• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
City Dads Group

City Dads Group

Navigating Fatherhood Together

  • About
  • Cities
  • Fathering Together
  • Boot Camps
  • Press
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Contact

Modern Dad Still Finds Father’s Day Has Great Meaning

June 13, 2017 by Kevin McKeever

This Father’s Day, forget the hackneyed concepts about golfing and grilling. Some moms and dads we dig told us what being a 21st-century father means. Enjoy.

victor aragon modern dad
Victor Aragon, a member of the Chicago Dads Group who runs the FanDads website, clowns around with his children. (Contributed photo)

Being a modern dad means always finding time to be goofy with your children and laugh until your stomach hurts.  — Victor Aragon, Chicago Dads Group, FanDads

Being a modern dad is sharing all the parenting responsibilities equally with your child’s other modern dad. It’s also having the confidence to take on tasks traditionally relegated to moms, and the humility to ask for help.  — Brent Almond, Designer Daddy

Being a modern dad means saying to your wife or partner, “You should definitely try to get tickets to that all-woman Wonder Woman screening tomorrow night! I’ve got the kids.”  — Liz Gumbinner, Cool Mom Picks

chad macdonald superhero modern dad
Chad R. MacDonald, a member of the NYC Dads Group and prolific blogger/Facebooker, and his son dressed as the Dynamic Duo. (Contributed photo)

Being a modern dad is letting your kid pick out your outfit and being fine with it.  — Chad R. MacDonald, NYC Dads Group, The Good, The Chad & The Ugly

Being a modern dad is having to explain the importance of civil discourse to 6- and 9-year-old boys.  — Len Vlahos, young adult novelist

Being a dad in these times is knowing the exact amounts of coffee, beer, yelling and hugs it takes to create the alchemy that is a happy home. — Homemaker Man, Boston Dads Group, blogger at Musings from the Big Pink

lorne jaffe and his daughter, sienna
Lorne Jaffe, a member of NYC Dads Group and writer of the Raising Sienna blog, kisses his daughter. (Contributed photo)

Being a modern father means crowning your child with physical and emotional affection. — Lorne Jaffe, NYC Dads Group, Raising Sienna

Being a modern dad is giving side-eye to anyone who asks if you “babysit your children.”   — Amy Bellgardt, MomSpark

Being a modern dad is kicking off your shoes after a long day at work, and jumping into the trampoline with your kids. It also means learning to create different hairdos for your daughter’s gymnastics competitions.  — Chris Read, Canadian Dad

benjamin mullen and daughter
Benjamin Mullen, a member of the Philadelphia Dads Group, hugs his daughter. (Contributed photo)

Being a 21st-century father means setting aside everything else in your memory so you can create new ones. — Benjamin Mullen, Philadelphia Dads Group

Being a modern dad means making fatherhood a top priority — valuing it over money, career and the rat race. It means setting the best example you can of how to live a good, healthy life with fundamental values like equality and respect. Plus it means finding the caffeine supply that really works for you.  — Josh Levs, author of All In: How Our Work-First Culture Fails Dads, Families, and Businesses – And How We Can Fix It Together

Being a modern father is peeing standing-up, and cleaning up after toddler sons who do the same. — Kevin “Spike” Zelenka, Las Vegas Dads Group

adam gertsacov and son
Adam Gertsacov, a member of our Chicago Dads Group and blogger at Dadapalooza, poses with his son. (Contributed photo)

Being a dad in today’s world means taking away screen time during the week so that on the weekends you don’t feel bad about watching an eight-hour American Ninja Warrior marathon. — Adam Gertsacov, Chicago Dads Group, Dadapalooza

Being a modern father means rolling down the windows of your badass minivan, and cruising into the carpool lane with the Pearl Jam station cranking on Sirius XM Radio. — Dan Zevin, author of “Dan Gets a Minivan” and the “Little Miss and Mr. Me Me Me” series

Being a modern dad means asking yourself what you wanted as a kid and then offering your kids what you missed out on.  — Darrell Humphrey, Charlotte Dads Group,

Being a dad in the 21st century means playing catch with a nearly 7-year-old until your arm is about to fall off. — Niel Vuolo, NYC Dads Group, Niel In Real Life, Great Moments in Bad Parenting

You might also enjoy:

Filed Under: National, parenting advice Tagged With: Father's Day, fathers, holidays, tips

About Kevin McKeever

City Dads Group Editor Kevin McKeever runs Write On, Kevin Communications when not being an at-home dad to three: boy, girl and canine. He wrote a two-time nationally award-winning newspaper column, blogs at Always Home and Uncool and tweets as @homeanduncool. His work has been featured in USA Today, Canada’s Globe and Mail, the New York Daily News and landfills worldwide.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Join Your Local Group

Your local City Dads Group is a welcoming and diverse community of engaged fathers sharing parenting perspectives, knowledge and experiences.

Join Join your local group

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Find us on Social

  • About City Dads
  • Press
  • Media Kit
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

© 2025 City Dads Group All Rights Reserved.