Skinned Knees in Short Pants documents the daddy adventures of Chris VanDijk, a stay at home dad who lives in Denver, Colorado qith and his wife and son. Chris is a firefighter, but was previously a screenwriter and actor. Over the last twenty years he has been known to pay the bills by wielding a knife as a sous chef, waiting tables, substitute teaching, counseling kids at the Boys and Girls Club of America, various retail positions, working in a luxury Times Square hotel, spending hours in dress slacks and sweater vests as an executive assistant for television networks like Showtime and Sundance Channel and military contractors like (REDACTED).
Chris is a fantasy football fanatic, sees running as pointless unless it involves a ball of some kind, really likes lifting things up and putting them down (and is addicted to kettlebells and his trx...), is loving the mid-forties, battling the increase in pant size that accompanies that number, he is fond of unschooling, "nurture shock", old European cities, long drives, the social contract, shared sacrifice, photography, the music of Counting Crows, and is a fan of the Yankees, Broncos and the Utes of the University of Utah... (cue Utah Man theme song.)
Chris has spent most of his life in the kitchen; learning at mom's feet, foregoing homework to help with dinner, studying with some great local chefs in Salt Lake City and he now just digs messing around in the kitchen and is the primary source of food in the house. It should be noted that his spouse, the actor's wife, is the primary source of the funds that pay for the food... and the home... His son will, we can only hope, learn to love food as much as his daddy.
In 2009, Daddy's Home began, a blog about being a stay at home dad. It evolved into Skinned Knees in Short Pants where Chris hopes to continue to share his experiences as a stay at home parent, the occasional recipe, and pass along information about some of his favorite things.
