Dad Strength
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School's in!

School's in!

Plus Dad Math

Geoff Girvitz
September 04, 2025

Today on Dad Strength

Stop, then start
Roblox problems
A nagging equation
A book, a quote, a dad joke

Well, well, well. Here we are. School is back in and it’s time to get back into regular hours at Dad Strength. I’m thinking about making some changes, including the platform I’m using. Do you care? Probably not. But this is a good time to take stock. So just hit reply and let me know what you’d like to see more or less of. Or maybe just let me know if you actually read this thing.

Stop, then start

If I could design a pre-parenting exercise course for a general audience, it would involve sandbag carries, lots of low-to-the ground movement and… here’s the part I want to talk about: field stuff. Here, I mean sprinting, jumping, changing direction, and decelerating. You’ll need that if you want to keep up with an active kid. I shared some specific tips in the last newsletter and want to pick things up here.

The paradox is that, before you start moving fast, you need to get really good at slowing down. In other words, you’ve got to put the brakes on smoooothly when you land or stop. If you overpower your brakes, you’re going to beat up your knees. It’s better to give yourself a period to adapt before turning up the speed. But this kind of preparation is great for pre-season athletes of all kinds, including dads.

Once you’re off the field and into the gym, I would recommend focusing on stabilizing your foot and shin position under load.

Roblox Problems

I’ve shared safety concerns about Roblox before. If you don’t know, Roblox is more of a platform than a video game. That means people can create their own games and open up access to other platform users. And — just like real life — not everyone who shows up is necessarily who you’d want your kid to hang out with. Especially when you can’t se what they look like in real life.

Over the past month, discussion on Roblox safety has intensified. The state of Louisiana filed a lawsuit against Roblox, alleging the platform is chock-a-roblox (sorry about that) with harmful content and child predators due to inadequate safety measures and prioritization of user growth over child protection. Unfortunately, they’re probably right. Hence the wave of virtual street justice. There was controversy over Roblox banning “vigilante” users who documented efforts to catch abusers. Mixed feelings here but there’s no way this situation wasn’t messy.

Roblox has announced over 100 new safety initiatives in 2025, such as expanding age verification, rolling out AI-driven moderation (which never fails),
restricting adult-themed experiences, and tightening parental controls. How will that go? Hell if I know.

Totally cool kid stuff going on here

A nagging equation

“Do your homework.” Will that happen? The results come down to two factors: Motivation and ability.

High motivation + high ability = Done

High motivation + low ability = Frustration

Low motivation + high ability = Nag

Low motivation + low ability = This is your lowest ROI category. Maybe save your breath

We often try to motivate our kids to take action on certain behaviours. Parents gonna parent. However, as you can see above, not every issue is motivation-related. Sometimes, the barriers to success are just too high. Here, your focus can shift to making things easier. That usually means building skills, adding supports, or lowering demands while skills and habits develop.

Theoretically, the best time to do motivate someone is the third state — when the ability is already there, just not the desire. But here’s something to think about: what are some other ways to help your kid take action?