Two leading fatherhood support networks will soon unite as a single organization dedicated to championing fathers and helping them succeed at being actively engaged parents.

City Dads Group and Fathering Together will operate as one, creating a stronger and more comprehensive platform to help provide vital resources and connections to fathers in and through local communities across the globe.

City Dads Group is a diverse community of fathers dedicated to being actively involved in their children’s lives. Founded in 2008, City Dads Group has chapters in 41 cities across the United States and Canada. The chapters focus on holding in-person gatherings of fathers, with or without their children present, where bonding, commiseration and support can take place.

Fathering Together is a nonprofit global network of more than 125,000 fathers and allies around the world dedicated to promoting active fatherhood and providing support, resources, advocacy and education for dads. Established in 2018, Fathering Together started years earlier as a Facebook group “Dads with Daughters” which quickly blossomed to include tens of thousands of fathers sharing stories, seeking advice and offering wisdom.

The new organization, to be headed by Fathering Together’s current leadership team, is a strategic partnership that will result in a broader online and in-person network, enhanced programming, and a more significant impact on the lives of fathers, families and communities.

“We are thrilled to join with Fathering Together to strengthen, sustain and expand our communities,” said Matt Schneider, co-founder of City Dads Group. “We have a real opportunity to positively impact the way we view and value fathers as a society.”

Lance Somerfeld, co-founder of City Dads Group, added, “Since the pandemic, we’ve been trying to figure out the best path forward for our communities of dads to evolve, grow and thrive. We felt that the most authentic, seamless, and strategic partner to fulfill that goal was joining forces with Fathering Together.”

Key benefits of the partnership include:

1. Expanded Reach: The new organization will reach over 150,000 dads across the globe with in-person groups in Canada, Kenya, Malawi, and the United States.

2. Innovative Programming: The entity will offer more robust programs including school-based “social emotional learning” for dads, online panels, and in-person meetups to empower dads to be advocates for change.

3. Inclusive Community: As members define fatherhood for themselves, regardless of background or identity, all will be welcome to share their story, and grow together in their journey.

Brian Anderson, co-founder and board president of Fathering Together, said, “We are honored that City Dads Group places their faith in us to continue advocating for fathers worldwide. We look forward to bringing the City Dads Group community into ours so we might empower dads to be emotionally courageous, connected, and committed to their families.”

Read the official press announcement.

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

Editor’s note: New York City presents amazing cultural opportunities to share with our families. We recently collaborated with “The Little Prince” to experience this magical Broadway show. Scroll to the end for a discount ticket offer!

The NYC Dads Group are back! Broadway is, too!

After two years of having to mostly suspend in-person meetup experiences due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our group partnered with The Little Prince to emerge in a grand fashion. More than 30 of our dads along with their kids, many attending their first ever Broadway show, descended upon the Broadway Theatre in Times Square recently to share a memorable, unique and magical performance of this classic children’s story.

An unforgettable story becomes an unforgettable Broadway show. Based on the 1943 book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry that continues to touch millions, this stunning new production transported us to a world unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

What’s the show all about?

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story, here goes. An aviator descends from the sky to find himself in the middle of the desert. Here, he meets the Little Prince, a young hero on an extraordinary adventure. The Little Prince goes on this touching journey as he meets many colorful and bizarre characters who help him learn how to follow his heart.

The Broadway version is non-traditional for most. It creatively shares the story via narration (there are teleprompters in case you miss dialogue), aerial artistry and stunning choreography. Sometimes the show felt like a ballet. At other times, it’s like Cirque du Soleil. Audience members will interpret it differently, but everyone is sure to enjoy the thrilling grand finale.

Our family went to see the musical not knowing much about the story. For those with smaller children, we recommend you read them a plot summary in advance to have a better understanding of the characters and story.

Our dads, kids loved ‘The Little Prince’

After the show, our group quickly began raving about this special experience. Here are a few highlights and observations from our circle of dads:

“My son’s first Broadway play was fantastic! We got to experience the acrobatic planet-hopping of The Little Prince, all in a magical atmosphere.” – Billy D.

“That was the first time taking my 6-year-old to a Broadway show, and I’m so glad it was to see The Little Prince, which is still one of my favorite books. The fact that my daughter sat through the entire show says a lot. And the show was truly wonderful. Her favorite character was The Rose.” – Aarao B.

“My son Jackson (age 6) enjoyed the thrill of being at the show. It was his first show and we got burgers and milkshakes afterwards, and he told me it was the best day of his life.
The show was an interesting take on the book. More interpretive with the dance elements than a straight reenactment. His favorite part was seeing the aerial acrobatics, and the part he talked most about was how often someone walked on a giant ball to get around the stage.” – Micah B.

“Thanks to the NYC Dad’s Group, this was my 5-year-old son’s first Broadway show watching The Little Prince. So great to see the awesome acrobatics, dancing and feeding his imagination. Pretty amazing that he sat through the whole show!” -Mike N.

“It was very interesting to see the how they were going to interpret the book into a Broadway performance. It was different and unique. We loved the dancing, acrobatics and the music.” – Larry I.

Performance and discount ticket info

The Little Prince is in a strictly limited engagement on Broadway. It runs through August 14, 2022, at the Broadway Theatre, 1681 Broadway in Manhattan. The show has numerous performances weekly, including matinees on Saturdays and Sundays.

Being an NYC Dads Group member, friend or fan has its perks. We have discounted tickets for you! Click here to save 30% on performances through May 1 with code LPDAD223.

Disclosure: The team at “The Little Prince” provided this experience for NYC Dads Group members to attend. The opinions expressed in this review are heartfelt, honest, and 100 percent our own.

Fathers Eve is back in 2021 for NYC Dads Group members! A flag football game and dads night out will be held the day before Father’s Day in Manhattan for our guys to celebrate the joys of being dads together.

UPDATED 6/8/21, 4 p.m.: A second event that night has been added in Port Washington for our members living in our closer to Long Island. More details below.

The 2021 Fathers Eve NYC party starts at 4 p.m., Saturday, June 19, with the game at the Morningside Park softball fields in Manhattan. Two hours later, the fun moves to The Harlem Tavern for food, drink and an 8 p.m. raising of the glass to toast fathers around the world.

Participation in the flag football game is not necessary for attending the tavern event, but scorekeepers and refs will be needed. A few fans cheering on the sidelines is good, too. Our members are encouraged to bring their other dad friends but an RSVP is needed.

+ RSVP for Fathers Eve 2021 Manhattan event +

The Port Washington, N.Y., has also been held in year’s past as a local restaurant. This year’s event will be outdoors and be focused around the live stream, according to its organizer.

+ RSVP for Fathers Eve 2021 Port Washington event +

Fathers Eve is the brainchild of John Francis, a co-organizer of our Twin Cities Dads Group in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota. He first gathered several of his dad friends in a residential garage in night before Father’s Day 2012 to break bread, drink beers, and swap stories about fatherhood while offering each other support in their efforts to become better parents.

(DISCLOSURE: City Dads Group is a national sponsor for Fathers Eve 2021 as it has been for the past several years.)

After a banner year in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic start in March 2020 forced Francis to quickly pivot from in-person events to a livestream program. A roughly 40-minute live video feed of programming, hosted from his garage where the first event was held nine years ago, was broadcast for each of the four mainland U.S. time zones. Each culminated in a local 8 p.m. toast to the joys of being a dad.

With the virus threat subsiding throughout most of the United States, Francis said he is expecting about 30 locations to host in-person events, though he is hoping the get the number as high as 100.

Buoyed by the success of last year’s livestream, Francis said he is keeping it to anchor the in-person events and also bring in others unable or hesitant to attend a gathering this year.

For the Fathers Eve 2021 livestream, to be broadcast via Facebook Live, Francis said he aims to add some more humorous components, such as clips from comedians, and some new speakers as well as highlighting sponsors and fatherhood causes. Sponsors this year include Sports Clips haircuts (national) and IHeartRadio and ACE Hardware (both local).

Some NYC Dads Group members will get to enjoy a whole lot of bonding with their children and each other next month at a special lunchtime play date at a major parenting exhibition in Manhattan.

+ Discounted MommyCon NYC ticket offer below! +

The event is one in a series of partnerships parent organization City Dads Group struck with MommyCon, a nationwide educational/product exhibition series dedicated to natural parenting. City Dads chapters in five U.S. cities are to host play dates when MommyCon comes to their areas this year.

MommyCon NYC, scheduled for April 7 at the Grand Hyatt hotel next to Grand Central Terminal, is to feature more than 100 exhibitors, speakers and panels. A dozen NYC Dads Group members and their kids will receive free admission to the event so they can attend the play date, slated for 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., by RSVPing through Meetup.

“We appreciate this opportunity to partner with MommyCon to create an opportunity for new and expecting dads to connect with City Dads Group across the United States,” said City Dads Group co-founder Matt Schneider. “Parents are in this together, so it great to see the MommyCon team welcome dads into the mix.”

The NYC play date will be the second of the partnership following a triumph in Chicago earlier this month. Other events will take place this year in Charlotte, N.C.; Orlando; and Pasadena, Calif.

The lunchtime play date provides an opportunity for NYC Dads to promote our group’s social and support benefits to MommyCon attendees while bringing some of our dads out to the convention to learn and shop.

MommyCon NYC 10% ticket discount

As part of our partnership with MommyCon, NYC Dads Group members and friends can buy tickets now and receive 10 percent off by using promo code: citydads10

+ Buy MommyCon NYC tickets now + 

This time of year people are focused on making and keeping their New Year’s resolutions.  Some like quitting bad habits or making good habits are pretty straightforward. If you want to quit smoking, exercise more, read more, or eat healthily; there are very clear ways to start and places to get help. For others, like finding a community or group that will help you in your goal to be a better father, getting started on the right foot can be tricky.

That’s what the City Dads Group is all about. At its core, the group wants to form diverse communities for fathers who are looking to socialize and interact with other guys who enjoy spending quality time with their children.

We are all in here at the Chicago Dads Group. We love the chance to meet other dads who love being dads.  This year our group made it past the 1000 member mark, and we’d love to have even more!  We have seen first-hand the positive effects of creating a network of friendships and resources to help our members become the dads they want to be.  Whether it is activities like a play date in Maggie Daley Park or a Dad’s Night Out playing whirly ball, we are strengthened by every new father that joins our tribe.

We do a lot together here are some of our member’s favorite memories and activities:

I play competitive, energetic basketball every week with Dads from our group!

– Sean W.

It’s a brotherhood of guys who have great advice on childcare and are just fun to be around. I love Dad’s Night Out. I like getting away from the kids for a little adult time.

– Al W.

It’s nice to feel like there are others out there who share what I’m going through. We have a great group of guys…as fathers but also just as people who are fun to be around. My kids still talk about going fishing with the group, even though they were bored and didn’t catch anything. The experience was everything!

– Kyle E.

Join a Dads Group

Great dads don’t happen overnight it takes time, effort, and commitment.  That doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch though.  We’d love to add your perspective and experience to our own.

If you’ve been looking for a way to connect with other active and engaged fathers here in the Chicagoland area check out some of our upcoming events… We’d love to have you!

The Dads in the Chicago Dads Group love taking in a good movie, a large portion of our Dad’s Night Out meetups are held at Chicago-area movie theaters.  This week a bunch of our Dads had the opportunity to see the heavily anticipated Thor: Ragnarok.  If their reactions are any signal this is one you won’t want to miss.

Here’s what our guys had to say:

David C. – This is a fun-filled action roller coaster with monsters dragons beasts heroes and villains.  I loved the setting of a planet that reveres The Hulk like no one else could and Chris Hemsworth was channeling his inner Starlord with his witty use of comedy.  The music was like another actor in the film, making you feel like the action is running through you nor just in front of you.  This film rivals all the other Marvel films as the most re-watchable one in the franchise.

John L. – Great movie! I thoroughly enjoyed it From the CGI enhanced action scenes to the ample humor applied throughout, making the movie that much more lighthearted and enjoyable.

Stone A.- It was an enjoyable movie and a fun night.  With my heritage, I’ve always been interested Nordic mythology and thought the interpretation was creative and well done. The actors were great and the action was a lot of fun to watch on the IMAX screen.  The dialogue was witty and the end was unpredictable which I liked!

We are always doing outings like this it is a great way to get involved with other Dads just like you.  If you would like to join us join our group here (it is free).

We’d also love to know what you thought about the movie leave your review in the comments below!

Disclosure: We proudly partnered with WaterWipes for this event and post.

One of the best things about being a part of the Chicago Dads Group is getting together with other fathers and their kids to watch them play and make new friends.  Whether you call them playdates, outings or adventures, we love them.

Our good friends WaterWipes, makers of the world’s purest baby wipes, treated our dads and their families to a fun breakfast and morning of play at one of our favorite local spots, The Little Beans Cafe. With cafe amenities for the parents and older siblings, imaginative play spaces for the tiny tots, and some sports and gymnastic-style play for the not-so-tiny tots, Little Beans is perfect for the whole family.

We had some epic make-believe going on in the “Tiny Tots Town” with all the dress-ups and play buildings. It is always a blast when kids get their dads in on the play. We also had some creative tabletop tennis, and an impromptu ultimate ninja competition go down with some of our bigger kids (sometimes even our dads fit that category). Everyone was having a blast.

Lucky for us, we never had to stop play for too long for a diaper change. With WaterWipes on hand, our dads could flag their toddler down and get them changed and back into action with the efficiency of a race car pit crew. WaterWipes gave us the confidence of knowing not only are we there to help our kids when they need us, but that we are taking care of their skin as we do. WaterWipes are made with 99.9% water and a drop of fruit extract so they are soft to the touch and gentle on sensitive baby skin. Additionally, WaterWipes have been awarded the National Eczema Association Seal of Acceptance — so you know the whole family can use them with skincare confidence.

“We love WaterWipes! They are soft on her skin and that makes my job so much easier,” said James Currie, a Chicago Dads Group father of a 2-year-old. “They give me peace of mind knowing I’m keeping her new skin clean with gentle and pure elements.”

Another one of our fathers, Rich Espinal, said, “It is great to be in community with fellow fathers and their families. It serves as a reminder that we have the same desires for more sleep, fumbling through the best way to manage tantrums, etc. Little Beans Cafe was an ideal venue with toys, activities, and places for parents to relax. It was also great to have WaterWipes on hand to wipe down faces buttered with breakfast and make diaper changes a breeze.”

WaterWipes are available throughout the U.S. online and at many major retailers. For more information, visit www.WaterWipes.com/us.

One of the great things about being in a “Dads Group” is being a resource for one another.  Learning together we discover more and more that we are not alone on this journey of fatherhood.  That is the philosophy behind our recent dad survival training  meetup, our 1st Daddy/Daughter Hairstyling Class.  With some help and guidance from Phil and Josh from the Daddy Daughter Hair Factory .

In these two classed our dads learned the way of the brush. In this fun and friendly event we learned the arts of braiding and buns… or at least we took our firs few steps on the path.   It was a great way to add a couple new tools to our daddy tool-belts in a safe environment.

It was nice to learn with a bunch of those dads who don’t judge you because they struggle with it as well – Mike P.

Learning skills like this in an environment where we feel comfortable to ask questions about the things we don’t understand was a common theme among the responses we received from the Dads that made it.  It underlines the value of how groups like ours can make a difference for dads.

Along with the fantastic life skills learned we were fortunate to have our very on princess there from our friends at Royal Princess Parties, to take a few pictures with the kids… and perhaps give the dads an idea of what can be done with hair if the keep practicing.

The kids had fun, the dads learned a thing or two, and most importantly they had a chance to bond.  That is what this is all about, active-engaged dads taking the time to connect to our kids and meet their needs.  Our friends at Plum Parents recognize this and made it possible for us to give out Parent Survival Kits to everyone who came it goes without saying that they were a big hit. There were filled with many of the good products that Plum Organics offers to make being a dad both easy and healthy like:  Red Super Puffs, Mighty Dinos, Apple Cinnamon Jammy Sammies, Mighty Dinos Coloring sheet(s), and more.  We are pretty sure some of those kits were put to work on the ride home.

We appreciate all the work everyone put into making this a success, especially the folks at the Imagination Children’s Academy for providing the space for us to hold classes like these. We look forward to holding more classes to stock up our fatherhood tool-belts in the future.  We hope you can join us, you may just find yourself having an experience like Kyle did:

My daughter had gymnastics this morning and asked me to put her hair in one of the ponytails that Daddy Daughter Hair Factory taught us. Her mom was super impressed and wanted the twist we learned in her own hair yesterday when we got home. – Kyle E

This week’s featured dad is Sean Wylie.

He lives in Oak Park out in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Sean is a working father with 2 kids.

What is your favorite children’s book, and why?

‘If I Ran the Zoo’ and ‘Sneetches’ by Dr. Seuss. I have a long-running passion for almost all Dr. Seuss books (I brought some with me to college). The illustrations and concepts are so rich with imagination, while still carrying powerful lessons that are useful for both kids and adults. Stories like the ‘Butter Battle Book’, ‘Bartholomew and the Oobleck’, ‘Sneetches’, ‘You’re Only Old Once’ take on difficult topics, but still maintain a magic and innocence.

This week’s featured dad is Kyle Eichenberger.

He lives in Oak Park out in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Kyle is a  SAHD (Stay-at-home-dad) with 1 boy and 1 girl.

What is your favorite children’s book, and why?

Our family’s favorite to read aloud is probably Paddington. We love these classics that stand the test of time that kids still love decades and decades later. That’s when you know the author was onto something.