Welcome to the monthly round-up, which is a bit of a mixed bag as it is my first time in the hot seat. Some of the guys that I have highlighted this month are new to the parenting game, while others have many years of experience. However the one thing that they all have in common is that they are dads who take their responsibilities seriously, although they have very different ways of dealing with the things that life throws at them.
Over on my blog this week I talked at some length about the fluid nature of parenting in a post about Athletics and Academics, which goes someway towards explaining my own views on the child/parent relationship as they hit the teenage years. Suffice to say there is no one size fits all solution to bringing up children, we all have are own methods and views, which is just how it should be.
One of the dads with a new arrival in the house is Lewis who writes Babber Blog, a great collection of thoughts about being a parent for the first time. I have been enjoying looking back at the early stages of parenthood through his eyes and have to say that he appears to be coping far better than I remember doing the first time around. He also seems to have got a handle on some of the less publicised advantages of having a baby in the house, as his excellent and amusing post Excuses shows.
James at Here’s Daddy is a bit further up the parenting ladder, with a thirteen month old son, and also seems to have things very much under control. In fact he seems to be coping so well that he also has time for other activities, including dealing with the garden, something that I am still struggling with after fourteen years. His recent post about purchasing a set of secateurs really struck a chord though, a gadget and cutting stuff down, that’s proper dad material.
A different take on garden hobbies comes from John over at RJR Daydreamer who, amongst other things, has an interest in model railways. Now I have to admit to being a Scalextric kind of guy on the whole, but it seems that I may have been missing out. It may just be me, but the idea of a railway in the garden sounds rather appealing, particularly one which appears to be able to triumph over all obstacles, including snow.
Cooking is something that is close to my heart, but I stand in awe of Marcus of Country Woodsmoke, who can do a bit more than just rustle up a few cakes. Here is a chap who regularly produces fabulous looking meals, many of which are prepared outside. That’s right Marcus has a wood fired oven in his garden, which he appears to have built himself as well, and he appears to be capable of cooking almost anything on it. You can get an idea of what he gets up to here with his characterful pizza, probably a good place to start before discovering how much he can really do outside the comfort of a modern kitchen.
Finally this month I thought it might be nice to highlight one of the most influential and helpful blogging dad’s that I have come across. I am of course talking about the previous author of this post Keith who pens the eloquent and informative Chronicles of a Reluctant Housedad. Many of you will of course be well aware of his existence, but in case you have been living in an Internet free cave for the past few years, make sure you get over and check him out. There is always something worth reading on his blog, food, parenting, ironing or in this case how the arrival of a crane led to a temporary escape from housedad duties, don’t miss it.
I know there are plenty more dads out there, but in case you are not on my radar please add your links below, just to give me a fighting chance of working my way through everyone, thanks.
