Dad Round-up: Hear it for the boys

Hello and welcome to my first-ever BritMums dad blogger round-up. I’ve been given the daunting task of taking over from the amazing Spencer, who has moved on to other things (I’ll come on to what Spen’s doing shortly).

It’s been quite a month for us dad bloggers. Four of the better known chaps, working collectively under the name Love All Dads, won the innovate category at the Brilliance in Blogging Awards for their weekly podcast. They’re a great bunch and you’ll find their blogs here: DadWhoBlogs by Lewis Ackroyd, Photowalkthrough written by John Arnold, Diary of the Dad by Tom Briggs, and One Dad3Girls, written by Darren Coleshill who also went home with the BiB in the social media category. It was also great to see Eamon from the brilliant Who the hell does he think he is?  receiving a BiB in the Inspire category.

BritMums Live was fantastic fun and it inspired me to go out and read loads of other blogs. One I got stuck into was L Plates Dad. It’s written by Dan, a Barnsley lad who has been exiled to Belfast after a spell living in the South of France. He has a very natural way of writing and can be very funny one moment and deadly serious the next. He’s recently been told his family’s house is to be sold by the landlord. Thing is, with a seven month old baby, he doesn’t wish to move from a place packed full of happy memories.

As the name suggests, Nick King’s World is written by Nick King. He is one of the small but growing number of gay, adoptive parents. He and his partner, a “very important doctor” called J,  have adopted a boy and a girl.

The writing is poignant and thought provoking and I guarantee you’ll well up while reading it. Nick doesn’t shy away from covering the harsher elements of adoption, but he also has an amazing sense of humour and this shines through in many posts. As a starter, try having a read of his tale about buying nail varnish with his daughter. You must also read his review of Mega Bloks. Yes, really, this review and what happened while Nick and his daughter were playing with the bloks will make you emotional.

My final recommendation for this month is DadsthewayIlikeit written by Jonathan Ervine. Jonathan writes very honestly about the trials of being a dad and tackles issues such as paternity leave head-on. He also blogs a lot about languages as he and his wife are raising their son as a bilingual English / Welsh speaker. In his most recent post, he reflects on 15 months as a parent.

I promised I’d say a few words about Spencer. He is such a popular guy I imagine many of you will know his news. In case you don’t, he’s taken the decision to try something new. He’s launched a blog focusing on television. It’s called The Box Full of Little People and it’s a great read if you love the small screen.

I’ve always found Spencer to be very encouraging of all us parent bloggers, be they mums or dads. I recommend paying his new blog a visit and giving it some love.

I hope you liked my first round-up. If you’d like to suggest blogs I should be reading or have any ideas for improving it, please get in touch and let me know. I’ll be back again in August. Until then, take care.

About John Adams

John Adams is a married with two young daughters. He has been a stay at home dad for almost four years. John started blogging back in 2012 after being invited to one-too-many "mother and toddler groups." This inspired him to write about the issues he faced as a stay at home dad and the gender barriers men face as parents. John continues to write about lie as a stay at home dad. He also writes about every aspect of parenting; schooling, education, pregnancy and birth, childcare and so on. Over time he has broadened the focus of his blog so he now writes about family finances, photography and occasionally covers men's style and fashion. John was originally a journalist. He concedes, however, that was a long time ago.

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