The Best Posts of 2012 by the Dad Bloggers Group Posted by Unknown on 12/31/2012 2 comments

The Dad Bloggers group has been active for less than a month, but we already have over 70 members, each with his own blog and his own unique perspective. Brent from Designer Daddy came up with the idea of bloggers sharing their best posts of 2012, and the response has been great.

Here are, then, our members' favorite posts of 2012:


Ask Your Dad -- Dear Hypothetically Gay Son

DadScribe -- Why we have kids

Rob Hatton's Blog -- Honoring Pearl Harbor

DadDoes -- Top 10 Phrases That Will Reduce a Parent to Tears

Designer Daddy -- Gays, Muppets, Chicken + Jesus

ihopeiwinatoaster -- "May Your Song Always Be Sung"

The Real Matt Daddy -- Saying Goodbye to "Campa"

Ray's Blog -- The Upside of Timidity



Rather Be Shopping -- “Dad, Does Our “Elf on the Shelf” Have a Penis?” 

The Gizzard Stone -- Biggest Legends of The West in One Photograph: Fake or Real?

CuteMonster -- Toys Reflect Our Story

Daddyplace -- A Daddies First Miscarriage and the Feelings that came with it

Canadian Dad -- Raising Children Without a Father of My Own

Mommy's Busy... Go Ask Daddy -- Spider-Man, My Kids, and the Kissing Episode

Raised by my daughter -- On holding hands (a meditation on being a father)

Luke, I Am Your Father -- A Sublime Parenting Moment

Daddy's in Charge? -- The Parenting Wars... Starring Legos

Active Duty Dad -- Who's Shoes to Fill

The P Word -- Lessons from America

Ay yo, Be a Father -- The Intro...

Dads Round Table -- Giving From the Heart

Daddy Blogger -- Rianne's Birth Story

The Rock Father -- Father. Daughter. Big Wheel. Ruling the Neighborhood on Three Wheels...

A Blogger and a Father -- Looking at my Boy

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Thanks to everyone who participated! If you're a male blogger with a kid (or if you're having one soon), whether or not you see yourself as a dad-blogger or as a blogger who happens to have kids, you're welcome to join. Click Here, and I'll be sure to approve you quickly.

Have a great 2013, everyone!

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My Most Viral Post of 2012 Posted by Unknown on 12/30/2012

In 2012, I tried to make a difference.

In January, I managed to be annoying enough to make Philips change the description of a parenting product from "Made for Moms" to "Made for Parents."

In February, I complained about Internet trolls who use every opportunity to criticize other parents.

In March, I tried to be positive by defending Huggies record when it came to dads.

In April, I dismissed the Terrible Twos myth.

In May, I attacked the idea that men are perverts unless proven trust-worthy.

In June, I wrote about my problem with the Mr. Mom movie.

In July, I wrote about my own inadequate parenting, and about failing to see the world from my boy's point of view.

In August, I mentioned two companies that "got" fatherhood, portraying dads as normal people, rather than as stereotypes.

In September, I wrote about the changing view of fatherhood.

In October, I wrote about what is still probably my proudest moment as a father.

In November, I made the case for calling out companies that offend dads, trying to look at marketing as a part of a bigger picture.

Find out about the petition at change.org/petitions/dads-don-t-babysit

And in December, I wrote about the Dad Bloggers Facebook Group I started.

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And after all of that, what has been my viral post? Which of my posts has been seen by over 32,000 people? How DID I make that difference?

Unfortunately, it wasn't a blog post, and it wasn't anything related to parenting or to fatherhood. It was this picture of a bubblegum flavored apple I put on my Facebook page, taken while shopping in the supermarket.

By the time I got home, it had been shared 285 times on Facebook, and seen by over 32,000 people. The description of the picture was, "They sell bubblegum-flavored apples in the supermarket. That asteroid can't come soon enough." It was funny, because it was a couple of days before the end of the world, see... Anyway, I took the picture and continued shopping. And suddenly, by the time I get home, a man who could--and maybe one day would--live on nothing but Nutella, is seen by thousands of people as an advocate for healthy food.

Oh, Internet...

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Daddy Skills Posted by Unknown on 12/26/2012 2 comments

And get the outfit right 

And don't stress 

Don't want the people saying, 

"I think her daddy got her dressed."

Not mine, I'm afraid... But still an awesome video.

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Pushing My Buttons Posted by Unknown on 12/21/2012 2 comments

My 5-year-old boy was talking, and the 2-year-old girl suddenly said, "Stop it!"

So he got really offended and started to cry.

I took him aside, and told him that he was a big boy, and that he shouldn't be offended by his little sister, because these were just words, and words couldn't hurt him.

Then I said, "Here, I'll talk, and you'll say, 'Stop it!'"

And it worked.

I started talking, and he said, "Stop it!"

I said, "See? Just words. I'm not offended and I'm not crying. Let's try that again. Now you say something really mean to me, and I'll show you I'm not offended."

So he said, "I don't love you."

And I got really sad.

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Lewis Posted by Unknown on 12/17/2012

A father goes to a "soft play center," which sounds like the English version of what we here call "A bouncy place" (well, that's what I call it). He's sitting there with his infant, in the infant-only area, when a 3-year-old gets in there and starts jumping and throwing balls around. The rest of the story is one of the funniest things I've read in a while, but also the saddest, because you know that kid is ruined. You can imagine what this kid's life will probably be like for the next 20-30 years, and you may be way off, and maybe that kid will grow up to be a compassionate human being. But more likely, he will treat his kids the same way he's being treated now, continuing the chain of heartless disregard for children's emotional well-being.

Read the rest of the story on BabberBlog, which is a blog written by a new dad in England, a country much like this one, only with more swear words on blogs.

And although that blog includes many references that people outside the island will not get, that blog definitely needs more outsiders reading it, because it's freakin' hilarious, and it's real. As someone who often feels like a sell-out for abandoning his more personal blog, I still search for real blogs writing real stories in a personal way. BabberBlog is definitely one of those blogs.

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A blogging dads group. So crazy it just might work. Posted by Unknown on 12/11/2012 15 comments

I've never seen myself as the guy who started things, but at some point, a person has to stop telling himself, "Someone should REALLY do something like that," and just do it himself.

The goal of the Dad Bloggers Facebook group is mainly to connect with other blogging dads and to help each other get more readers and bigger blogs. You don't have to be a cynical in-it-to-win-it blogger to want more readers. You write in a public space in the hope that others read it, after all.

The second goal, which relates to the first, is to create partnerships on giveaways. Many of us get emails from PR companies, hoping we'd review a product, and many of them also give us the opportunity to offer a giveaway of the product. Instead of one blogger reviewing the product and ending the review post with a giveaway, a group of bloggers from the group would be able to link to the original review post and to the company that sponsors the giveaway, and include the giveaway on their blogs. That way, the sponsors get visibility on multiple dads' blogs, while only giving away a single item. The bloggers benefit from that too, because readers can get more sweepstakes entries if they Like bloggers' Facebook pages, or subscribe to their feeds, for example.

While not all bloggers may be interested in including giveaways on their blogs, I believe the group can benefit all blogging dads. We can share each other's posts, leave comments, Thumb Up on Stumble Upon and Reddit, Like posts, share Facebook updates, retweet, and a lot more.

"Top 100 Blogging Dads" lists come and go on various websites. It's nice to be included in some of these and it's disappointing to be ignored by others. But really, the only thing these lists do is manufacture cliques for no reason. This group, then, is welcome to any blogging dad. That's all. You have a blog, you have a kid, you're male, you're good. I don't care where you are blogging from, how many readers, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers you have. The more members, the better it is for everyone.

That's it. One final note: I know some people hate Facebook. But Facebook Groups seems to be the best place for something like that.

Email me if you have any questions about the group, whether you're a blogger or a representative for a company.

Or simply go to the group's page and click the JOIN GROUP button. 

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What Do Choosy Dads Choose? Posted by Unknown on 12/06/2012 2 comments

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Now, what could possibly be my problem with this commercial? Haven't I been trying for years to get companies to include dads, and to show dads in a positive light?

Well, the easy way to find out what's wrong here is to look at Jif's other commercials and to count how many other dads appear in them.

I'll save you the trouble. It's zero. Well, one commercial has one faceless dad for less than a second.

What we do have here are moms making sandwiches, moms eating sandwiches, moms judging sandwich-making contests, and moms serving sandwiches to the men in their lives. And we have this young girl in the commercial giving a sandwich to her dad, obviously learning at a young age the difference between active males and helpful females.

I understand a company makes marketing decisions based on who actually buys a product. I understand more women buy Jif products than men do. But you went ahead and put an involved father in a commercial--so why do you still rely on lazy stereotypes? Why do you need to have the male building something while the female is only here as a helper--a server of sandwiches to her tired dad? Why do the other commercials include moms making sandwich, while the one dad in the commercial needs to be fed by his daughter? A truly involved dad can make a sandwich, you know.

Hey, it's their company and "Choosy Moms Choose Jif" is their well-researched slogan, I suppose. But neither dads nor parents of girls in general should applaud this commercial. If the company had a single dad making a single sandwich in any of these commercials, if father and daughter didn't act in accordance with gender stereotypes, if the Jif website acknowledged fatherhood in any other way than this dad-porn commercial that aims--let's face it--at mothers, then I would have applauded Jif for being inclusive.

Until then, next time you go to the grocery store, don't forget to ask your wife which peanut butter to get. You know men aren't capable of complex decisions like that.

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I emailed Jif about my problems with this commercial, letting them know I planned to write about it on my blog. Other than an automatic "We truly value your comments" response, I got nothing.

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