Mummascribbles – Mummascribbles meets…Dad Blog UK – Mummascribbles
This week we meet the fabulous John from Dad Blog UK. Thanks so much for taking part John.
Tell me a little bit about yourself and your family I live with my wife Gill and two daughters, Elizabeth, aged three and Helen aged seven. It’s an atypical family set-up; I am a stay at home dad so do most of the childcare and run the house while my wife works full time.
What do you like doing to be you, when you are not parenting, working (if you do), or blogging?
Needless to say, life is very busy. Most of my time is taken up with children and domestic duties. Blogging is also an ever bigger part of my life. Not that I intended this to be the case, but I am increasingly making money from blogging and writing. Combined, this all takes up about 95% of my time!
That said, I am a bit of an amateur photographer and am also into home brewing my own beer.
What is your biggest achievement to date?
Forgive me the cliché, but along with Mrs Adams, creating and nurturing a superb family. Like all families, we are imperfect yet beautiful nonetheless!
From your own experiences, what do you find the hardest part of parenting and what is the easiest/most rewarding part?
As a stay at home dad I find the isolation very difficult. It’s not so much the way it affects me, but the way it impacts on my kids. As a dad operating in a predominately female environment I don’t get invited to the coffee mornings etc (or only rarely anyway). I, therefore, don’t have the opportunity to build up the same social networks as many mums and this means my kids don’t get presented with the same chances to socialise. I recently recorded a vlog about this that has proven to be very popular. You can watch it here.
Parenting in itself is no mean feat; how do you juggle everything you need to in order to get everything done on a daily basis?
Errr, with difficulty. Let’s just say I never strive for domestic perfection.
Why did you decide to start blogging?
I started blogging in 2012 after I’d spent a year as a stay at home dad. During that time, I’d come across many latent, lazy examples of sexism in a world that simply expects women to do the childcare; the company advertising part time jobs to “stay at home mums”, the nurse who couldn’t get her head round the fact I had brought my child for innoculations, the GP who declared I was “babysitting” my own kids.
Originally it was a way for me to rant and highlight the challenges I faced. To this day, fatherhood and men’s issues are at the core of what I write about. That will never change.
That said, after about 18 months of blogging I took the conscious decision to diversify and write about things that interested me. You’ll find photography, men’s fashion, home improvement and even men’s skincare on there! Even so, dads and dadhood are what I specialise in.
Tell me a bit about your blog?
Oh wow, how to answer this??? As I’ve already said, I concentrate on fatherhood and men’s issues (such as men’s health).
As a stay at home dad, however, I think I bring a different perspective to the blogging world. I think this post demonstrates what I mean.
Blogging has also provided me with some amazing opportunities and these days it is more than simply a hobby. For instance, I’ve recently returned from Australia where I spent a few days working with the Movember Foundation on a project it is running. This only came about because of my blog!
What do you want your blog to achieve and where do you hope to see it go as it grows?
I want my blog to be influential. I want to challenge people’s perceptions of fathers and fatherhood and sometimes I write blog posts in a way that creates debate. Second to that, I want to enjoy what I’m doing!
What advice would you give someone who is thinking about starting a blog?
If you want your blog to be a decent size, be prepared to work at it very hard and don’t expect anything to happen instantly.
If you could have dinner with three people (dead or alive), who would it be and why?
Such a tricky question. Let’s go for
Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift as I really admire how they have built their careers. To add a little interesting discussion and debate, I’d also ask Pope Francis as I think he is a fascinating individual.
Tell me three random facts about you
1. I was an extra in the film The Madness of King George III
2. I met Rod Hull and Emu when I was very young (that’ll mean noting to anyone under the age of 35!)
3. I once roadied for Ray Charles
Along with his blog Dad Blog UK, you can find John over at Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.