Monday, July 1, 2013

Involved, Active Fatherhood in New York

A couple of months ago, I was invited by Lance and Matt from the NYC Dads Group to be an honorary New Yorker again (I lived in New York in 2000-2001), and join them and other dads in the "Dads' Lounge" of the New York Baby Show. And it's about time I wrote a couple of words about it.





  • It was the first time I took the Bolt bus from Baltimore to New York, and it was great. It was also great to spend the day without the kids, talking about fatherhood. At this point, I'm beyond irony.



  • There was a Dad's Lounge, where we sat around with other dads and their babies. There's a point in every new parent's life, where he or she switches from a desperate "Please help me, I don't know what I'm doing" look, to a "How dare you give me advice??? Do you think I'm incapable of taking care of my own children???" look. And, well... Every once in a while, it's refreshing to be around the first group.



  • There was a Moms' Lounge on the other side of the room, and the moms had sweet sweet lemonade. But they didn't have changing tables, which meant long lines of moms and dads waiting for an available changing table in the Dads' Lounge. Yep, the only changing tables in the whole building were in the Dads' Lounge. It was like the Twilight Zone, but one of the happy episodes, where things don't make sense, but in a good way.



  • I wandered around a bit, and saw some insane products. You know, the stuff that makes you want to shake new parents and say, "You don't need that!!!" Like a body cast of a pregnant belly. Can you imagine a woman telling herself, "I want this reminder of the most miserable period in my life on display in my house. I want to look at my pregnant belly every day!" Let me see if I took a picture of that... Nope. But this is from the website. Hey, whatever works for you.




  • I also talked with a couple of people about possible product reviews and giveaways, and hopefully I'll soon be able to give away a cool humidifier like the one in the picture, from Crane.



  • And then I walked around Manhattan, somehow found myself in a street festival, got drunk, and took the Bolt Bus back in style.


It was great to meet all these people again, many of whom I've met many times before. And it was great to see that despite what the media is trying to teach us about fatherhood and about dads who "lean in" to parenting, equal parenting by involved and active dads is alive and well in New York.


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