Jason Priestley may be best known for his role as teen heartthrob Brandon Walsh, but these days he has plenty of other work keeping him busy. From his guest appearance on Package Deal to directing his first full-length feature to publishing his memoir, there’s always a lot on the Vancouver-born actor’s plate. Even so, he recently took a few minutes to call me up and chat with me about his humanitarian work supporting the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) program, his experiences as a father and his love of lentil soup.

Jason’s children Ava and Dashiell, at 6 and 4, are almost the same age as my boys and I couldn’t help but wonder if he missed the baby days now that his children were getting older.

“There’s some baby things I miss,” he admits, “but there’s others I don’t miss at all. That diaper bag was the worst. I hated hauling it all over. With two kids almost exactly two years apart I had to carry that thing nonstop for over four years. And it was so loaded down…diapers, wipes, bottles, snacks, toys…it never ended! I threw a party the day I was finally able to ditch the diaper bag.”

And there’s so much enjoyment in watching a child grow up and master those basic life skills too. “Dashiell and I were in the Los Angeles airport getting ready to fly to San Francisco and Dashiell had to use the bathroom,” Jason recounts. “So I said, ‘Okay, we’ll go pee.’ And I took him in, and they had this lower, child-sized urinal in there. And I showed him what to do, and he stood up and used it! He was finally big enough to pee standing up. So we’re standing there together at the urinals peeing together for the first time and I thought to myself, ‘This is just the best. First time using a urinal.’ It was one of those moments a father remembers forever.” Jokingly, he pronounces, “Thanks, LAX Admiral’s Club!” [Read more…]