The Dad Course exists to build confidence, skills and knowledge in fathers-to-be to help them be the dads they want to be. We offer practical, interactive and relaxed courses providing a blend of practical skills, chances to hear from experienced dads, useful information and space for honest conversations. We’ve supported hundreds of dads-to-be prepare for fatherhood since 2016, but how did we get to this point? Let’s start at the beginning…
The Story of The Dad Course
The Dad Course starts with founder Dave’s own journey into fatherhood:
“Throughout my wife's first pregnancy I was keen to support her however I could and took the time to learn what I could about how to be a good dad as well as chatting to friends who already had children. By the time she had reached full-term I was ready to go... or so I thought!
The birth of my son was the happiest day of my life. On that morning as the midwives were, ahem, ‘seeing’ to my partner (more about this on the course!) the midwives checked my son over and asked me if I could put a nappy and a babygrow on him. Everything in me wanted to say yes but all I could manage back was a blank stare - I hadn't prepared for this!
I was quickly realising how little I knew! I didn’t know how, and after a long labour, now was not the time to learn... With more than a little embarassment, I asked the midwife to do it for me and watched as she put his nappy on and dressed him up. I don’t look back on this experience with shame, but this is one of the many things that I wish I had learned before I had my baby.
With the support of lots of amazing friends and family I learned over time all that I needed to know to keep my son happy and healthy. I’ve been fortunate to have a strong group of friends who became dads at roughly the same time as me who I could chat and be really honest with, which also helped keep me sane.
But there were so many things I wish I had been told as a dad, practical skills I could have picked up beforehand and also the importance of having a community of dads I could be really honest with. The Dad Course is all about providing these things before your child is born, rather than leaving you playing catch up after they’re born.
The Dad Course Is Born…
Just after my son turned one I advertised the first Dad Course. I booked a damp little community room and put out the word that any dads-to-be on the lookout for support were very welcome. On a cold January day in 2016 6 guys took the risk on turning up and seeing what they could learn. I don’t think any of us knew what to expect!
Along with a couple of other dad friends we talked about our experiences of birth and what we were able to do to support our partners. We talked about the ups and downs of parenting, with no gloss or need to pretend that it’s easy. We talked about relationships, sex, loneliness and the tough moments. We taught some practical skills and the guys practiced putting nappies on dolls! At the end of the day it felt like we’d made a real bond, and it was clear we were on to something. We headed off to the pub together for a drink, and my head was whirring. As I suspected, this really was something that worked, and was needed.
Over the next 4 or so years we refined, developed and improved the content, becoming a finely tuned little operation that attracted guys from across the city and further afield. Hundreds of guys took part on the in-person course and we have always received great feedback. For us it’s all about you, so when we see guys going away more confident and prepated for fatherhood it’s so satisfying.
The journey online…
When the Covid pandemic began, to be honest, we nearly threw in the towel. Would online really work? Could we make it engaging and interesting enough? Could we give dads-to-be the stuff they really needed through an online course?
Despite the uncertainty we started running The Dad Course on Zoom, and with a few improvements I was absolutely delighted to give a positive answer to all these questions above! After initially running on Zoom, we crowdfunded for and developed the version of The Dad Course you see now in 2020, launching in October of that year.
I now have to say that I absolutely love working online! We have worked with hundreds of dads from all around the world and it’s been a fantastic journey.
We look forward to welcoming more dads-to-be on their fatherhood journey, and developing our own online offering further in the coming times.