Monday Morning Dad Report

Hey Pops,

It's Monday, July 7th, and I'm pretty sure my kids aged me 3 years over the weekend. Coffee's cold, the lawn mower's giving me attitude, and I just found a half-eaten sandwich in my truck from... last Tuesday?
Let's figure this out together.

Here’s what we’re tackling today:

• Photo cleanup that doesn't take forever (and actually looks good)
• Gift-giving that doesn't suck (when you forgot until yesterday)
• Family budget that doesn't cause fights

Time to dad harder.

THE SITUATION:

You've got 847 photos on your phone from the weekend. Half are blurry, a quarter are duplicates, and somehow you managed to take 23 nearly identical shots of your brother-in-law eating a hot dog. Your wife wants a "nice family album" and you're looking at 6 hours of sorting through digital chaos.

ASK CHATGPT:

"Help me create a systematic approach to organize and curate 800+ photos from a family event. Include criteria for keeping vs. deleting photos, and suggest categories for organizing the keepers into a meaningful album."

BONUS PROMPT: "Create a photo-sharing strategy for family events that makes everyone happy without overwhelming people or creating 47 different group chats."

REAL TALK: The goal isn't to become a professional photographer. It's to capture the memories without drowning in digital clutter. Sometimes the best photo is the one where everyone's actually laughing, not the one where everyone's looking at the camera.

THE SITUATION:

Your nephew's graduation party is tomorrow. Your sister-in-law's birthday is next week. Your anniversary is... wait, when is your anniversary again? You're tired of scrambling to Amazon at the last minute and showing up with gift cards like some kind of amateur.

ASK CHATGPT:

"Create a gift-giving system for a busy parent including: a master calendar of important dates, go-to gift ideas for different ages and relationships, and emergency backup options for when I inevitably forget until the last minute."

FOLLOW-UP PROMPT: "Help me build a 'gift closet' strategy with items I can buy ahead of time and have ready for unexpected occasions like teacher appreciation, neighbor favors, or surprise kid parties."

REALITY CHECK: The goal isn't gift-giving perfection. It's avoiding the walk of shame to the gas station gift card rack.

THE SITUATION:

Your wife wants to know where all the money goes, you're pretty sure you're not spending that much on lunch, and somehow your "small" Target run turned into $200 again. You need a budget that actually works without turning every purchase into a negotiation or making you feel like you're living in financial prison.

ASK CHATGPT:

"Create a realistic family budget system for a household making [your income] with [number] kids. Include categories for unexpected expenses, fun money that doesn't cause guilt, and a way to track spending without becoming obsessive about it."

BONUS PROMPT: "Help me design a 'money conversation' framework with my spouse that focuses on goals instead of blame, and includes regular check-ins that don't turn into arguments."

PRO TIP: Ask for "budget categories that account for dad expenses" if you want to legitimize your coffee runs and Amazon impulse buys.

Runway ML – Edit videos like a pro (without being one).
Remove backgrounds, add effects, or extend clips with AI. Perfect for making your kids' sports videos look less like security footage.

Try: Upload a shaky phone video and ask it to stabilize and enhance the footage.

🔹 Free watermarked exports. Paid plans remove watermarks and add more features.