Eminem: Putting fatherhood first

Single-dad Eminem's touring future is in limbo, his friend 50 Cents told MTV, because he wants to focus on being a dad to daughter Hailey, who apparently gets upset when dad's away rapping to the masses.

"A lot of people don't know the reason behind him touring less - but Hailey would put boxes in front of the door thinking this would stop him going," 50 told MTV.co.uk. "He would fly back on a private plane after the show so he could drive her to school in the morning. So for him the tour was exhausting."

News&Buzz: Boundaries for single parents

Single dad Peter Ehrlich, a columnist for the Toronto Star, writes about boundaries today, ruminating over wanting to hang out with his 17-year-old son yet be the dad. He asked David Wolfe, chair of the Children’s Mental Health at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, for advice on single-parent-and-child boundaries.

Wolfe suggests this (which, actually, applies to all parents): "There is nothing wrong with saying you're friends with your child, but as an adult, not on the same level as peer friends. Boundaries are required.

“Children want us to be parents,” he says. “Parents need to stick to their generation so their teenage children can have theirs – their clothing, hairstyle and music. Moms shouldn't be making an effort to run out and try to look like their daughters, getting a navel piercing or whatever, and men 50-plus shouldn't be hanging out in muscle shirts.

Erlich says he’s got no plans to stop singing ‘70s songs with his son and his son’s friends – but he’ll leave the room after the music ends.

The Holiday's single-parent speech

Jude Law plays a sweet, smart widower with two children in "The Holiday," now out on DVD, a tear-jerker love story about two women (Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz) who swap homes in London and L.A. to heal their heartaches. Law is Winslet's brother who meets and falls in love with Diaz, who discovers later that he's a single dad, not a man-about-town with lots of ladies phoning him. Why did he conceal this, Diaz wants to know. Here's what he said:

Until I get to know someone really well, it's easier for me to be a normal single guy, because it's way too complicated to be who I really am.

I'm a full-time dad.

I'm a working parent.

I'm a mother and a father.

I'm a guy who reads parenting books and cookbooks before I go to sleep. I spend my weekends buying tutus. I'm learning to sew. I'm Mr. Napkin-Head.

I'm on some kind of constant overload and it helps to compartmentalize my life, just till I figure this out.

This past weekend, the children were with their grandparents. And when they're gone, I get to be somebody who doesn't have hot chocolate spilled on his jeans.

I have no idea how to date and be this.

And I suppose there's the possibility I'm afraid of what another person might do to who we are and how we get from one day to the next.

News&Buzz: Single dad chronicles adoption

Waco Tribune staffer Nathan Wade finished chronicling his 14-month-long odyssey to become an adoptive single dad with holiday cheer: "I now have the family I always wished for," he writes online. "I couldn’t ask for more. If Santa leaves nothing else in my stocking, it will still be the best Christmas ever."

Little Sam, from Guatemala, arrived in November, after failed attempts through Ukraine, flak from folks (like his pastor) who told Wade he needed a wife, and miles of red tape and extra checkpoints because he's a man. Did it stop him? Of course not! Wade continues blogging on life as a new single dad here.