Fathers in Central Florida, listen up! The Orlando Dads Podcast is just for you.
The co-organizers of the Orlando Dads Group, one of the most active of the more than 40 City Dads Groups in North America, recently debuted a podcast. The show will feature talks from parenting experts on various subjects. The hosts will also discuss fatherhood, give tips, swap fatherhood stories and talk about some of the many family-friendly activities in the greater Orlando area.
The show will be hosted by the Orlando Dads Group’s three co-organizers: Nick Izzi, Flor Mercado and Nate Watson. It will be available on popular podcasting services:
A video version is also available on the Orlando Dads YouTube channel.
The first episode of the Orlando Dads Podcast went live on Sept. 15. It kicks off with highlights from one of the group’s recent parenting webinars. This one features Jason Johnson, a parenting coach, who breaks down the different “types” of fathers. He also talks about different types and uses of therapy for children and parents, and the importance of recharging one’s own batteries to be a better parent. The three hosts then chat for a while, sharing their experiences of the recent Kids and Family Expo 2024 and funny stories about our kids.
Future episodes are to be posted monthly. They will feature talks with experts and discussions among regular dads about moving past trauma, building community among fathers, and sharing the trials, tribulations, joys and heartbreaks of parenting,
Below is a 12-minute preview of the podcast series in which you meet and learn about the hosts, their City Dads chapter and what’s in store:
This blog post is part of the #NoDadAlone campaign. Fathering Together/City Dads Group, the National At-Home Dad Network, and Fathers Eve are joining forces to amplify messages that help dads recognize we are not alone! Follow #NoDadAlone on Instagram, and learn more at NoDadAlone.com.
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Fathers Eve, the annual event for dads to celebrate each other with each other, is back in 2022. However, its founder wants to add a new twist: community engagement and family participation.
Event founder John Francis said he wants those planning the pre-Father’s Day celebrations to add a local service project to their parties. These should be something that family members, friends and neighbors can participate in.
“It can be as simple a taking a garbage bag in hand and picking up trash,” Francis said in an interview. “While your out doing it, talk to people about doing good. It doesn’t have to be an expansive or complicated project to accomplish the goal.”
For example, members, families and friends of Minnesota’s Twin Cities Dads Group, which he is a part of, are helping rehabilitating a playground the afternoon of June 18. Later, they will head to a nearby brewery for the traditional toast for fatherhood on the night before Father’s Day.
“Most dads want to do the right thing when given the opportunity to,” he said. “We hope to encourage this and share this with our wives, children, friends and community. This way we expand into something bigger and better.”
One group the organization hopes to attract is father figures, even if they are not dads themselves. After reading stories about the problems of children who grew up fatherless, Francis began thinking about getting other men involved with Fathers Eve through community projects. He hopes their actions could help create a “showcase” of inspiring male role models for others, especially children.
Charity component dropped
Fathers Eve started in 2012. Francis invited several dad friends to his house for beers, billiards and swapping stories about fatherhood. The hope: support for each other in effort to become better parents. Over the years, scores of celebrations have been held annually in backyards and businesses across the United States and a few internationally locations.
“Gathering the night before Father’s Day gives dads a chance to spend time with each other to focus on sharing ideas, supporting what it means to be better dads, making stronger connections, all while doing something good for the community,” the father of two told City Dads back in 2017.
Fathers Eve previous encouraged event organizers to include a charity component that assists a parenting or children’s cause. However, fundraising for others proved to be difficult.
“We don’t want to be just another charity organization. We want to be role models for family and community,” Francis said in explaining the shift.
Where to celebrate Fathers Eve 2022
Several City Dads chapters will be among those hosting Fathers Eve 2022 events (click city to find event listing and RSVP) :
- Charlotte, N.C.
- Chicago
- Cincinnati
- Denver
- Kansas City, Mo.
- Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. – Twin Cities
- New York City – Harlem and Port Washington
- Orlando
(DISCLOSURE: City Dads Group is a national sponsor for Fathers Eve 2022.)
A complete listing of Fathers Eve 2022 events can be found on its website.
If you can’t attend an event, don’t despair. An online live streaming of celebrations will take place on Zoom and Facebook Live.
A live stream replaced in-person events in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and supplemented last year’s celebrations. In 2022, it will be simplified to mostly a brief welcome and countdown, Francis said.
The countdowns to the annual celebratory toast will start shortly before the start of 8 p.m. in each U.S. time zone, starting with Eastern time, on June 18. You can sign up for the live stream to share at your event or watch individually.
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Staying home all day, every day, with the kids is new for many fathers during the COVID-19 crisis. To help them navigate the new realities of fatherhood in a pandemic, City Dads Group is working with longtime partner Dove Men+Care to create a series of “how to” videos for the grooming products company’s new “Dads Care” campaign.
The short videos started appearing the week of April 26 at DM+C’s YouTube channel. Created by fathers for fathers, the Dads Care videos cover topics relevant to the times under general categories such as hygiene, helping kids and helping communities. Initial video titles include “How to Wash Your Hands,” “How to Give a Kid a Haircut (and Not Mess It Up),” and “How to Help Kids Overcome Fear.”
“To all the dads out there teaching, innovating, holding down the home front and frontlines, we want to thank you for showing us what it means to Dad On. We are proud to support families … with at-home parenting resources,” the men’s grooming products company announced April 30 on its Facebook page.
The company had been planning a video campaign about fathers teaching fathers before much of the United States went under varying degrees of lockdown this spring over the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus. The theme — many modern dads feel overwhelmed these days, but other dads can help better equip them by sharing their expertise and knowledge — really only needed a little tweaking in light of the pandemic leaving many homebound for long stretches of time.
Several City Dads Group fathers are creating content for the series in which Dove Men+Care expects to introduce new #DadsCare how-to videos weekly through July. Some of these include:
- Aaron Sheldon of our Columbus Dads Group explains how to help kids with autism cope with a new routine.
- Andrew Bennett of the Boston/Providence Dads Group talks about keeping kids physically active.
- James Lopez of the NYC Dads Group reviews how to teach preschoolers to count.
- Marlon Gutierrez of our Orlando Dads Group discusses how to keep your children occupied while working from home.
Dad 2.0, the conference for fathers wanting to participate in a conversation about the changing voice and perception of modern fatherhood, will bring its usual strong lineup of speakers and panelists for professional and personal development to Washington, D.C., next month.
Organizers of the event, dubbed Dad 2.020 for its ninth year, recently announced many of the topics to be discussed at the summit, slated for Feb. 27-29, 2020, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
Featured Dad 2.020 speakers will include:
- Dan Kois, author of How to Be a Family, a book about how taking his family with him on assignments around the world helped them grow closer.
- Donte Palmer, whose viral photo of him changing his child’s diaper while squatting on a bathroom floor started a national campaign for changing tables in men’s restrooms.
- Taylor Calmus, the creative force behind the popular Dude Dad YouTube channel.
Other topics to be discussed will include:
- Improving one’s work-life balance to feed both our souls and our kids
- Working remotely: Is it a workable solution for increasing family time
- Editing our lives by purging things that obscure our focus
- Coping with substance abuse, either with or as a recovering addict
- Pursuing a career in professional writing
- Trends in influencer marketing
- Creating a blockbuster Instagram feed
- Cutting-edge metrics to analyze your followers
- How to launch your passion project
Dad 2.020 will also feature in-depth information on the campaign for more state and federal paid family leave laws and the D.C. area’s #FlipTheScript campaign to combat negative imagery of men of color and highlight the important role of fathers in early childhood development.
Complete programming is expected to be announced Jan. 23.
The annual Dad 2.0 summit is a national three-day meeting where marketers, social media leaders, blogging parents and regular dads gather to discuss modern fatherhood. Dad 2.020 tickets are on sale now for $279.
++ Purchase your Dad 2.020 tickets here ++
City Dads Group will once again be a media partner for Dad 2.0, a role it has played since 2014. It uses the conference as a national meetup opportunity for its leadership and members.
“Dad 2.0 has been the place we have found the guys who organize our groups, write for our blogs, and help with our influencer campaigns with national brands,” City Dads Group co-founder Matt Schneider has previously said. “Our groups have very similar goals in helping further the importance and positive perception of being an active, involved father, and collaborations like this benefit everybody for the good of all parenting.”
City Dads Group members play an active role in the conference every year. Some of our members scheduled to speak or be on panels include:
- Creed Anthony, Indy Dads Group: My Captain’s Log
- Jeff Bogle, Philly Dads Group: Out With The Kids
- Mitch Chaitin, NYC Dads Group: Gay NYC Dad
- Jim Joseph, NYC Dads Group: Out And About Dad
- Mike Julianelle, NYC Dads Group: Dad and Buried
- Marlon Gutierrez, Orlando Dads Group: Being Papa
- James Lopez, NYC Dads Group: Fatherhood Is Lit
- Aaron Sheldon, Columbus (Ohio) Dads Group: Small Steps Are Giant Leaps
Photo: NYC Dads Group member Jason Greene was a featured speaker at the 2019 Dad 2.0 summit. Courtesy: Dad 2.0
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You know Father’s Day is near when you see members of our City Dads Groups across the nation popping up all over your TV screens and social media feeds. And 2018 was no exception to the rule.
Our biggest appearance came on Father’s Day 2018 itself. City Dads Group co-founder Lance Somerfeld joined CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Mo Rocca on a segment discussing how the “dad look” is fashionably hip (as if we didn’t know).
He forgot to tell Rocca to — please — don’t believe the fanny pack hype. Or that dads would blow $1,000 on butt-ugly Gucci sneakers. We like our butt-ugly at bargain prices.
Father’s Day 2018 also saw the opening of Incredibles 2, which received some hype for superhero Mr. Incredible becoming a stay-at-home dad. That brought the media to our door. Several of our members, including NYC Dads Group member Andrew Bentley, are quoted in a story on Refinery29 about being real-life superheroes.
“Superheroes represent our aspirations, individually and collectively. They have the abilities we want. They have the ambition. The empathy. All of those things that they’re able to influence the world in ways that we would like,” Bentley says in the story. “So when we see Mr. Incredible take a step back and say, ‘I’m going to take care of this kid and allow my wife to go off and pursue her career,’ if he can do it, anyone can do it.”
A playground play date between two of our Dallas Dad Group members and their children is also used to illustrate the link between being an at-home father and a superhero. Way to save the day, Adam Hill and Trevor Stamp:
“There’s no manual or guide on how to be a parent,” Gutierrez is quoted as saying. “I think [this group] has taught me a lot about myself, and I realized that I had to make a lot of changes. I was very much focused on my career because that’s what society expected me to do. Now, being more open with a community that has supportive fathers and environments like the City Dads’ network, I’ve been able to find other dads out there trying to do the same thing. It’s OK not to be so focused on my career. I can be balanced on my career and family and travels and make my life what I want it to be.”
Brock Lusch, co-organizer of our Cincinnati Dads Group, had the lead quote in the Refinery29 story and then took the spotlight in a local TV news interview to discuss what our social and support network does for fathers.
Brandon Billinger and Tucker Smith of the Kansas City Dads Group did a similar interview for one of their local TV news programs.
Finally, Darrell Humphrey of Charlotte Dads Group dispelled some of the common misconceptions about fathers caring for their kids as well as promoting his chapter in a one-on-one with a local TV news anchor.
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A little food, a little play and a whole lot of bonding between fathers and children — and probably among fathers themselves. That’s what City Dads Group will be bringing to major parenting events in five cities this year.
Local City Dads chapters will host lunchtime playdates for dads and kids at MommyCons being held in Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; New York City; Orlando; and Pasadena, Calif.
MommyCon is a nationwide educational/product exhibition series dedicated to natural parenting.
“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.”
In Chicago and Orlando, City Dads Group will actually be involved with DaddyCon, a separate track of educational panels, activities and workshops focused on fathering that runs concurrent with some MommyCon shows.
Chicago site of 1st MommyCon partnership
The partnership kicks off next month in Chicago. City Dads Group serves as media partner for the March 3-4, 2018, DaddyCon at Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in suburb of Rosemont, Ill. The Chicago Dads Group will host a one-hour lunchtime/playdate event for its members at the convention, providing an opportunity to add to its membership while bringing some of our dads out the convention to learn and shop.
According to its organizers, DaddyCon focuses “on bringing fatherhood to the forefront of the parenting conversation.” Its mission calls for creating “a community of support, acceptance and non-judgement for parents journeying through parenthood.”
“With over a dozen speakers, the event convention will take a playful approach to discussing all aspects of fatherhood: from being there at birth through every diaper change, scraped knee and ballet recital. The conversation will explore first-hand accounts from todays most prominent father figures while exploring the bond fathers have with their children,” its website states.
The other MommyCon/City Dads Group events will take place:
- April 7, New York City
- May 5, Charlotte
- Aug. 18, Pasadena
- Sept. 1, Orlando
Make room, Mickey — City Dads Group has come to Orlando, Fla.
The hometown of Disney World recently became the 29th U.S. city to set up a chapter of our national fatherhood support network. The Orlando Dads Group joins the Miami Dads Group as our second Florida chapter.
The Orlando Dads Group will be led by:
- Marlon Gutierrez, a work-at-home digital marketing manager and married father of a 1-year-old girl, and
- Joe Sparks, a paramedic and married father of two.
“I’m the first of my friends to be a dad and it was difficult for me to find people who would relate to the challenges of being a dad,” Gutierrez said. “My wife found many mom groups in our area, and I was surprised that there weren’t any groups in my area that were inclusive of all dads. I am very excited at the opportunity to be able to connect with other like-minded fathers who really believe in the mutual benefit that being an involved father has on both themselves and their children.”
Orlando Dads Group on social media:
City Dads Group is a dynamic and diverse community of fathers redefining, by example, what it means to be a dad in the 21st century. Our national support network has more than 9,700 members based in and around major metropolitan U.S. cities. These include Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York City.
Founded in November 2008 in New York City as a way a handful of fathers could arrange playdates and outings with their children, the organization went national as City Dads Group in 2014.
Photo: Photomatt28 via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND
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