Features Dad Bloggers from around the world!

Zach Rosenberg

Get To Know Zach Rosenberg!

Do you know Zach Rosenberg? I recently realized that I spend an awful lot of time talking about me and my family on this blog and wanted to get back to featuring the great works of some of my dad blogging counterparts. So, today, I wanted to just write a couple lines about my friend, Zach Rosenberg, who writes a blog called 8 Bit Dad. I have written about Zach Rosenberg and 8 Bit Dad in the past but have since become friends with Zach and Brian and wanted to share a couple of the cool things they have been up to since.

As big advocates for the equal portrayal of fathers in the media, Zach recently put together one of my favourite posts to date entitled, “Observations on Dad-Bias in 140 Commercials from 2013”, where he watched and scored 140 commercials that featured fathers. The research, and findings, were amazing and were even featured on Adage.com!

If you are looking for a fun site that is a strong advocate for fathers, I urge you to stop by 8 Bit Dad to check it out!

Books For Parents: Men Get Pregnant, Too by Kenny Bodanis

It occurred to me while I was reading “Men Get Pregnant, Too”, by Kenny Bodanis, that there aren’t a lot of books out there for dads. I noticed this as I nodded my head along with the stories Kenny tells in the book and found myself wishing that there had been something out there like this prior to my having children. Kenny Bodanis is an award winning, Canadian blogger and radio & television parenting columnist, who lives with his wife and two children in Montreal.

My favourite thing about “Men Get Pregnant, Too”, which shares the same name as Bodanis’ blog, is that he doesn’t hold back in the stories he tells. Another thing I enjoyed was how he added pet peeves and tips for men who are about to enter into fatherhood, such as

“Plug in. Have answers. Be interested. Not for everyone else but as a reminder to your spouse that her husband is excited to be a dad.”

Reading this, I wished I had a time machine so I could go back and do it better.

Kenny also talks at length about the different emotions and stresses that fathers face and tries to help encourage dad to own those emotions. This is also something that I failed miserably at with my first child and didn’t figure out until I started writing about my experiences as a father. It’s important that dad doesn’t completely take a back seat during the pregnancy and Bodanis does a great job of explaining why that is so important.

With Father’s Day right around the corner, I can’t think of a better gift for dad than this book. It really covers almost everything you are going to come up against and does so in a light-hearted and very relatable voice. Men Get Pregnant, Too is available in both paperback and kindle versions on Amazon. You can also check out Kenny Bodanis on his Twitter and Facebook pages.

Dad Blogs Exposed! ~ Dad For Beginners

This week on Dad Blogs Exposed, we are chatting with Colin Reed from the blog, Dad For Beginners. Here’s what he had to say about fatherhood and the blog life.

CD: Why did you start blogging?

CR: Obviously, I started blogging for the money, women, and fame. I repeatedly attempt to exploit my son and amateur parenting techniques for seemingly limitless income on my site! More seriously, blogging for me is a coping mechanism. It is a way to vanquish any guilt I harbor from mistakes I’ve made as a father by writing about them in the hopes someone will learn something valuable. Having a child alters more than your day-to-day lifestyle, it alters your worldview and sometimes the only way I can express the bizarro world that is my new reality is through writing.

CD: What can people expect from your blog? Do you have a specific goal or do you write whatever you feel?

CR: I didn’t set out with goals for my website. As I’ve gone along, I’ve incorporated recurring themes or motifs that help me maintain consistency but overall, I just want to be engaging. Readers of dadforbeginners.com can expect a healthy helping of cynicism with subtle traces of hope for the future as I morph from a furry and confused caterpillar into a butterfly of fatherhood…albeit a pitiful, sickly, and decidedly non-majestic butterfly.

CD: What has been your biggest challenge as a father?

CR: My biggest challenge as a father has been vacating my former lifestyle in favor of the lifestyle of my newborn mass of fleshy tissue a.k.a my son. My wife has an expression in her native Romanian describing someone who’s perceived to be the center of attention. The phrase “Buricul Pamintului” loosely translates into English as “the belly button of the world.” It is a term used to more appropriately describe someone who requires all the attention of those surrounding them. My son is now the belly button of my world and that has been challenging.

CD: What one piece of advice can you give to a new Dad?

CR: My best advice for a new father is don’t take advice from new fathers. And make sure you’re at the birth. It is truly an amazing sight to witness your child being born.

CD: Do you have any long term goals for your site?

CR: I believe that my site can be long-lasting and fruitful. I’ve experienced more in the last 6 months than I could have ever imagined. My son unknowingly provides me endless material to write about. My goal is twofold: maintain whatever is left of my sanity and maybe influence someone who’s not yet experienced what I have.

CD: What is your social media weapon of choice and why?

CR: Facebook. This is a no brainer. Facebook posts have 3 to 4 times the lifespan of Tweets and Stumbles and a far greater likelihood of being shared. The Facebook crowd is far more family oriented and serious than any other social medium.

CD: How has blogging affected your life?

CR: Since I’ve been blogging, I’ve become rich beyond my wildest dreams. I’m a Southern California celebrity and I’m taking it nationwide. In other words, I’m straddling the poverty line and my mom thinks I’m funny.

I want to thank Colin for his time in answering all my hard hitting questions and hope you’ll stop by to check him out on Twitter and Facebook as well!

Dad Blogs Exposed! ~ Ask Your Dad

Welcome back to another exciting episode of Dad Blogs Exposed! This week I am talking to blogger extraordinaire and funny man, John Kinnear, from the blog Ask Your Dad. Here’s what John had to say about blogging and fatherhood.

CD: Why did you start blogging?

JK: I started blogging at the urging of my wife. I have been writing since before I can remember, but most of it was filed in various shoe boxes and stored in the garage. After I got married and had a kid, my wife urged me to share some of the writing I had done with our friends and family through a blog. It grew from there.

CD: What can people expect from your blog? Do you have a specific goal or do you write whatever you feel?

JK: I hope that people can always expect a laugh. I try and stay funny whenever possible. My kids make that pretty easy. I don’t really have an agenda per se. I do have a rule that I try and follow. I try not to give advice. I just talk about what has and hasn’t worked for me, and if people can laugh at it while finding pieces here and there that help them through their own parenting journey, then I think that is awesome.

CD: What has been your biggest challenge as a father?

JK: Two things. Putting my phone away. Letting go of fear.

CD: What one piece of advice can you give to a new Dad?

JK: Decide what kind of dad you want to be before your kid arrives, and then work every day to fail less. I fall short of being the dad I want to be every single day, but my kids don’t see that. They don’t see the ideal dad that I see in my head. They see me. They see me trying. And that matters more than what I see.

CD: Do you have any long term goals for your site?

JK: Not really. I have long term goals for my writing, but not necessarily my site. I’d like to write a book or five. Not necessarily short form or memoir like I am doing now, but something with a bigger story to it. I haven’t found that story yet, but I am toying with one that revolves around teenage Frankensteins that fall in love and then get to go to a magical wizard school where they are selected to fight other classic movie monsters in an arena death match. You know, something simple that will relate to a larger audience.

CD: What is your social media weapon of choice and why?

JK: I enjoy Facebook Pages a lot. I’m on Twitter and I dabble on Google+, but most of the conversation outside of my blog takes place on the Ask Your Dad Facebook Page.

CD: How has blogging affected your life?

JK: Ha. Someone actually recognized me the other day. This really pretty lady and ran up, gave me a hug, and thanked me for a post I wrote. That will probably never happen again, but I felt pretty good about it as soon as I was able to get my wife to stop punching her in the face. Kidding… Stevie, my wife, thought it was just as cool as I did. Speaking of my wife, I think that is the other strange, and a little unfortunate way that blogging has affected my life. I get way to much credit and she doesn’t get enough. (My opinion, not hers.) The truth is, out of the two of us, Stevie is the parenting rock star. I’m an active and engaged dad, but she is a freaking jedi-ninja-parent. If I am a practitioner of good parenting, then she is the alter at which I worship. But even with her level 99 mom skills, at the end of the day, we both just try and fail less.

I would like to thank John for his time and hope you will take some time to check out the Ask Your Dad Blog. You can also find John on Twitter and Facebook. Later!

john-and-stevie

Dad Blogs Exposed! ~ The Daddy Complex

This week, I’m excited to welcome the creator of the mega viral “Calm The F*ck Down” parenting method, The Daddy Complex master and very funny, Mr. David Vienna! I had the chance to meet David in Houston last January for the Dad 2.0 Summit and he is exactly as he is on his site, which is a great thing. I had the chance to ask him a few questions about his blog and fatherhood and hope you enjoy what he had to say.

CD: Why did you start blogging?

David: To maintain my sanity. I was a work-at-home dad and had what psychologists would probably classify as a nervous breakdown about twice a week. Both my dad and my wife suggested I start the blog. I was so frazzled, they could’ve told me to start building a rocket ship and I’d have done it.

CD: How would you describe your blogging style?

David: Like scat. Both the jazz singing style and the poo style.

CD: What has been your biggest challenge as a father?

David: Convincing my kids they need to find jobs. I tried explaining the value of a hard day’s work, but they just want to play with Legos, the freeloaders.

CD: What one piece of advice would you give to a new Dad?

David: Designate a place in your home to be your “Weeping Area.” Closets work well, as does the cupboard under the kitchen sink.

CD: Your post about the “CTFD” parenting method went mega viral. Can you talk a little about what that was like and what, if anything, came from that exposure?

David: It was cray-cray, man. So many people have — and still do — find use for it. There’s even a clinic in Michigan that offers classes in how to implement the CTFD Method. I like that it’s become a sort of battle cry for parents. And the exposure/success of the post opened a bunch of doors. I got a book deal, appeared on the Today show (not to talk about CTFD, but that’s how I ended up on their radar) and my name keeps getting mentioned alongside Amy Chua. I guess I’m like the anti-Tiger Mother.

CD: What is your social media weapon of choice and why?

David: Tumblr. Because my site is a Tumblr blog and the built-in community there helped me hone my blogging voice and achieve a shit-load of goals. There’s a huge parenting contingent there and we all support each other. Plus, we have cat gifs.

CD: How has blogging affected your life?

David: It gave me the audience and interaction I previously tried to achieve with my epic monkey vs. robot rock opera.

Thanks a million to David for taking the time to answer my questions! You can check him out on twitter @TheDaddyComplex or at The Daddy Complex blog.

A Gift From David at Dad 2.0 Summit. Chewbacca vs. Iron Man

A Gift From David at Dad 2.0 Summit. Chewbacca vs. Iron Man

Dad Blogs Exposed! ~ Out With The Kids

This week on Dad Blogs Exposed, I am talking to Jeff Bogle from the blog, Out With The Kids. I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff this past January in Houston for Dad Summit and immediately appreciated him for his sense of kindness. I have also been finding inspiration in his journey to live a healthier lifestyle and have even started my own regimen because of it. He is a great dude and I hope you enjoy his answers and his website!

CD: Why did you start blogging?

Jeff: I began blogging in the late 18th century, to document the early stage development of our fair nation to your south, but didn’t backup anything (Carbonite wouldn’t be invented for centuries, unfortunately) so there’s no record of any of those dazzling quill-typed blog entries. My modern day blog, Out With The Kids, was launched in May of 2006, when my oldest was still a toddler, to document the early-stage development of her and also myself as a first time parent. The idea was to document the ways in which my wife and I were parenting on the edge of the mainstream. I wasn’t going for pompous, but fear I achieved it often. I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t have a content strategy or SEO keyword plan to attract readers – still don’t, really. I simply felt and continue to feel a need to put things down, to record them without having to ever read back my gnarly handwriting.

CD: What can people expect from your blog? Do you have a specific goal or do you write whatever you feel?

Jeff: Readers can expect to discover a number of new media goodies — music, books, apps and more — that will hopefully assist them in elongating and enhancing childhood for their kids, and parenting/life reflections that are a mixed bag of wistful, funny, and heartbreaking. In any given week, a reader might cry, laugh, find their kid’s new favorite song and discover a killer new recipe for tomorrow night’s dinner.

CD: What has been your biggest challenge as a father?

Jeff: Managing my perfectionist tendencies and expectations. I struggle, less now than before, but still, with remembering that my children are just that, and that despite being bright, thoughtful, and cultured, they are young kids…young kids who I’m not in a rush to have grow up. Because they, and I, only get one shot to enjoy their childhood.

CD: What one piece of advice can you give to a new Dad?

Jeff: To share your passions with your children, without force feeding them, but not ever at the expense of their right to experience a pure, innocent and long childhood. Don’t rush them or yourself as a parent through it! So if you love Pulp Fiction, like hard core love it, maybe give it a few more years, or decades, before you sit down aside your boy to watch it together. That’s an extreme example, but the point remains: children deserve experiences and media that honor their viewpoint and has context that doesn’t force them to grow up faster than they want to.

CD: Do you have any long term goals for your site?

Jeff: On one hand, I’d like OWTK to become the Rolling Stone Magazine of kid culture, but that would involve covering media and characters that disgust me and seem to operate with a mission to soil childhood for both my kids and me, retroactively. My only real goal is to get better at storytelling, at finding a narrative thread in everything we see and do together as a family. And to get one of my children’s books published someday!

CD: What is your social media weapon of choice and why?

Jeff: I’ve grown to love Instagram the most mainly because it feels the most artistic or at least the platform with the most artistic possibilities, without being spammy (Twitter) or overtly sexual (Vine). I’ve got a bit of a filter fetish.

CD: How has blogging affected your life?

Jeff: Since starting the blog, I now process every occurrence through a narrative viewfinder. I see stories where before I saw only facts and dates and happenings. Oh, and I also got to race a Ferrari in Las Vegas thanks to this crazy profession. The saying ‘Only in America’ has seemingly been replaced with ‘Only on the Internet!’

Huge thanks to Jeff for taking the time out of his schedule to answer the questions! Please feel free to leave a comment for Jeff and ask him any other questions you think I missed. See you next week with a new Dad and a new Blog!

Dad Blogs Exposed! ~ Always Home And Uncool

This week on Dad Blogs Exposed, I had the chance to talk with Kevin McKeever from the blog, Always Home and Uncool. Kevin’s stylings can also be found over at Dadcentric. I had the opportunity to meet and share a stage with Kevin at this year’s Dad 2.0 Summit in Houston, Texas and was once again blown away by the kindness of a stranger. Kevin is effortlessly funny, or at least it seems effortless, and I’m glad to now call him a friend. Unless he takes the effortless thing the wrong way, in which case he was a fine “former” friend.

CD: Why did you start blogging?

KM: After being laid off from my job, I had to do something to prove to my wife that I didn’t spend all day at home surfing the Internet for revealing photos of Kari Byron from “Mythbusters.”

That and, after not writing regularly for six months for the first time in 20-odd years when I was a reporter or corporate communicator, I just felt the need to start putting something into words again for my own sanity’s sake.

CD: What can people expect from your blog? Do you have a specific goal or do you write whatever you feel?

KM: I mostly tell tales about my goofy self — as a dad, as a guy, as a man befuddled by the world around him. Sometimes I have a fleeting celebrity encounter, sometimes I shed a tear or two, but mostly it’s about me trying to make sense of my wife, kids and dog.

CD: What has been your biggest challenge as a father?

KM: Avoiding the ol’ “well, back in my day …” routine with my kids. Civilization advances and changes, and you can’t live in your past no matter how comfortable it may be. I try to adapt and grow with my kids not because I want to be the cool, hip dad but because I want to stay involved in their world. Nevertheless, I never bothered figuring out all that Pokemon stuff when my boy was young. What the heck was that about?

CD: What one piece of advice can you give to a new Dad?

KM: I’ll give you two.

a) Don’t panic. If you panic, all is lost. Keep your wits about you and you’ll survive it.
b) Don’t listen to me.

CD: Do you have any long term goals for your site?

KM: Dude, I don’t even have plans for lunch. Speaking of which – Hooters?

CD: What is your social media weapon of choice and why?

KM: I’m on Facebook because that where I seem to best be able to keep up with the people I care about. I have Google+ account which I’m starting to use some, and Instagram is nice, but I tend to post all that stuff on FB now that it’s integrated. Pinterest? No interest, but that’s me. Your mileage may vary.

CD: How has blogging affected your life?

KM: I’ve meet some truly great and generous people, online and IRL, through blogging. The support my family has received from complete strangers and Internet-only acquaintances whenever we have sought help to raise awareness or money to support research into Juvenile Myositis, a rare autoimmune disease my daughter has had since age 2, has been heartwarming and, frankly, unbelievable.

Huge thanks to Kevin for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer the questions. I hope you’ll take some time to check out his site and say hi for me. See you next week!

Dad Blogs Exposed! ~ Puzzling Posts

Welcome to this week’s edition of Dad Blogs Exposed! I had the pleasure of interviewing a fellow Canadian Dad and new friend of mine, Mike Reynolds, from the blog, Puzzling Posts. Mike and I were members of the same Movember team that crushed it last year and are working together again on this year’s campaign. He’s a great guy with a good heart and I’m excited to be able to share his story with you all.

CD: Why did you start blogging?

MR: I actually started blogging as a way to get myself writing more. Puzzling Posts originally had nothing to do with parenting, it was a spot I tried to write Stephen Leacock inspired stories on. For the first year I write a new story every day for 365 days and once that project ended I let the writing slide for a bit. then came kids and I found all kinds of new material. My girls inspire me to be creative and keep me young at heart which makes blog writing extremely fun.

CD: Can you talk about how you got started with writing children’s stories and maybe share a couple of your favourites?

MR: I’ve always loved writing stories but for the longest time I’d take weird news headlines and create some piece of fiction around them. Last Christmas my wife bought me a set of writing prompt cards that showed a bunch of robots. One night my oldest daughter and I came up with a story about one and the idea of bedtime stories was created. Since then, we’ve stopped needing the prompts and have written stories about giants who play hopscotch and soccer playing dinosaurs as well as many others.

One of the highlights of my story writing career came when I got feedback from an elementary school teacher who mentioned her class had read my stories and were inspired to write their own afterwards. That’s why I write–to inspire kids to be creative.

CD: What has been your biggest challenge as a father?

MR: I get most frustrated with myself when I find myself telling my kids “I’ll do things later.” Being tired is part of being a parent so I don’t feel bad for sometimes running out of gas, but I want to take advantage of every moment my kids want to play with me so I don’t regret it when down the line they don’t want to play with me any more. I also cry a lot and it’s hard to hide tears at work sometimes.

CD: What one piece of advice can you give to a new Dad?

MR: Treat every smile like it’s the last one you’ll ever see and then work as hard as you can to find the next one anyway. Also, the immense love you feel the first time you see your child somehow only grows over time, take advantage of every moment you get to sit down and talk to your kids. Building a relationship and an environment where they feel they can talk to you about anything is essential.

CD: Do you have any long term goals for your site?

MR: At this point I’m very happy writing our bedtime stories and the adventures we go on and I don’t think that part is anything I’d ever give up. It’s also the bedtime stories I’d like to grow seeing how they’re what sets me apart from a lot of other smaller sites like mine and because it’s also something attached to active parenting. If the stories weren’t being written with my children I’m not sure I’d be as interested in them finding a wider audience.

At the same time, I’d love for my blog to turn into a resource for parents to turn to when they’re looking for an honest review of some simple family activities. I like reviewing places and things for families because in addition to being able to help out other families, it gives me the chance to get my kids doing all kinds of fun things like visiting toy stores and pumpkin patches etc.

CD: What is your social media weapon of choice and why?

MR: Part of my day job is monitoring the many social media channels of my organization and with them Twitter is the best tool because of the quick interactions with our audiences. I assumed that would carry over to my own site and I certainly do love Twitter for Puzzling Posts but Facebook has been the far greater driver of traffic and engagement with others. I’d love to grow my Facebook page more so I can stop annoying my friends with my daily doses of Puzzling Posts.

CD: How has blogging affected your life?

MR: What I’ve liked about blogging is that it’s made me do things I normally wouldn’t do. I’m not a crafty person but I’ve started a feature on my site where me and the kids work on crafts we’ve found on Pinterest. There’s a good chance these Puzzling Pinterest Projects would never have come about were it not for the blog.

I’ve also always struggled with thinking I’m worse at parenting than others because sometimes (a lot of the time) I find parenting difficult. But it’s not me, it’s that parenting is just damn hard. I like sharing this with others just in case they’re somehow under the impression it’s just them struggling.

Really, blogging is my way of releasing creativity.

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That’s it for this week on Dad Blogs Exposed. Thanks to Mike for his time and I hope you’ll check back in next week for a new Dad and a new story.

Mike and Charlie and Leah

Dad Blogs Exposed! ~ Fodder 4 Fathers

Dad Blogs Exposed continues this week as I interview fellow Canadian, Adam Dolgin, from the blog, Fodder 4 Fathers. I recently had the opportunity to meet Adam at an event in Brampton and can tell you that he looks much better on the internet than he does in person. Of course, I keed! Here’s what Adam had to say about fatherhood and blogging.

CD: Why did you start blogging?

AD: Truth? I was bored. Not a lot to do when you’re sitting on the couch holding a sleeping 8-month-old around the dinner hour. Sure, you can watch the news, but that will only make you cynical. So I was playing on my Blackberry and thought I’d look in to this whole blog thing and I started one called “The Evil That You Know” (which is better than the evil that you don’t know). But I had no clue what I wanted to write about, so I wrote about what I knew, or was learning about, and that was Fatherhood. Changed the name to Fodder 4 Fathers a few weeks later and the rest is history.

CD: What can people expect from your blog? Do you have a specific goal or do you write whatever you feel?

AD: Honesty, open-mindedness, sarcasm, humor, some great links about parenting, and a lot of reality. Mostly, I like that people can’t say that I write the same thing day in and day out. I mix it up a lot and when people think I’m one way I’ll throw them for a loop by tackling something a totally different way than I had before. In the beginning I was planning out posts days ahead, now I just post about things that bother me, or I respond to things I’ve read, or ideas come to me out of thin air. Anything is fair game for me. And everything is good “Fodder” for conversation. Personally, I write best when I’m pissed off about something, and those are the posts my fans tend to like best too.

CD: What has been your biggest challenge as a father?

AD: I like the challenge of fatherhood, but it’s not really a challenge to me, yet. I think I’ve very well suited to parenting infants and toddlers. Diapers, screaming, tantrums and sleepless nights don’t bother me. I’m more afraid of the tween and teen years. I think everything my kids do now is funny, but when my kid comes home telling me she got kicked out of hockey for spearing some other girl, I’m going to be pretty pissed that I can’t get my deposit back. But I guess if there is a challenge for me being an active dad to a 3-year-old and an 8-month-old it’s getting both kids in to the car by myself when I want to go to McDonald’s on a Sunday morning while my wife sleeps in. Actually, the real problem is getting them and my coffee out of the car when we get back home.

CD: What one piece of advice can you give to a new Dad?

AD: “GO BACK!” Sorry, that was Ione Skye’s speech from Say Anything. Actually, my advice to new dads is pretty straight-forward – if you want to be an equal partner in the parenting of your child, do it. Don’t wait for someone to invite you to do it, just do it. Read a parenting book, change a diaper, feed a bottle, take the kid for a stroll by yourself and get a coffee. Take your rightful place in your child’s life. Often parenting is a battle of supremacy for many couples from the beginning, especially as moms want to take the lead with an infant, but don’t let her. Tell her you want to be an equal partner in raising your kids (if that’s what you want— and you should), and work out between the two of you how to split it up in a way that works to both of your strengths.

CD: Do you have any long term goals for your site?

AD: I went from a small fatherhood blog to a full-service website full of resources and advice for a wide variety of parenting issues for both fathers and mothers. Was it planned? Hell yes. My website is far more serious than my blog, or my Facebook presence for that matter, and I always wanted to turn it in to a place where parents could get real answers to real problems without any fluff. Webinars and online courses will be coming in the future and we’ll be writing a book or two as well. I have it all mapped out on a piece of paper that I keep in my sock drawer (and in a big file on my laptop desktop). But I’m always willing to change as the wind does. Who knows what the future really holds. All I know is right now I’m helping people talking about a subject that I love and making some extra pocket change off of it talking about products I liked regardless. It’s a good start. When all is said and done, I just want to help people find the information they actually need without having to read through a lot of BS. If I can do it and make a living, well, that’s would be nice too.

CD: What is your social media weapon of choice and why?

AD: Facebook! Hands down. I like how it allowed me to create a community and doesn’t force me to talk in a limited number of characters on each post. I like to talk, and sometimes I have a lot to say. That’s not to say I don’t have all my Facebook posts connected to my Twitter or LinkedIn feeds. I just use Facebook as my home base. It’s where I’ve been able to grow a very large following of faithful fans and make a lot of page friends who support me and help my little idea – that parents can talk as equals- grow.

CD: How has blogging affected your life?

AD: One day I was a guy with 30 people, all close friends and family, reading my stuff. Two years later I’m a guy who has 18,000 people reading my stuff and my name is all over the Internet linked to newspaper articles, National magazines, podcasts, corporate campaigns and hundreds of blog posts. The other day my website was ranking 2nd on Google under Websites for Fathers. And the coolest thing is people actually come to me for help with their parenting problems, not because I’m an expert, but because I have created a community of very smart, and very knowledgeable parents who have been there. They trust me to get them help, and to keep their secrets, and that’s something that I never expected when I started this whole thing. It really took on a life of its own and its taking me in directions I never thought I would go… but I’m that F4F guy now. That involved dad guy. That guy who talks about making the world a better place for our kids. And it’s a pretty cool thing to be. Sure, I’m also hated by a lot of people for speaking my mind on a myriad of topics, but at least it has people talking about them. Having a blog gave me a voice (an International one) I would have never had otherwise.

A big thanks to Adam for taking the time to answer all my questions. Don’t forget to stop by next Wednesday to read about another amazing Dad!

About F4F Page - Dad and DD

Dad Blogs Exposed! ~ DadScribe

I’m happy to announce that Dad Blogs Exposed is back and with an all new format. I decided to go with a Q&A style approach to let the Dads tell you what they are all about in their own words and I’m excited to be able to share their stories with you.

This week I am happy to have had the chance to talk to Carter Gaddis from DadScribe. I met Carter at the Dad 2.0 Summit in Houston earlier this year and had the opportunity to share the stage with him as one of the conferences spotlight readers. In our brief interactions in Houston and the conversations that followed, I have learned that Carter is as genuine a person as they come and I feel lucky to have met him. Below are his answers to my questions about fatherhood and blogging.

CD – Why did you start blogging?

CG – I needed a creative outlet, so I started a blog. I spent 24 years covering sports for newspapers and websites, and the kind of writing I do professionally now (while steady and secure) doesn’t give me the same thrill. Plus, my sons are too young to know about that part of my life, so DadScribe originally was intended to be a platform for sharing those stories. It morphed into a catch-all for our experiences as a family, and my experiences, in particular, as a father. Every now and then I’ll remember a funny or poignant story from my sports writing days and share it, too.

CD – What can people expect from your blog? Do you have a specific topic with your writing or do you write whatever you feel?

CG – As I sort of touched on in the first answer, DadScribe has evolved. I suppose it remains a work in progress, but readers are as likely to find a photo essay about our family vacation to Cape Cod or trips to Disney World as they are a three- or four-paragraph prose poem about a sleepy Saturday morning. I have also branched out into sponsored content over the past few months, but I only accept assignments that are relevant to our family and can be used to tell good stories. I’ll also delve into politics and social issues every now and then if I feel compelled to speak out on a topic. Here’s one of those political posts, which happens to be my most-read post.

CD – What has been your biggest challenge as a father?

CG – Time is always my greatest challenge. I work a full-time job, as does my wife, which means our boys spend a lot of time in daycare, after-school care or summer camp. I envy parents who are able to work out of their homes, because even though I know those situations present their own challenges, at least they don’t have to spend two hours (or more) every day commuting to and from work. Those two hours away from my sons are the two toughest hours of the day for me. The math of it tears me up: 10 hours a week, 40+ hours a month, 500+ hours a year. That’s about three weeks every year I spend battling traffic, rather than being there with my sons. It’s tough, especially since I never had a commute for the first 24 years of my career. Then again, I was on the road for 100 or more days a year back then. So, it’s all relative.

CD – What one piece of advice can you give to a new Dad?

CG – My best advice for new dads is to ignore unsolicited advice.

CD – Do you have any long term goals for your site?

CG – I want to write well, continue to build on my modest readership, and see where it goes. I doubt I’ll ever become a “professional” blogger, at least not with DadScribe. For now, if I can tell stories that entertain people and make them think, I’ll be happy.

CD – What is your social media weapon of choice and why?

CG – I am most active on Facebook, because I like the interactivity and the universality of it. Most of my traffic comes from Facebook shares from my personal site, and most of the people I’m connected with online and in real life are active there, too. I’m also on Twitter @DadScribe, Instagram (dadscribe) and Pinterest, as well as Vine. Right now, though, Facebook remains king for me.

CD – How has blogging affected your life?

CG – I didn’t see it coming, but blogging has become much more than a hobby. It started when I was invited to read at Dad 2.0 Summit. That was an incredible honor and it opened my eyes to the depth and warmth of the parent blogging community. The weekend in Houston was transformative. Since then, I’ve had the good fortune to work with several brands and PR/marketing firms that really get it when it comes to parent blogger outreach. That has been a nice surprise, and it has made me want to do even more of that kind of work as time permits. Primarily, though, blogging has given me a group of friends that I never would’ve had otherwise. At my age, making new friends is not high on the agenda. This has been a good thing, though. A very good thing. The guys at www.dadcentric.com, many of whom I met in person for the first time in Houston, have been especially generous, as have my fellow Dad 2.0 Spotlight Bloggers (yourself, Jon Hockey Jesus, Kevin McKeever and Whit Honea). It’s deeper than that, though. I didn’t just find a “tribe,” as they tell you to do when you start out as a blogger. I discovered a weird, pixelated world populated by living, breathing parents who share many of my interests and help me see things from a different perspective. I want to keep that going and deepen those relationships, even if it means masking my inhibitions and utter lack of talent on a karaoke stage at the next Dad 2.0 in New Orleans — with or without a dancer’s pole.

I’d like to thank Carter for his time in answering all of the questions and I’ll be back next Wednesday with a new Dad to parade around for you!

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