Reno Dads - Being a dad in the Biggest Little City

Break Your Kids Away From Screens This Spring!

By Joe Nannini Reno dads, rejoice! While we’ve loved skiing all winter with the kids, the weather is finally starting to warm up here in the Biggest Little City, and I could not be more excited. After a year of being cooped up at home, the onset of spring in 2021 feels far more promising…

Slug Bug Game: Teaching Kids Area Familiarization – A CIA Officer’s Guide to Protecting Your Family

Area Familiarization 101 Area Familiarization, or AreaFam, is another one of those terms spies, military folk, and police officers toss around regularly that the Reno Dads are borrowing to continue to educate our readership on protecting their families. Much like situational awareness and surveillance detection, area familiarization is another technique that can save your life and…

Why I Received the COVID-19 Vaccine

For much of 2020, the prospect of a vaccine gave us hope that 2021 would be a year far closer to normal. Now we are well into 2021, the vaccine(s) is being rolled out, and yet many questions remain. One question almost all of us have faced or will face: should I get the COVID-19…

My COVID-19 Vaccine Story

Like many people, I’ve been keeping a close eye on the news regarding the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, and thinking about when I might be eligible to receive one. A full 12 months into the pandemic, as vaccinations started to pick up in our community and around the country, I started to feel a bit…

Inside the 2011 US Embassy Evacuation from Libya

Wednesday, February 23, 2011 Goodbye 10 years ago today I put my wife and baby boy on a ferry in the middle of a storm to cross the Mediterranean Sea and the escape the imminent collapse of Libya. After kissing my wife and son goodbye, I stayed behind. I didn’t know when, or more accurately,…

Raising Leaders

Whether he means to or not, every dad teaches his children about leadership. Through our actions, words, and emotions we are an example to our children of how to lead. Acts of leadership we share are doing things as simple as arriving at an appointment on time, following through with a commitment, and respecting others….

Sharing Love to Small Businesses: Shop, Support, Save (and Win)

The past year was difficult for everyone, but none were hit as hard as smaller, local businesses. More than 100,000 businesses have permanently shut down in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 150,000 business layoffs in Nevada alone. I think we all know we need to pitch in to save our favorite…

Reno Dads Podcast Episode 26: Clint & Joanie Malarchuk

In this episode of the Reno Dads podcast (welcome back!), we welcome a local dad, Clint Malarchuk, who played goalie and coached in the NHL for more than 20 years and faced death multiple times – once by a freak accident on the ice and once by a suicide attempt. He shares his story of…

Always Angry: Lessons Learned from Hal Runkel’s ScreamFree Parenting

In Marvel’s 2012 movie The Avengers, one of my favorite scenes is when the Chitauri, a race of extraterrestrial shape shifters, invade New York. It’s in this scene when we, the audience, get to see the Avengers assemble for the first time on the big screen— a very cool moment for an old comic book…

2020 Reno Dads Griswold Award Winners

2020 may not have been an amazing year in general, but it’s been an amazing year for Christmas lights and displays in our community. Reno Dads recognizes those houses that, in the spirit of dad extraordinaire Clark W. Griswold, go above and beyond with decorations and lights to bring joy to the holiday season. Truthfully,…

Family Fun in the Sierras… Safely

Like many families in our community, mine is feeling the side effects of a reduced social calendar, absent extracurriculars, and increased homebodying (probably not a word, but oh well). What are our options, really? I’ve realized how much we rely on events and crowded spaces to keep us busy. As we grew further stir crazy,…

We’ve Got to Find The Music During the Pandemic Holidays

I grew up with a pretty musical family. My siblings and I all played a different instrument and my sister and I were always singing to songs like “Songbird” by Fleetwood Mac and “Seasons of Love” from the musical, Rent. While my dad didn’t really sing along, he was our biggest cheerleader. He was always…