If you’ve got a moment to read an emotional little piece today, point your peepers to this one. It’s about Mac-inventor Jef Raskin‘s final gift to his son Aza.

It’s not like you’ll come out of this one crying, but hopefully it’ll make you think about the power of fatherhood, and the legacy you’ll leave to your child. Chances are that you won’t invent the Mac, so you’ll have to think of something else.

Sauce: Co.Design

Chris, a father of three and Daddy’s Down author is – dare I say – a real father. He’s tough as nails and he’s not sugar-coating anything for his kids. He recently had to have his dog of 12 years put down – which was hard enough for him. But then, he decided to tell his kids the truth. No “Spot went on vacation” or “Rover went to doggie-heaven.”

So, over dinner, Chris told his kids this: “Sometimes mommy and daddy have to make tough decisions. Last night, the ghost of Abe Lincoln came into our bedroom last night and told us that we had to make a decision. He said that in the name of freedom, we’d have to choose whether to kill one of you kids, or kill the dog. So, the good news is that we chose you over the dog. The bad news is that the lasagna we’re eating are made with dog meat. Because Lincoln said we’d have to dispose of the body ourselves, and it just seemed like a terrible waste to get rid of all this sweet, sweet dog meat.”

Okay, that’s not at all what Chris said.

But back in reality, Chris had to make the tough decision to be honest with his kids about their dog’s death. Kids “learn to deal with sorrow and grief” he says, “by having to deal with it.” As a nice side effect, Chris says that this angle also teaches your kids honesty, integrity and trust. All true. A lot more true than going the Lincoln-death-ultimatum route, I guess.

Sauce: Daddy’s Down

Now, I’m not going to say that Skoki, Illinois-based Shani and Jane Re-Design is ripping off vulnerable fathers. I’m just saying that when a dude gets divorced and doesn’t necessarily have tons of money, the last thing he might need is a company to come in and re-arrange his furniture.

Hell, I don’t know, I’m not divorced.

So this firm – Shani and Jane Re-Design – does a lot of other marketable stuff in the interior design and staging field. If you need a home staged so that you can sell it – these two chicks have you covered. What I don’t know so much about is the offer for re-designing a freshly-divorced guy’s house into a home. I won’t underestimate the power of having a livable space – and ensuring that, in the case of a partial-custody situation, a father’s got a comfortable home for their child to live in. But c’mon – get some female friends, for cryin’ out loud.

It should be noted that Shani and Jane Re-Design don’t talk about a specific service offered to divorced fathers on their website. This might have been an article on Marketwire put in place just to drum up business or fill space. Who knows.

Sauce: Marketwire

When you first have a kid, you want to believe that you won’t have your television on 24/7, because every study and website out there lambasts you for even thinking of turning on the boob-tube while your kid is anywhere near it. So, for awhile, you tried to be that household – the one that consumes less television. When you just had to have the television on, you pointed your baby away from it, toward more educational stuff – like the wall.

But let’s be honest – you’re human and you’ve got stuff to do. Once your kid learns to walk, you need some sort of wizard’s spell to keep your kid in one place for more than 2 minutes. Toys and books work for awhile, but eventually, everyone goes back to their old friend, the television. All those flashing colors and animal sounds are like magic spells for a kid. And within reason, you can let your kid watch the television without melting his brain.

Now that my son is learning about the real world, and not just taking Yo Gabba Gabba at face value, I’ve been able to filter some “normal” adult television back into our evening schedules. The four shows I’ve had the most success with, after the jump.

Hey fathers – is your kid strong-willed? Is he or she completely uncontrollable and inconsolable? Have you ever got to the end of your rope and screamed, “Kid, do you want to end up a compulsive, overweight jerk with some form of gonorrhea?!”

Well, turns out that a super-team of researchers from the United States, Britain and New Zealand have analyzed data from a couple of big studies and found that if your kid’s a jerk at age three, he’s going to be a bigger one at age 32.

The scientists didn’t figure out how to break your kid’s willpower, so that’s up to you and your own devices. But if your kid doesn’t shape up, he can look forward to things like financial trouble, credit card debt, obesity, sexually transmitted diseases and high blood pressure.

The next time your kid is raging because you didn’t give him his cigarettes, think about that. Or, maybe your kid was just born evil and he was doomed from moment-one.

Somehow in the news today: Costa Rica’s Ley de Paternidad Responsable (Responsible Fatherhood Act), which went into effect in April of 2001, allows women to include the father’s name on the birth record.

79,430 babies born in Costa Rica in the last 10 years have not had their fathers listed on their birth certificate.

If the father’s name is on the birth certificate, he is responsible for a portion of the child’s medical costs and child care until the child is 18 (or 25 if they are in school). On the other hand, the mother has to know and want contact with the birth father. The law does not punish a woman who refuses to identify the birth father. The mother can also request a paternity test if the father denies responsibility. The father can also evoke the law if the mother refuses to identify him. And if that’s not enough conflict for you – the child can also request a paternity test at age 15.

Sauce: Inside Costa Rica

The following was left as a comment on our article “‘New Fathers 4 Justice’ Member Possibly Not Doing Great Things for Fathers or Justice“. It is from the subject of the story, Matthew Starmore. He felt that he wasn’t given a fair shake here, or in many media outlets. As Editor-in-Chief of 8BitDad, I will defend our site by saying that in short blurb stories such as the one linked above, we only offer quick summaries and links to outside news. We put no guarantees on other peoples’ information, and when posting links, they are offered as-is.

So, just as we offered the BBC’s article “at face value”, so too shall we offer Matthew Starmore’s response, after the jump. Please excuse our uncharacteristic lack of humorous pictures, as they don’t fit the story’s tone.