic is the only way to move up in the world and that is such a hard thing to teach.

RMDM: What has been your proudest moment as a father so far?

The first thing that comes to mind is the first time I saw my daughter take the stage. As someone who grew up in the theater and misses the stage a great deal, that was pretty damn cool. I also loved my first canoe trip with my son. Seeing my dad and him talking and him taking it all in really brought a smile to my face.

Every day they do something new that makes me proud of them and the best part is that I know they have a lot more to go. As the old saying goes, “it only gets better.”

RMDM: Describe your perfect Father’s Day.

My wife walks into the bedroom in a pleated skirt…..oh wait I guess that isn’t the type of answer you were looking for was it? *grin*

Honestly the perfect Father’s Day for me this year would include sleeping in, getting up and having some breakfast and the Sunday paper and then spending the day offline with the family doing something together as a family. I like the simple things in life so that could be anything from going to the movies to just sitting out back by our campfire hanging out. Honestly I just want to spend time with them away from everything else.

A big thank you to C.C. for participating in ‘Any Major Dad Will Tell You’ and I wish him a very Happy Father’s Day. if you’d like to hear more from him, here are a few places you can find him out on the interweb:

C.C. Chapman – his personal blog
Digital Dads – his blog on fatherhood with some other great dads
Accident Hash – his podsafe music podcast
Managing the Gray – his new media podcast
Media Hacks – his social media marketing podcast with bunch of other great guys

I’d highly recommend grabbing the RSS feed to one of his blogs that may interest you, or you can find him out in the Twitterverse @cc_chapman.

Tagged as: Accident Hash, Advance Guard, CC Chapman, Digital Dads, Facebook, Family, Kids and Teens, Managing the Gray, Media Hacks