Stay-at-home dads and work-at-home fathers are scheduled to gather in St. Louis this October for HomeDadCon 2024, the annual conference for these dads to add to their parenting skills, support each other and socialize.

Speakers and topics have yet to be announced for the event, which runs Oct. 17 to 19. Breakout topics at past conventions ranged from dealing with picky eaters to teaching children about sexual consent. Outreach or social activities, such as attending a sporting event, are often part of the program.

The National At-Home Dad Network (NAHDN) event is for stay- and work-at-home fathers who embrace parenting as their most important job. It allows them to network with other active fathers, learn from experts about various parenting and social issues, and take a brief respite from parenting duties. (DISCLOSURE: City Dads Group has been a long-time sponsor and partner with The National At-Home Dad Network for the at-home dads convention.)

HomeDadCon 2024 ticket, hotel information

A ticket to the HomeDadCon 2024 costs $230 for members. It includes access to all event programs, three meals, and a T-shirt. Tickets are only available to NAHDN members. It costs an additional $35 to join the organization for a year.

Discounted hotel reservations are available while they last at the Drury Plaza Hotel St. Louis at the Arch, which doubles as the event venue. The cost is $169 a night for double occupancy. For people wanting to split the rooming costs, the organization has a Discord group to help attendees find a roommate.

+ Buy a St. Louis HomeDadCon ticket +

The nonprofit National At-Home Dad Network offers advocacy, community, education, and support for families where fathers are their children’s primary caregivers. Its stated purpose is to empower fathers and champion a culture that recognizes them as competent parents.

The organization has expanded its work in recent years. It now runs parenting webinars and podcasts plus regular online gatherings for members to discuss issues. The National At-Home Dad Network has also recorded some of the past HomeDadCon sessions, some of which are made available only to dues-paying members.

Editor’s Note: If you’ve ever considered attending HomeDadCon, the annual fatherhood conference held by The National At-Home Dad Network, then this might help make up your mind. It was originally published here in 2014.

When I became a stay-at-home dad in 2008, I was terrified.

My wife and I had just moved from Chicago, where I had lived for 33 years, to upstate New York. I had resigned as a public school teacher after 10 years to stay in our new home and raise our kids, who at the time were 21 months old and 3. I left family, friends, babysitters I knew and trusted, and a community I loved. It meant resetting everything about my life.

The first week was rough. Our son broke his collarbone. Here I was, in a strange city where I was unfamiliar with where the hospital was and I couldn’t get a hold of my wife or her parents who lived in the area for help. I felt lost. I questioned if I really could do this.

A few weeks later, once I got the lay of the land, I sought other dads like me but without luck. I kept seeing the same moms at the gym and at pickup for their kids. Most accepted me as a parent but I still needed guys to share my experiences with.

Then, at church one day, my wife and I met a couple who had kids of similar ages.

“What do you do for a living?” the husband asked.

“I am a stay-at-home dad,” I said, dreading his response.

“No kidding!” he said. “So am I.”

What resulted was a friendship with me, him and his brother-in-law, also a stay-at-home dad. We regularly met on Fridays, which we named “Dads and Subs.” One guy would bring the Wegmans’ sandwiches and the kids would have an instant playgroup while we got to talk to one another about our week.

An at-home dad conference? Really?

In August 2011, my wife received an offer to relocate again, this time to Philadelphia. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity. This was the first city, however, where we knew no one and the first city where we couldn’t rely on family to bail us out of a jam with the kids.

I looked for dads’ groups after we got settled but kept coming up empty. I found plenty of groups for stay-at-home moms of little ones, but nothing for dads. Once, I even tried to join a moms’ group but was quickly rejected because “they didn’t feel comfortable with a man there.” I was on an island with really nowhere to turn.

Then I came across The National At-Home Dad Network’s conference, an event for stay- and work-at-home fathers who embrace parenting as their most important job. It was billed as a chance to meet other active and involved dads, learn from experts about various parenting and social issues, and take a brief respite from parenting duties.

I made plans to go to their convention in Washington, D.C., that next year. My wife and I worked out a schedule with her parents to come while I was gone and watch the kids. I piled into the car by myself and drove to D.C., not knowing what to expect.

It turns out these guys — a fraction of the tens of thousands of at-home fathers in the United States — were just like me.

Focus on being great parents, bonding

The dads came from all over. They stayed home with their kids because it was what was best for their families. They focused on trying to be the best dads they could be.

At the conference, we listened to people who had written books on parenting, a psychologist studying the rise of male caregivers in our society, and a person who had a website devoted to helping male military spouses who were at home.

In break-out sessions, we had honest discussions without judgment. We could share and be heard while dads helped other dads. Panels discussed popular issues with other men just like me. Guys talked about isolation and everything from discipline to diapers and bottles to breastfeeding.

Being around your peers in any field will give you that sense of self-worth. You see that you aren’t the only one dealing with a kid who won’t eat or how your teenage daughter won’t talk to you. I never laughed so much in my life and, at its end, I cried. I didn’t want this feeling of acceptance to end. Finally, I found my people — all in one place, no longer scattered but uniformly united by fatherhood.

The shared moments with them socially and the sessions on parenting were just what I needed. When I returned home my wife saw a change in me. I was dedicated and rejuvenated ready to be back with my kids and be the best dad I could be. It inspired me to start my own dads’ group, which eventually became the Philly Dads Group.

The men I met at the dad conference and of the At-Home Dad Network, an all-volunteer organization working toward the betterment and acceptance of stay-at-home dads everywhere, helped me when I needed it most. These guys became my friends online and in real life. They lifted me higher than I could have imagined.

If you are an at-home dad on the fence about going to the convention, I say take a chance. You never know where it will lead. The National At-Home Dad Network saved me, and it can save you too.

A version of this post first appeared on DadNCharge.

Milwaukee will host HomeDadCon 2023, the annual conference to help at-home fathers hone their parenting skills, this September.

The National At-Home Dad Network (NAHDN) event is for stay- and work-at-home fathers who embrace parenting as their most important job. It allows them to network with other active and involved dads, learn from experts about various parenting and social issues, and take a brief respite from parenting duties.

The Milwaukee Dads Group will have a hand in planning and coordinating this year’s event. (DISCLOSURE: City Dads Group has been and is a long-time sponsor and partner with The National At-Home Dad Network for the at-home dads convention.)

Speakers and topics have yet to be announced for the event, which kicks off with a welcoming party the evening of Sept. 21 and runs through Sept. 23. Breakout topics at past conventions ranged from dealing with picky eaters to teaching children about sexual consent. Outreach or social activities, such as attending a sporting event, are often part of the program.

Ticket, hotel information

A ticket to the HomeDadCon 2023 costs $225. It includes access to all event programs, three meals and a T-shirt. Tickets are only available to NAHDN members. It costs $35 to join the organization for a year.

Discounted hotel reservations are available through August 23 at Hyatt Regency Milwaukee, which doubles as the event venue. The cost is $167 a night for double occupancy. For people wanting to split the rooming costs, the organization has a Discord group to help attendees find a roommate.

+ Join NAHDN & buy a HomeDadCon 2023 ticket +

The nonprofit National At-Home Dad Network offers advocacy, community, education, and support for families where fathers are their children’s primary caregivers. Its stated purpose is to empower fathers and champion a culture that recognizes them as competent parents.

In the past few years, the organization has added parenting webinars and podcasts to its website. It has also recorded some of the past HomeDadCon sessions, some of which are made available only to dues-paying members.

This HomeDadCon 2022 article originally ran in January. It was updated July 25.

Tickets are moving and hotel rooms are quickly booking up for HomeDadCon 2022, the annual conference to help at-home fathers hone their parenting skills, bond with one another, and get a little R&R.

Main speakers for the Sept. 29 through Oct. 2, 2022, conference in Phoenix have also been announced. This marks the first time the event will take place in the U.S. Southwest after being held primarily in the Great Plains, Midwest or Southeast regions.

The National At-Home Dad Network (NAHDN) event is for stay- and work-at-home fathers who embrace parenting as their most important job. It allows them to network with other active and involved dads, learn from experts about various parenting and social issues, and take a brief respite from parenting duties.

HomeDadCon 2022 keynote speakers

The scheduled keynote presenters will be:

• Catherine Pearlman, a licensed clinical social worker, author and owner of The Family Coach parenting consultancy. She will speak on the responsibility, safety and etiquette involved in giving your child his first cell phone
• Matt Lofy and Shaun Ditty of The Dadass Podcast will talk about why it is OK to not be OK.
• Author and pastor Tim Wright will discuss how rights of passage offer strategic pathways for leading and empowering our kids into adulthood.
• Musician, vlogger and former fatherhood case manager Jorge Narvaez. He will talk about thinking about being a father not just for the present but for the future.
• Parenting coach Dustin Bruley will discuss practical and positive co-parenting.
• The Bro Dad blogger David Pidnacet will offer a talk titled “Embrace ‘The Suck’ and Wipe Some Butts!”

Breakout topics at past conventions ranged from dealing with picky eaters to teaching children about sexual consent. Outreach or social activities, such as attending a sporting event, are often part of the program.

Ticket, hotel information

A ticket to the three-day HomeDadCon 2022 costs $195. It includes access to all event programs, a convention eve party, three meals and a T-shirt. Discounted hotel reservations are available through August 29 at The Residence Inn by Marriott Phoenix Downtown, which doubles as the event venue. The cost is $169 a night for double occupancy.

+ Buy a ticket for HomeDadCon 2022 +

One change to HomeDadCon 2022 is you will need to be a member of the NAHDN to attend. In the past, the $35 annual fee to the organization was rolled into the conference ticket.

“The reason for the change is operational. We are working at becoming more than a convention,” NAHDN President Jonathan Heisey-Grove wrote in response to emailed questions from City Dads Group. “We offer more than just an annual event now, and there are operating costs associated with running the organization. So we are severing the association of the membership with the convention and making it a calendar year membership.”

The nonprofit National At-Home Dad Network is dedicated to providing advocacy, community, education, and support for families where fathers are their children’s primary caregivers. Its stated purpose is to empower fathers and champion a culture that recognizes them as competent parents.

In the past few years, the organization has added parenting webinars and podcasts to its website. It has also recorded some of the past HomeDadCon sessions, some of which will be made available only to dues-paying members, wrote Heisey-Grove. He noted those members will also have voting rights at the nonprofit’s annual meeting.

“There is also some small swag that we are going to offer, and who knows what kind of special deals we’ll have in the future,” he also wrote.

(DISCLOSURE: City Dads Group has been and is a long-time sponsor and partner with The National At-Home Dad Network for the at-home dads convention.)

It is hard for me to believe November 2021 marks my sixth year as a stay-at-home dad. My journey began when my wife and I learned were going to have twins. Well, she was going to have the twins. I would spend most of the time binge watching as many series as I could on Netflix when not attending to her every need while she adhered to the bedrest she so rightly deserved.

This was our second time readying for twins. The stress of our loss of twins at 19 weeks in 2011 made us ever vigilant to get to the finish line this time. We were better prepared to do everything necessary to see our bundles of joy, Jackson and Sophia, arrive right on time in September.

The pending arrival of twins is the main reason we even discussed me becoming a stay-at-home dad. It made sense financially since my entire salary would likely be going to a nanny or daycare. And in the end, who better to be home with my kids than me (my wife will tell you plainly the stay-at-home lifestyle is NOT for her). 

Finding a detour along lonely road

But, my first few weeks by myself with the kids, I felt very alone. I knew about “mommy groups” and often saw gatherings of mothers at the neighborhood playground. Very rarely, though, did I see any dads. 

I am a very social person by nature, and while many moms I encountered on playgrounds or at library story times were friendly, I felt my journey as a dad was very different than theirs. Not being the main breadwinner and doing many of the tasks traditionally handled by the mother made me wonder: Am I the only man out here in this role?  

So I did some Googling. A few searches and emails later led me to The National At-Home Dad Network, an amazing organization at-home fathers who support each other and offer resources to help make them the best parents and partners they can be.  And somehow, in a sea of amazing dads who outshine my accomplishments in any number of ways, I was honored enough to be selected as a panelist at this past month’s HomeDadCon, the group’s annual conference.

Seeing all these dads, from various walks of life, who came armed with a number of questions on subjects from camping to mental health to gender and beyond, my most important take away of the weekends was this: Find your tribe.

How to find your tribe

It is so important to know that no matter where you are in life, it is likely there are many others out there who are in the exact same place. Once you accept this and that many of these people have the same struggles, the next step is to find them:

• Look online. Try a random Interest search or using a social platform like Facebook, Meetup or NextDoor. It’s easier than every to find your tribe be they fellow at-home fathers, hobby enthusiasts, musicians or what have you.
• Get to know your neighbors. Sometimes help and comradery is just outside your own front door.
• Get involved. It can be at your place of worship, your local school or a youth center. Volunteering is a fulfilling way to contribute to your community and meet others with common interests and issues.

While you find your tribe, don’t concentrate on finding your own twin. Not everyone should blindly support or echo your way of thinking, your feelings and — worse — your own bad behavior. You can’t grow as a parent if your only reinforce the habits you already have, some of which may not be best to practice.

As parents, we should look to find others who can challenge our way of thinking or give us a new perspective on how raising our children. Maybe they will shine a light on where you truly excel; maybe they’ll help you find where you can improve. Taking a step out of your comfort zone will help you learn more about who you really are, where you really stand, and where you really belong.    

Photo: © william87 /  Adobe Stock.

Organizers of an annual conference for at-home fathers will again try to host an in-person event in 2021.

The National At-Home Dad Network recently put tickets on sale for HomeDadCon 2021, scheduled for Oct 14-16 in Cincinnati, the same locale where the previous year’s conference was set to take place. Health and safety concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic caused the nonprofit organization to scrub the autumn 2020 in-person event for an online only version dubbed DadCon@Home 2020.

The 2020 event would have been the support-and-advocacy network’s 25th annual in-person gathering. Instead, that anniversary will be celebrated at HomeDadCon 2021.

The convention is for at-home fathers who embrace parenting as their most important job. It allows them to network with other active and involved dads, learn from experts about various parenting and social issues, and also gives these full-time parents a chance to relax.

The National At-Home Dad Network is dedicated to providing advocacy, community, education and support for families where fathers are the primary caregivers of their children. Its stated purpose is to empower fathers and champion a culture that recognizes them as capable and competent parents.

Tickets for the HomeDadCon 2021 cost $209. Scholarships are available for those with financial need. Hotel rooms at the convention location are also now available for booking/

* Buy a ticket to HomeDadCon 2021 *

(DISCLOSURE: City Dads Group has been and is a long-time sponsor and partner with The National At-Home Dad Network for the event.)

The network recently posted on its Facebook page a call for speakers and topics for October’s fatherhood conference. In recent years, the at-home convention has held discussions on the importance of the father/daughter bond, budgeting and planning for financial emergencies, strategies for dealing with picky eaters, homeschooling tips, teaching children about sexual consent, and how to discuss diversity and racism with your kids.

Depending on the data source, somewhere between 160,000 and 2 million exist in the United States – a number steadily on the rise in the past few decades as attitudes and gender roles in the workplace and the home have evolved.

Editor’s Note: The 20th annual National At-Home Dads Convention took place in Raleigh, N.C. recently. NYC Dads Group member Niel Vuolo attended it for the first time, and here’s his report.

I was lucky enough to be awarded a scholarship to the 2015 National At-Home Dads Convention. I had heard about the convention through the NYC Dads Group and a dad bloggers Facebook group. I knew that we probably couldn’t afford to go. Eeven if I could, I would feel so awkward spending that money on myself. So I applied for the Brian Dickson scholarship. And I won, but would not have been able to take this adventure without the full support of my wife.

After a few weeks of logistical stuff, I was on my way to North Carolina. Like many of us, my flight was delayed. But eventually I arrived. There was an issue with my room, and the guy who could handle it was still on a plane. I managed to find one of my roommates by the bar where he had found a bunch of other dads. And soon I was doing the the At-Home Dads Convention equivalent of NAME/RANK/SERIAL NUMBER — Niel; from New York; two kids: 7-year-old girl, 5-year-old boy; been home four years. I got into the fringes of lively conversations with guys from all over the country who had at the very least one thing in common with me — they are all stay-at-home dads.

Beyond the introductions at At-Home Dads Convention

My first full day at the At-Home Dads Convention consisted of more intros, a huge breakfast at this place the ladies at the Marriott said they would eat at (if they wanted the best breakfast excluding the restaurant at the hotel). We took a tour of the town, which was really cool. The first official event was a meet-and-greet which was OK, the food could have been more plentiful. But whatever. I ended looking for some food and a mob of dads saw me wandering and invited me to find food with them. About half of them I had met during the day or previous night the rest were also first timers at the convention. It was a great way to cap the day, but I never expected what the next day would be like.

Coming into the event, I knew two of the dads well. And I had been corresponding with the guy setting up the trip and my roommates. But as I got ready to leave, I made buddies from all across the country, some with nearly grown kids some with newborns and some (like me) with kids somewhere in the middle.

The main day of the convention I found myself tearing up as dads spoke about their own struggles and the way they dealt with it. Issues about themselves and their kids. When one dad whose kids are in college and beyond talked about his kids when they were my kids age, I nearly lost it. It goes so fast, he said.

I think the overarching theme of the event was, we aren’t special because we are dads. We are involved parents who want to be respected as any other parent would be — man or woman. There is so much to bring home with me that will make me a better father, husband and independent social media dude, who is more willing to be equally strong and vulnerable.

I don’t think this weekend would have been as good with the two best roommates someone could ask for: Joel and John. You guys were so honest and open with me and let me be open and honest with you.

I hope I am fortunate enough to be able to return next year.

A version of this first appeared on Great Moments in Bad Parenting.

A couple months ago, I participated in my first At-Home Dad Convention. For those of you shaking your head, yes, we have a national convention. It reminded me of the very thing I had been lacking since I moved to Denver from New York City almost a year ago: community.

A little history: a few months after my son was born I took over as the at-home parent. It was a remarkably easy job, mostly consisting of diaper changes, feedings, old movies on Netflix, and naps. (The old movies were for me and were “research” for a script I was … not writing.) It was also extremely isolating.

My wife stumbled upon a group of at-home fathers at the NY Baby Expo and came home with the contact info for NYC Dads Group and their facilitators, Lance Somerfeld and Matt Schneider. I attended my first event, a CPR training course, and then began hitting meetups all over the city.

Turtle was less than a year old so he wasn’t exactly “playing” with other kids. We, as fathers, weren’t having hour-long conversations about the hazards of fatherhood. Often we were silent. We’d sit back and have coffee and enjoy the sense of community. Soon, though, we began sharing.

Suddenly, I’m the expert in the room on cloth diapering and another guy has been through potty training with three kids and another has a bead on free events and yet another has remarkably insightful advice on lactation and breast-feeding. We were experts in several fields dealing with children and we were all sharing with each other, not as “dads” but as fully involved parents.

But now, here in the exurbs of the Midwest, the dynamic of parents on the playground is very different. Perhaps it’s the difference between driving to a park a couple miles away and walking to the park a mere block from your home; seeing the same people everyday versus an ever evolving circle of acquaintances.

I missed my dad community.

I have been trying to create a new one, and Turtle has wonderful new friends with the most amazing, generous parents (including some NYC expats), but there was still a void. I missed hanging out with at-home dads.

I’d seen them in the grocery store, but most were reticent to admit they were full-time at-home parents. There was a shame and embarrassment associated with it. While I fully embrace the role, most of these men saw it as a temporary situation they were forced into by unfortunate circumstances.

And then a wonderful blogger in Portland put me in touch with the Denver Dads. The local group is spread far and wide over an area that encompasses Fort Collins, Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs. As timing would have it, the Denver Dads were hosting the 18^th Annual At-Home Dad’s Convention this year. So I plugged in.

Not knowing what to expect, I was surprised to find the fathers who attended had created an incubator for ideas on parenting, an advocacy group for fathers.

And not just fathers who are primary care givers – all fathers.

All of the speakers at the convention gave us practical, useful tips on how to be the kind of parents we aspire to be. But we gave them something in return: We brought them into our dad community.

None of them had heard of dads’ groups before.. They didn’t know that there are advocacy and education groups dedicated to fatherhood.

But they do now, and they are part of our ever-growing dad community.

In the weeks following the convention, I found myself wearing my National At-Home Dad Network shirt in the grocery store, at the gym (any other CrossFitters with Huggies logos on their gear? I think not!), and I carried a handful of the network’s business cards with me. I began approaching dads shopping with their kids in the morning and handing them cards, striking up conversations, asking about their kids and play-dates in the exurbs of Denver.

Building community.

At-home dad convention group composite – 2012

Today and tomorrow, at-home dads from across the nation are congregating in Denver, Colorado for the 18th annual at-home dads convention.  Education, camaraderie, laughs, and networking are the ultimate draw for dads in big urban cities like us as well as dads from small rural towns in middle America.  The goal: putting our full-time parenting responsibilities on pause (enabling our wives/partners some unsupervised time with our kids) for a few days and getting together with like minded dads to get inspired and educated to improve at our craft as parents.  Bottom line: the boys from the National At-Home Dad Network do an outstanding job of putting together a top-notch event.

The weekend convention contains some of the things you would normally expect: educational workshops, panel discussions, key-note speakers, brand integration and some things you might not, like a community service project component.  Workshops, panels, and breakout discussions will cover blogging, at-home dads returning to the workforce, age-based forums, marriage & relationships, image and portrayal of fatherhood, “No Regrets Parenting”, and so much more.

Additionally, Matt and I will be representing NYC Dads Group and speaking on a panel: “Achieving a successful at-home dads group” and will be joined by some other great guys that organize active groups in other parts of the country – Greg Frantz: DC Metro Dads, Trevor Mulligan: L.A. Dads Group, and Austin Down: Triangle Dads Group.

We’d be lying to you if we didn’t admit our excitement to get out of dodge for a few days to attend the convention and connect with so many other awesome dads.  Want to know what’s happening this weekend? Want to listen in on some of the content from the workshops?
Please follow the conversations that will be taking place this weekend, Friday, October 18 – Sunday, October 20 at #AHDConvention:

Follow NYC Dads Group at the At-Home Dad Convention: