Dad Chats Live - This week Nigel discussed Men’s Perinatal Mental Health with Mark Williams from @fathers_mentalhealth
Mark is a well known figure in the UK when it comes to mental health and men. He is the founder of Fathers Reaching Out – an organization with a mission to prevent, treat and spread awareness about fathers’ mental health. Mark is also the founder of International Fathers’ Mental Health Day and has been awarded Inspirational Father of the Year in 2012 and Local Hero at the Pride of Britain Awards. Above all though mark has suffered Perinatal mental health and come through the other side and dedicates his life to helping others get through this traumatic condition. His story is an inspiring and informative one.
A huge thank you to him for bringing his time and knowledge to our Dadvengers community.
Mark has written a wonderful blog post to accompany this chat. As in the chat it covers his own personal experience with the illness and what he has learnt along the way including ;-
If you’d like to read the full article please click on the link. And do feel free to feedback your thoughts on this or any of our posts in the comment sections at the bottom of each page.
Mark also has 2 books that he has published on the subject. Daddy Blues and Fathers and Perinatal Mental Health: A Guide for Recognition, Treatment and Management. Both are great resources for people suffering from this mental health illness
Dad Chats Live - Postpartum Psychosis. This week we talked about Postpartum Psychosis with Simon O'Mara from @actiononpp. And what a fantastic an insightful session it was. Make sure you check out the videos below.
Firstly we learnt that the condition is often misunderstood and many people have heard nothing about. It is also not to be confused with postnatal depression or baby blues, Postpartum Psychosis is a medical emergency that needs swift professional treatment. Listening to Simon tell the story of his wife's case and how it affected him is eye opening and resonated with other sufferers too. Thank you to Simon for sharing your own personal experiences, we're sure they will help others in the future. We were also joined by Ruth and Lacey in the second hour who shared their experience with us - so a huge thank you to them for speaking so openly too.
Simon has written a wonderful blog post to accompany this chat called Everything You Need To Know About Postpartum Psychosis As a Father and it covers the following;-
Not only that, it also touches upon a few of the symptoms to look out for such as:-
And do feel free to feedback your thoughts on this or any of our posts in the comment sections at the bottom of each page.
Dad Chats Live Childrens Wellbeing - This week we were joined by special guest Adrian Bethune from @teachappyuk, talking all about what he’s learnt in regards to children’s wellbeing and how parents can better support their kids.
1. Wellbeing – What is it and how can parents support their children?
2. Does your diet affect your wellbeing? Let's talk about what we eat and how it affects us mentally.
3. What’s the best drink you’ve had in the best location? Let’s reminisce on those great moments that don’t happen often enough.
Adrian has written a blog post for us to accompany this chat - covering the following key areas of Childrens Wellbeing:
As well as that he has also provided tips on how we as parents can support wellbeing in our children. They include:
All of these areas are covered in the post, so if you’d like to read the full article please click on the link. And please feel free to feedback your thoughts on this or any of our posts in the comment sections at the bottom of each page.
Subjects: This week we were joined by special guest Ian Dinwiddy from Inspiring Dads. A website focused on helping stressed dads balance work and fatherhood. We talked about.
1. Building meaningful relationships with your partner and your children. How do we do it and what are the benefits.
2. Do you find it hard to communicate with your partner? Let’s find out what we can do to improve communication with our families.
3. What are you doing for lockdown Valentines? We know it’s another excuse to sell cards, but it's lockdown and something tells us if you don’t make an effort this year (however small), it may be used against us in a future event or situation!
Ian kindly wrote us a blog piece that accompanies this chat. It's ever so easy to get complacent in our relationships and think that everything is fine. But often complacency can mean we miss things that can come and bite us later on. It's not a bad idea to take a look at our relationships now then and give them a little check. We need to be remember that:-
All of these areas are coverd in the post, so if you’d like to read the full article please click on the link. And please feel free to feedback your thoughts on this or any of our posts in the comment sections at the bottom of each page.
Subjects: 1. Talking to children about mental health. As it’s children’s mental health week, we want to know how you plan on talking to your children about mental health and their feelings. Or if you’ve already started, how have you gone about it?
2. Has your understanding of mental health changed since becoming a parent? We all know that becoming parents changes our outlook on life, has how you look at mental health changed since having kids? Are you more open and honest about your feelings, or do you feel like you have to keep them in for the sake of your children?
3. For our lighthearted topic this week, we want to know, what’s your favourite form of self care? With there being a focus more than ever on looking after ourselves, we all have different things that make us feel good. What’s your go to for self care?
A previous Dad Chats guest Leslie-Ann Beary wrote a great blog piece for us that's all about communicating with Children about their feelings. We were also lucky enough to have her join us and talk about the topic. The piece covers
If you'd like to read the full article please click on the link. Or you can watch the Dad Chats Session with Leslie-Ann Beary.
Subjects: This week were joined by special guest Susie Robbins who is a play advocate from @resolvetoplay. She talked about why it’s important to play with your kids from a young age. We know that in previous generations men stereotypically were not as involved in the early years experiences including play. However we now know that it enhances a child's development when they are, and in this session we find out why.
Plus we hear from you (our community) on the subject and learn about some of your favourite games you like to play with your kids too.
As with all our guests Susie was also kind enough to write us a blog piece on the subject. And in her summary highlighted the following 5 reasons as the big advantages of play with your kids.
If you'd like to read the full article please click on the link. And feel free to feedback your thoughts on the chat or the article in the comment sections at the bottom of each page.
This week we talk all about the aspirations we have for our kids. Other than wanting our children to be happy and healthy, what do we want for them? Do we want them to be a star athlete? A world renowned doctor? An artist? Musician? We all have hopes and dreams for our children - we want to know what they are.
We also talk about what healthy aspirations are for our children - with reality TV and social media influencers being such hot topics at the moment- is that what our children want to do? Would we support them if they wanted to go down that route? Do we want to encourage them into more traditional careers?
Lastly, we talk about your chosen career path. Is it what you wanted it to be? What did you dream of being when you grew up - did you get there? We want to hear it all!
Subjects: 1. What aspirations do we have for our children? We all want our kids to be happy and healthy, but it’s also natural to want more for them too. What dreams do you have for yours?
2. What do the youth of today aspire to be, and is it healthy? With the rise of the reality tv star and the social media influencer so many of the younger generation want to go down the same path. They see it as an easy route or a short cut to success. Are the next generation losing sight of the more traditional career paths.
3. If you could have gone down a different career path, what would it have been? Have you had a sliding door moment that changed your whole career path?
For more dad Chats head to the main Dad Chats Page. Or type a topic or keyword into the search bar at the top of the page. If we have discussed it, it will pop up there. Dad Chats happen most Friday nights on Instagram from 9-11pm. They are open to Mums, Dads and anyone with a keen interest in parenting and improving their parenting journey.
Dad Chats Live - 27 November 2020, the best support and resources for dads.
This week we were joined by the brilliant Kieran Anders from @dadmattersuk. Dad Matters is a brilliant community organisation who aim to help dads have the best relationships possible with their families. They also support dads with anxiety, stress and mental health issues. One thing that Dad Matters is great at, is signposting dads to the right support at the right time. So we were really happy to have Kieran join us and share information about the different resources available for dads.
Next up, we delved into the benefits of good support, for ourselves, and our families. We all know it can be hard asking for support, and when we do and end up somewhere that gives less than desirable help - that can just make things worse. So we wanted to hear about your experiences of getting good support, and what difference that made to you.
Lastly for our lighthearted topic we chatted about he times our kids have surprised and supported us. No matter how big or small, it is always great when our kids let us know they're on our side. We loved hearing these stories!
1. Support and resources available for dads
2. The benefits of support for dads
3. Light-hearted topic - the times our kids have surprised and supported us.
Do you know why Nigel started the Dadvengers Initiative? It is all about supporting dads to be the best they can - Nigel wrote a post about it called "The Dadvengers Initiative - Supporting Dads on Their Parenting Journey" which tells you all about it.
Supporting dads is what we are all about! We have a few other posts and Dad Chats on the subject that you might like:
Did you enjoy this chat? Is there a topic you'd like us to delve into? Get in touch and let us know what you want us to talk about!
This week on Dad Chats Live we delve into the important topic of caring for children with special needs. We asked you to help us understand what it is like parent non neuro-typical children and learning from our community on this subject was amazing. Whether you;re a parent of a child with special needs, working with families in this situation, or you just want to educate yourself - this is a chat you shouldn't miss.
Big thanks to @istunners and @rosie_marie_ernest for sharing their story which you can continue to follow at @ernests_our_autism_journey_ Also, huge thanks to Aaron (@Aj21.93) father of @princessaariah for sharing his emotional story with us! An eye opening and sobering listen.
Have you got a story to share with us about caring for children with special needs? We'd love to hear from you - click here to get in touch.
Topics:
1. Caring for children with speical needs or medical conditions. The difficulties of being a parent can be compounded by this. How do you cope? How does your child cope?
2. Teamwork when raising kids. Raising kids is always easier when you work as a team. Do you manage to do this? Or it is a bit of a struggle with differences in parenting styles?
3. Our lighthearted topic this week is... strangest things you've pulled out of your child's orifices! We've all had those "why was that in there" moments. Let's hear them!
this topic is important to you - you might want to check out the Podcast Episode with Richard Whitehead MBE
Richard tells us all about parenting his autistic daughter, not just about the challenges they face together, but also the wonderful sides of parenting a child with special needs.
Use the player above to listen to Dadvengers Podcast Episode 5
