As I set up these events one of the questions I always get is “Why can’t dads come too?” Indeed, dads can (and have) come. We even had a dad speaker at the last Boston event and I’ve been trying to pull together a dad panel since day one–reasoning, that I think even a lot of moms would like to hear the dad perspective on working, staying at home, and the struggle between.
Certainly there are a lot of similar issues faced by moms and dads wanting balance, wanting to get back in, trying to make careers work. There are, however, a lot of different issues too. From my perspective oftentimes Dads have an even harder time getting back “on track”, if only because far fewer of them are making the decision to take time off so they are still more of a rare breed. Dads may have less of a network to plug into as well. I think many of the techniques and tips–networking, thinking through options, talking about flexibility–that Detours covers are good for all.
However I kept looking for a good “brother” organization, one only for dads–and I found at least a few resources in researching this weekend that I wanted to share. Athomedad.org is a blog with links to many resources. I found another good site called DC Metrodads. And all of them are referencing a big national event, a Daddy Conference, with info at www.athomedadconvention.com. Interestingly, this Daddy Conference seems to be experiencing the same lagging fall registrations as Detours did, reinforcing my thought that everyone gets so busy in the fall it’s tough to commit–hope to see all of you in the spring.
So tell a dad about these if they’re asking. And of course dads are welcome to Detours!