Welcome to the DAD.Info forum: Important Information – open to read:
Our forum aims to provide support and guidance where it can, however we may not always have the answer. The forum is not moderated 24 hours a day, so If you – or someone you know – are being harmed or in immediate danger of being harmed, call the police on 999.
Alternatively, if you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123.
If you are worried about you or someone you know is at risk of harm, please click here: How we can help
When my daughter was born, I decided to take a 12-month paternity leave. I had spent the previous 12 years working in Brazil, France and the USA. But none of these past experiences were of much help in my new role as a dad.
Jokingly, I changed my LinkedIn professional title to ‘Father on paternity leave Scandinavian–style’ – a way to recognise to myself and tell everyone else that I had proudly become a stay-at-home dad.
But the end of my paternity leave approached fast and the return to work after such a life-changing experience became less appealing. In addition to being closer to my family, I wanted to create deeper roots in my own community.
While taking care of my daughter I realised that it really does ‘take a village to raise a child’, especially in an urban jungle like London. Old friends and relatives were still very important, but my wife and I longed for a new network of local support.
It took quite some time, effort and luck to find other like-minded parents. These new friends became very important in our new life, since they were all in the same situation, living nearby and with children the same age as ours. They were available to join us for a walk nearby, a coffee next door or a pint in the local pub.
It was within this context that came the idea to develop the first mobile app to connect like-minded parents living nearby, helping new parents to create their own modern-day network of local support. I named the app ParentsNearby and started a quest to find the first parents to join it.
Welcome to the DAD.info forum.
We don’t like to set ‘rules’, but to make sure that you and the other dads are kept safe, we have some requests. When engaging with the forum, please be aware of the following:
- The forum is not moderated 24 hours per day.
- Many of the moderators do so on a voluntary basis. Whilst they may be able to provide some guidance, advice or support, they may not be able to deal with specifics.
- We are not an emergency crisis service so if you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call emergency services.
- If you are concerned about the safety of a child, please click here to find the support you can get for them (link to new page)
- If you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123. They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
We hope you find this forum a supportive environment and thank you for joining us.