A Look Inside The Incredibly Wholesome National Stay-At-Home Dad Convention
Over 80 stay-at-home dads gathered in Phoenix for Home Dad Con to offer each other support and service.
Do you feel a little bit of magic in the air? Mixed up with a few really terrible dad jokes? It might be because this weekend over 80 stay-at-home dads from around the country are pooling their primary caregiver strength in Phoenix, Arizona, for the annual Home Dad Con Convention.
Organized by the National At-Home Dad Network, the weekend-long event brings dads together from across the country to support each other, share information, have fun, and help the community. It seems wholesome as heck.
This is the convention’s 26th year.
“It’s all about parenting, fatherhood, getting time to yourself, some self-care as well. A lot of things that are beneficial for parents, more specifically dads,” Johnathan Heisey-Grove , the president of the network, told FOX Channel 10 in Phoenix.
The dads paired their cargo shorts with what seems like the best collection of dad t-shirts ever, from a Home Dad Con baseball shirt, to a shirt supporting trans kids rights, to one that said, “Dads Don’t Babysit.”
Aside from self-care and socializing, the convention offers classes on parenting issues like cell phone use safety, mental health, co-parenting, anger, fingernail painting, and hair braiding. And in addition, the group helped fix up a local community center and get it ready for a forthcoming mural.
One hundred dads working on an outdoor project together? You can feel almost the energy all the way from Phoenix.
“It’s something that’s going to benefit the community,” continued Heisey-Grove. “One of the things we do as an organization is work for the community and help guys create community. We want to give back to the community and this is a way we do that.”
You can check out some of the pics on Instagram by following #homedadcon and #dadsdontbabysit.
“Something that is hard for dads is that we feel pretty isolated in a lot of places. Being able to gather together and talk about being a parent, but also the struggles of being a parent,” Heisey-Grove told FOX 10. “It gives those guys a sense of normalcy. We not only mix the serious, we mix the fun as well.”
Hats off to these dads — every one of them. You are seen.
