The Real Dad Podcast

If you’re even thinking about  having a kid, get a name on a waitlist now!  Finding a daycare provider that checks all the boxes for your families needs is a challenge. Do you go with a home daycare or a centre? Full-time or part-time? Is daycare even an option for your family? There’s a lot of factors at play when it comes to making these decisions.  Join us as we discuss our experiences, and the...

-Parenting gets real interesting when your kids start to find their voice and call your bluff. -How do you try to Dad Up or step up for partner after being away from the family for a recharge? -How do you handle a bad kid drop off at summer camp or school, etc.?

Are you able to shut off the outside world and just play? Play with your kids?  We've been told forever that kids grow up too fast, but it's so hard to understand until you're in it. Before long we're not the centre of their world anymore, so enjoy it while it lasts, and don't forget to be a kid again. 

Does going to therapy make life harder? Sometimes it feels like it's easier to just keep all that mess locked away somewhere, but in the end we know it's worth it. What are we hoping to gain from therapy? If you haven't been, do you feel like you could benefit from it?

We're trying to coin the term "Dad up!" Being a "Dad" is so much more than the title or the name, it's a verb. It requires so much of you in order to do it well. Sometimes the busyness of it all catches up with us. How do you handle that? And how do we better support each other? 

Whoever is in charge of meal planning in your house deserves a vacation. It is so time consuming, challenging, and a lot of the time a pretty thankless part of parenting. How does it work in your house? If you're not the meal planner, maybe do them a favour and do the prep and cooking yourself tonight. If you're a terrible cook, do them a favour and just order in. Take something off thei...

We welcome our dear friend Brent Walker back into the booth. Given that Brent is a father and also a teacher, we feel he has a unique perspective on what kids are dealing with today outside of their homes. We always look forward to our conversations with Brent! Join us as we bombard him with a bunch of random questions. 

Hear all about Joey and Dave's adventure to Cityline with the kids! And we want to know, what does Father's Day look like in your household? Does dad get "me time" or just want to be close to the family? Catch it all before Joey has to leave!

Why do we have such a hard time being kind to ourselves? Is it easier for you to think of things you don't like about yourself over things you do?  This is our challenge to you, even if it's just for a moment. Say something nice to you.  Put all our your criticisms aside and be kind to yourself. It's not lame. It's not cheesy. It's important, and we hope it becomes the nor...

The moment you've all been waiting for! Did Mark strike GOLD? And are we now all going into early retirement? Speaking of retirement, we'll need to take care of ourselves to be able to enjoy it, which includes actually going to the doctor every once in a while. So why is it so hard to drag ourselves down there when something isn't right? Is it just us? ChatGPT to the rescue!

Mark is pretty sure he’s stumbled upon our big break, and back at home his daughter is pretty sure it’s his fault she stumbled down the stairs. There’s also the part where we talk about how something you’ve always thought may be a strength of yours, may actually be a weakness in some ways. 

Even if you’re completely uninterested, there is no denying there is a certain power in sport. It’s not always good, but when it is, it has an incredibly unique way of bringing people together. Maybe it’s because we’ve all experienced this at one point in our lives or another that we wonder if our kids will have the same chance. What if they don’t like sports? How do we toe the line between encour...

There‘s a whole lot we don’t know a whole lot about, but what we’re in for as parents in a world so heavily influenced by AI seems to have us way in over our heads. With the speed at which the tech is advancing today, it feels impossible to keep up with if you’re not working or heavily invested in that space. Join us as we talk about how this might affect us, our kids, and how we parent through it...

We can learn a lot about parenting by understanding general human relationship. This means, you don’t need to be a parent to teach us something we may need to learn about how to interact with our kiddos.  Tiffany Pratt is the type of person that changes lives for the better by just being Tiffany. She is infectiously kind hearted and  fun. She is someone we respect and admire for her understanding...

Buckle up cause this episode is all over the place. One things for sure, you’re not going to want to miss hearing about Mark’s trip to Family Services, which is very different than Life Labs. 

In a world where it seems like the default tone or reaction has become negative, let's be proactive in spreading kindness. Let's support one another, and rush to encourage and compliment. And definitely don't be creepy

Joey and Dave were able to get away on a big family vacay. Would you put your money on it going  as smooth as it could have? or it being such a gong-show that they're asking themselves if they are really meant to be parents after all? Place your bets

They may know bus better than we know ourselves, our editors Aidan and Aaron from Two Blue Shirts Productions join us to chat all things, podcast. From why we started, to making choices about whether or not to have kids, join us in a fun chitty chat with two amazing humans.  

Sometimes we don't know how we would feel about a circumstance until it actually happens. If our emotional response to that circumstance catches us off guard, chances are we need to chat about it so we can figure out why and possibly put some boundaries in place. From a parental perspective, sometimes we don't know which situations or scenarios we do and don't feel comfortable putti...

Sometimes we can get stuck trying to be everything for our kids. Trying to protect them from everything, and limit their exposure to the many forms of negativity they will inevitably face. However, the longer you're a parent the more you are reminded that our kids are influenced by many things and people, and there's only so much we can do to guide them through it. We are just one voice,...

We all wish it wasn’t the case, but bullying is a part of life. In one way or another, we have had a relationship with it. As our kids grow up and work their way through school we will inevitably be faced with similar situations. We know working through that will be a challenge, but we’re pretty sure the answer is a swift kick in the shins… right? 

Something the four of us will never fully understand is pregnancy and giving birth.  Nor will we understand everything the postpartum journey entails. Something we can speak to, is what it's like to be the partner and a new parent. Raising children is an incredibly rewarding journey. It's also an incredibly challenging one that will forever teach us. From the feeling of being "Dad&q...

What happens to kids every day between 5-8pm? No really, that time hits and next thing you know you're ploppin' down on the couch at 9 o'clock, stretched to the limit, and not quite sure what just happened. This episode is all about sleep. Routines with your kids, your partner(s), and an unexpectedly spicy turn into how you communicate with your partner in the bedroom. 

One man, one hair clip, and one man's journey through a life-changing procedure. Was Mark's vasectomy experience as great a story as we all imagined it would be? Tune in to find out. 

Is It possible to keep your kids out of trouble?  Do you even want them to stay all the way out of trouble? And how do you keep the lines of communication open when they try something you may not recommend?