It’s the most wonderful time of the year. No, we don’t mean Christmas, Thanksgiving, or even St. Patrick’s Day. We’re talking about football season. The NFL season just kicked off, and with it comes fantasy football. We’re all neck deep in statistics and metrics, reading articles, and keeping up to date on injuries as we prepare for our drafts.
Benefits of Fantasy Football and Other Sports
Most of us probably think of fantasy football as an excuse to watch every game, track every box score, and talk trash to our buddies. But it’s also a useful tool for divorced dads. (In reality, you can swap out football for fantasy basketball, soccer, rugby, baseball, etc. You can even play fantasy cricket if you want.)
With the kids going back to school, divorced dads often have a tough time. Fantasy football can serve as a way to bond with your children, teach them practical skills, and have fun at the same time.
1. Decision Making and Critical Thinking
Critical thinking and decision-making lie at the heart of fantasy football. Players examine statistics and compare numbers. You set rosters based on team and individual matchups. Even details like where the game takes place also come into play.
To perform well, you have to absorb and interpret a huge amount of information and make choices based on what you see.
You predict how a player will perform based on his past performance and the performances of his opponents. This helps kids hone problem-solving abilities and promotes the use of logic, reason, and critical thinking.
2. Math
It’s not always easy to get kids to embrace math. Some take to it, but others struggle. Fantasy football provides an opportunity to develop math skills in an engaging, practical, and hands-on manner.
Kids have to use addition, subtraction, and multiples of three, six, and seven. Certain situations also afford the chance to learn concepts from algebra.
They learn to evaluate scenarios to determine how many points they need to win or if an opponent can stage a comeback. All of this enhances memory, math skills, and more.
3. Prediction
Using data from previous weeks, fantasy football players predict and project what will happen in upcoming games. You look at past performance, account for any potential problems, and anticipate the outcome.
This helps develop comprehension skills and logical thinking. In making predictions, you must justify why you think this will come to pass.
It may initially be intuitive, but over time, kids can learn to quantify their reasoning. And since predictions often don’t come true, it also provides a good life lesson that even the best guesses aren’t always right.
4. Patience and Dedication
Fantasy football isn’t all about immediate gratification. Once you set your lineup, you have to wait until Sunday (and sometimes Monday) for the results. Plus, the season lasts more or less an entire NFL season.
If nothing else, it’s an exercise in patience and dedication. Completing a full season takes time, perseverance, and commitment. All useful life skills for kids to develop.
5. Fantasy Football And Bonding
It’s vital for divorced dads to remain an active part of children’s lives, and fantasy football offers one avenue to accomplish this. Friendly competition fosters engagement. It gives you a built-in activity and can lead to more phone calls, text messages, and overall contact.
As you talk about players, games, stats, and rosters, you strengthen bonds and connections. It’s an entertaining, productive way to interact and connect with your children.
Millions of people play fantasy football every season. It’s something of a national obsession. For some, it’s a fun way to pass the time. In other cases, it helps make games more engaging and keeps you invested in teams and players you might not otherwise pay attention to.
But it also provides potential benefits for divorced dads. Fantasy football can help children learn significant life lessons and hone useful skills. If you’re feeling estranged from your kids, it can even offer an opportunity for additional bonding.
One of our favorite fantasy football resources for beginners: Who Should I Start In My Lineup?
And Matrix isn’t just a father, he’s an awesome father. In many respects, he’s everything a father should be. A single dad (there’s no mention of what became of the mother), he dotes on his young daughter, Jenny (Alyssa Milano, fresh off of filming the first season of Who’s the Boss?).
Those are drastic measures to be sure. But the only reason he undertakes such endeavors in the first place is that a nefarious former dictator kidnaps Jenny. This villain and his mercenary goons attempt to use her as leverage to get Matrix to put his particular set of skills to use for their own gains. Unfortunately for this cadre of rogues, he employs his talents against his enemies and the result is, well, explosive.
Smith plays 
Though a painful separation, he recognized that uprooting the child and relocating him to New York with his mother wasn’t in the child’s best interests.
Out of necessity, Gardner used his cleverness to remain competitive. Just being a single dad or working a rigorous internship on their own is tough, combining the two only makes things harder. But he also had additional motivation. As he says in the film, “They [his coworkers] would stay until seven but I had Christopher, so I had to do in six hours what they would do in nine.”
Voiced by the perfectly cast Albert Brooks, Marlin is not the father you expect to embark on a heroic, epic, transoceanic adventure. First off, he’s a fish. An 
It’s a simple formula really, one we’ve seen play out in countless movies over the years. Marlin isn’t exceptional in any way, really. And that’s the point. Wrapped up in Pixar’s spectacular digital wizardry are humor and heart like few other recent movies, animated or otherwise. Finding Nemo is a story that many fathers can see themselves in.
In the beginning, like a lot of newly divorced couples navigating their relationship, Jane and Jake could barely stand to be in the same room together. Over time, however, the two come to a place where they can be friends and keep things civil. Much of this is for the sake of their children. Something many parents try to do after a split.
Jake feels differently about the whole situation. He’s alive and invigorated and sees things with a new perspective. He can’t stay away from Jane and after his calls go unanswered, he makes a surprise visit to her home.
It’s Complicated comes to a climax when the entire family is together; Jake, Jane, and the kids. The kids are confused, feelings get hurt, and no one is entirely sure what to make of the situation.
After Emily makes the startling confession that she not only had an affair but wants a divorce, it forces Cal to rebuild his life. He does so when he meets the handsome ladies’ man, Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), who takes Cal under his wing.
The couple experiences what a lot of long-term couples go through. Over time, they became complacent in their relationship and stopped trying. Work, the kids, life, and everything else came before each other.
Surprisingly, it’s Jacob who brings him back. He makes Cal see that there are people who need him, especially his kids. Divorce has a trickle-down effect on everyone in your life. Too often, however, we lose that in the pain.
Gil Buckman—Parenthood
John McClane—Die Hard
Henry Jones—Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Bryan Mills—Taken
Furious Styles—Boyz n the Hood
Clark Griswold—National Lampoon’s Vacation
Mr. Incredible—The Incredibles
Jor-El—Superman
Noah Levinson—American Pie
Atticus Finch—To Kill a Mockingbird
1989’s 
With 
A biopic celebrating the life of Lou Gehrig, The Pride of the Yankees chronicles the rise of New York’s legendary first basemen. It follows him from his young days, dreaming of playing in the big leagues, to his death at 37 from the neurological disease now commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. A romantic tale of a passionate dreamer, this is one for baseball fans and non-fans alike. Fun fact: Babe Ruth plays himself, as do Gehrig’s Yankee teammates Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig, and Bill Dickey. This is a great watch for Father’s Day.
Simultaneously a rousing underdog story about a bunch of has-beens and never-weres and a manic comedy ride, 
The Sandlot has become a modern classic for a certain generation. Following a group of neighborhood kids, the story deals with friendship, growing up, and changing times. It also dives into the idea of broken homes, blended families, and coming to terms with the often harsh realities we face every day in family law. But most of all, it’s a love letter to baseball and the sense of wonder it can still create.
Who knew a movie about baseball statistics would be so good? But here we are. Moneyball traces Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) as he, hemmed in by finances, turns to in-depth statistical analysis to build a winning baseball team. Many teams have since imitated his approach with great success, but at the time it represented a radical departure from the way things were done. And sure, it follows the rise of someone who dared buck the system, but the heart of the film lies with Beane’s relationship with his young daughter as they try to navigate the ups and downs of being a single parent. Ideal to check out on Father’s Day.
One of the greatest baseball movies ever, 1973’s Bang the Drum Slowly also helped launch the career of Robert De Niro. It tells the story of the friendship between a star pitcher (Michael Moriarty) and his dim-witted catcher (De Niro) as they navigate the ups and downs on the baseball diamond and the latter’s terminal illness. Think a baseball version of Brian’s Song. Heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure, get ready to pretend you have something in your eye.
If you ever nicknamed a baseball bat “Wonderboy,” you already know The Natural. Barry Levinson’s Oscar-nominated adaptation of Bernard Malamud’s novel traces the career of Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford). A young prodigy, off-the-field events derail his path to the majors, though he finally gets his chance in the bigs much later in life. A sincere homage to the national pastime, embodying both the pain and joy we endure as fans, this is a modern fable about the American dream. It’s a Father’s Day favorite around these parts.
Jackie Robinson was a hero, both on and off the baseball field. There’s a reason why Major League Baseball permanently retired his number.
The cranky, crotchety, reluctant coach is a sports movie staple. But few are as enduring or memorable as Walter Matthau’s Morris Buttermaker in The Bad News Bears.
The Goonies
The Monster Squad
Labyrinth
Beetlejuice
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Gremlins
ParaNorman
The Addams Family
Hocus Pocus
Young Frankenstein
What’s not to love about John Hughes working with Steve Martin and John Candy? This mismatched cross-country road trip pairs Martin’s fastidious advertising executive with Candy’s slovenly traveling salesman. And the result has become a true Thanksgiving classic.
It may not be a full feature-length motion picture, but what would any holiday be without a visit from Charlie Brown and company? Poor Chuck, he just doesn’t get that buttered toast and popcorn are not traditionally found on a Thanksgiving table. But fortunately for everyone’s favorite mopey sad-sack, Snoopy and Woodstock have his back.
You may not immediately think of Rocky on Thanksgiving—unless your extended family is prone to fisticuffs at holiday gatherings. But as Sylvester Stallone’s title character meets Adrian, the love of his life, on Turkey Day, it makes the cut.
As he usually appears in balloon form during the Macy’s Parade, Spider-Man already has a connection to Thanksgiving.
Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon play lifelong neighbors and, most importantly, rivals. This running feud only deepens when the retired TV repairman and former teacher spot their new neighbor (Ann-Margret) and the competition for her affection reignites old hostility.
Holidays and old friends gathering together go hand in hand. Lawrence Kasdan’s 1983 The Big Chill may revolve around a funeral, but one of the key shared memories revolves around a flashback to a gluttonous Thanksgiving feast.
The holidays are a time when we mend fences and bridge gaps, and 1991’s Dutch does both. Ed O’Neill’s gruff construction worker must ferry his girlfriend’s son from a preppy boarding school in time to make Thanksgiving.
More commonly associated with a different holiday, most people forget this Christmas classic actually kicks off on Thanksgiving.
As you’re stuffed to the gills and on the verge of falling asleep, stimulating psychological fare might be out of the question.
Again, fathers going to great lengths for their children is a theme on full display in Chris Columbus’ 1993 comedy Mrs. Doubtfire. After a bitter divorce that sees him being cut out of the lives of his children, down-on-his-luck actor Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) disguises himself as a female housekeeper in order to keep an eye on and spend time with his kids.
Vincent Minnelli’s 1950 Father of the Bride is, itself, a fantastic movie and well worth your time—it does star Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy, and was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, after all. But for the purposes of this list, we’re talking about 1991, Steve Martin-starring remake. Watching our kids grow up, it’s hard to imagine them as independent adults, fully capable of looking after themselves.
If you’ve ever wished your dad was a heroic adventurer, a peerless intellectual, or just all-around cool, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the wish-fulfillment movie for you. If your father just so happens to be Sean Connery, even better. Steven Spielberg’s 1989 film, the third in the franchise, sees everyone’s favorite archeology professor, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), on one last epic quest—at least until Kingdom of the Crystal Skull rolled around.
Not all cinematic father figures are actual biological dads. Such is the case with Peter Bogdanovich’s 1973 Paper Moon. Whether or not Ryan O’Neal’s Depression-era con man, Moses Pray, is the father of his real-life daughter Tatum O’Neal’s young orphan, Addie Loggins, is a question that hangs over the movie. But whether or not there are any real blood ties, their bond is true, and the two form an unlikely partnership.
Celebrate Thanksgiving Another Way
Talk to Your Kids