When I first started blogging, shortly after the birth of my son, I was sure I’d find a legion of fellow dads, sharing their experiences with the rest of the Internet. My reasoning seemed logical; since the print publishing world pretty much ignores the other half of the parenting equation, there must be some other source of great writing on fatherhood. Well, I didn’t find anything close to the sheer volume of mommybloggers – in fact, for a while there were only a handful of blogging dads out there, the few, the proud. These days, I’m happy to say that there are quite a few of us, and many of them are producing some excellent writing. Many of them are also very well known, and while I was mulling over who I should include in this list, it seemed to me that this would be a good opportunity to put the spotlight on some of my favorite bloggers who are flying under the radar. A dad’s world is just as compelling as a mom’s; perhaps more so, as one is not likely to find our stories on the bookshelves or the magazine racks. So I give you four of my favorite sites, in no particular order. Each brings a unique take on fatherhood to the virtual table, and each is definitely worth your time.
Flailing My Arms: Jonathon Morgan is a twentysomething Austin dad; he deserves a medal for raising a toddler without a dishwasher. His posts are what you'd expect from an Austinite: down to earth, cool, with a heart as big as Texas itself. And you know you’re in good hands when Cleveland seems like a magical place.
Velcrometer: You may know him as M. Giant; in real life Televison Without Pity's master recapper is known as Jeff Alexander. He brings the same razor-sharp wit to his tales of fatherhood, and provides the occasion bit of good advice. For instance, here's his take on why you should not go see the movie Take The Lead: "Take every ballroom dancing movie and every teacher-makes-a-difference-in-the-lives-of-inner-city-kids-who-in-real-life-would-have-knifed-him-in-the-first-reel movie, scan them all into Final Draft, print it out, throw the whole thing off a freeway overpass and pay homeless guys a buck each to recover as many pages as they can, cast Antonio Banderas, and there you go."
The Blue Sloth: This one sneaks up on you, with quiet, subtle prose that pulls you in. No surprise that the author is a soccer player; the payoff here is not necessarily the goal, but the passing, the footwork, the movement off the ball. The anonymous author shows us the difference between mere blogging and honest-to-God writing.
Mother-Woman: Wait a sec, you say. That doesn't sound like a daddy blog. Ah, but it is. Mo-Wo and her husband P-Man are the co-parents; they divvy up the blogging chores. I'd say it's high time for some parity in the title - this is 2007, after all, and dads are more involved in raising their kids then ever before - but that doesn't keep me from making this very smart and very quirky site a regular stop.
So there's my Four To Watch in '07. What daddyblogs are you reading?
