HERE 4 THE DADS

It has become a habit. At least 3 times a week, I hijack my wife’s phone after getting bored watching the same old content from my instagram account. It’s easiest for me to target her phone while it sits idle on the charger from time to time. I can imagine her phone saying, “Please do not remove me from this resting place. I need to be charged.” 

Ignoring my wife’s low battery, I disconnect it with a promise to plug it back in after I’m satisfied—which I always inevitably forget to do. It normally takes me no time to find my favorite mindless “thumb-scrolling app,” Instagram. 

A whole new world. 

Everything about her feed is lightyears apart from mine. My feed consists of posts about high end bourbon I'll never taste, 11 different accounts featuring dad jokes, football highlights from teams I don't follow and various acquaintances I haven't seen or spoken to since high school or college. 

Scrolling through her feed I see countless posts full of bright and colorful images with motivational quotes, knowledge and parenting tips from aesthetically pleasing profiles of SAHM (stay at home moms) and  female teachers or child therapists. Every single time I choose her Instagram feed over mine, I am in awe and baffled by the things I learn about parenting from the community of influencer moms who give a tip or two a week about child safety or comedic short videos that make you feel a little bit more normal, knowing someone else is going through the same challenges with their kids that you are. 

In most cases, it takes about 15 minutes of my wife searching tirelessly for her phone while simultaneously chiming it with her apple watch before I give in and return the phone to its rightful owner. Picking my now useless piece of metal back up again, this time feeling unsatisfied with the available content I've chosen to follow, I find myself questioning my own community of Dads. Where are our motivational dad quotes? Or our parenting tips from aesthetically pleasing profiles of SAHD (stay at home dads)? Although I am sure I follow many great Dads, my feed somehow always fills itself with recommendations of self-help books like "Think and Grow Rich,” or the latest Jordan release, crypto and real estate, grilling and cigars, or mindless dad jokes (which I do actually find very amusing). 

As parents, my wife and I are in no competition at all, but I can't help but admire her care and knowledge in always knowing what to do when our kids are in need. I can’t help but beat myself up for not knowing at times, not feeling comfortable at others or always leaning on her to have all the answers.

I recognized quickly after bringing this up to a few close friends who are also Dads, that I wasn't alone in feeling this way. As fathers, there are some aspects of parenting that may come natural to us, but others not so easily. The help is greatly needed. Regardless, like any parent we too want to become more informed parents and Dads. What better way to help our fellow Dads than to better our own community in talking about parenting.

By spreading tips, keeping it real about the parental challenges we face and doing a little HW on why we parent the way we do. We’ll ask our own dads and get different perspectives on it all. In doing this we will connect the dots among Dads, so we all know that we are here for each other, just like the moms. 

So without further ado, I present to you , "Here for the Dad's" podcast hosted by yours truly, Daddy Shark. Stay tuned!