THE FATHER BLOG

It’s been a busy week or so here in our town regarding our high school baseball team. We have had both our varsity and freshman baseball coaches removed over the weekend. Any articles I find online leave things very speculative as to why. But for those of us in town….we have a decent idea of what was going on because it involves our children. (Not mine specifically…but this town isn’t that big that people don’t all talk).

So…let me just say this: have a talk with your children about what is appropriate and inappropriate contact with a teacher or a coach. Example: If a coach is texting/messaging the baseball team as a whole unit to advise them the bus is leaving early for an away game….I think we can all agree this is deemed appropriate communication.

But what if a coach/teacher is separately texting a young girl (possibly underaged). I’ll stop there because I don’t care what the content of the message is at this point….I hope we can agree that this falls under wildly inappropriate. Under no circumstances should this be happening through text messaging. If it is school related to the classroom or some type of assignment, it needs to be done through the schools email or approved communication system. End of story.

I think you get the idea. The action item here is to talk to your children about these types of things and how they should be comfortable coming to you and to discuss it. Does all this stuff fall into “criminal behavior”? Certainly not. But an adult should act like an adult and understand the lines and where not to cross them….both on the field and off.

For today’s finance topic…..should you pay estimated taxes? As always, the answer is “it depends”. I will give you a few examples.

If you find yourself paying thousands of dollars each year in taxes and it’s just based upon a normal year (meaning no major events such as home sale/purchases, stock market wins/losses, etc) then yes, you would save yourself the pain of paying out a large amount each year. On the other side, if you find yourself getting a large return each year, maybe you should adjust your withholdings so you keep more of that money in your pocket during the year. If you seem to break even or close to it each year….don’t change a thing. That is the goal.

A good accountant or CPA can help you figure out your estimated taxes after a short conversation based on previous returns and events you expect in the upcoming year. I say a good accountant for a reason. In the past, I have both owned a lot and have received a few large returns. Though the big check feels nice…I’d rather keep that money throughout the year.

Now that the tax deadline has passed and you can already begin to pay estimated taxes, take a look at your situation now to make the 2026 tax season a little less painful and a little more easy to handle.

The bad news is that Mikey’s baseball season is officially over. The good news is that we’re not talking long term or a major injury thankfully.

Yesterday, Mikey was hit with a pitch on the hand while batting and he broke his thumb. Luckily, it broke and didn’t shatter. I’ll give the kid points for toughness as he took his base and even had to slide into 2nd base on the next play. But after that he could barely remove his batting glove and couldn’t even get his hand in his glove and squeeze. He iced it for a few before we decided it was best to get him to Urgent Care for X-rays. We needed to see what we were dealing with now. It was confirmed broken…a non displaced fracture of the proximal phalanx (for you medical type people). He was given a splint to immobilize it and Mary was great in getting him an appointment tomorrow morning with orthopedics. We are guessing it’s going to be around 6 weeks…but we’ll wait for the experts to tell us for sure.

Mikey has always told us “I’m not a great watcher”. He needs to be playing and involved and not just watching the sports. The next several weeks will definitely be challenging for him.

I found a nice article since I know I’m not alone here in having a child injured while playing sports. Give it a read…and we’ll start the rehab soon as ice hockey season will be hear before he knows it.

https://prepperformancecenter.com/how-parents-can-support-their-child-through-a-season-ending-injury-building-resilience-and-emotional-strength