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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Daddy Stroller Social Club |
| 2024-06-16 |
| Saw on the TV news Saturday night. [Dallas Morning News/CBS channel KTVT] Fathers Are Essential Inspired by an event held by the Dallas-based Daddy Stroller Social Club (DSSC), a group for fathers and "safe space" for people of color, Brandon Shaw wrote an 83-page typed letter to his father. Shaw sent the letter he wrote to his father for Father’s Day. He just hopes his father reads it. Others are welcome, read on. The club, which Bridgewater said has usually hosted events with 30 or so dads since its inception in 2021, "blew up" in April 2024 after two Instagram videos went viral. The following meet-up in May drew over 150 dads with their children. Bridgewater, who comes from a family of farmers, drove to West Texas and sold three cows from the 30-acre cattle farm he owns with his dad to buy pizza and drinks for 300 people. Brandon Cooper, who’s been part of the group for two years, attended the most recent event in June at the [very upscale] Legacy West shopping center in Plano. "Last time I came with my daughter, it was only a handful of us. Now we can barely walk down the street," he said. At 10 a.m. that day, 75 dads showed with kids in tow, some walking or riding their scooters alongside the group. Most though, per the group name, were in a stroller. The Daddy Stroller Social Club garners big smiles from passersby who quickly whip out their phones to capture dozens of fathers walking by, mostly in twos with their children in different types of carriages. Toney has a 1-year-old daughter named Naiomi, and said becoming "a girl dad changed my whole little world." He’s become more patient and understanding, he said. "Guys are used to sizing each other up," Toney said. In this group, though, that’s not how it goes. He regularly checks in with the group chat to ask how they’re feeling, and if anyone needs anything. Toney’s found himself telling people things he’s never told anybody before. White dads will DM Bridgewater asking to join, prefacing that they "don’t want to step on any toes," Bridgewater said. Bridgewater says come aboard. "It’s a safe space for people of color, but it’s [also] for fatherhood. We’re all going through these things," he said. A dad in the group who’s white has a kid who’s half-Black. Bridgewater recalled he said, "It’s important for my son to see me step up and do things for his mother, but with him being biracial, I want him to see [dads] of color doing the same thing." Toney added that he hopes the group will also reach teenage dads, who may not have been prepared for children. DSSC promotes vulnerability and community, judgment-free companionship among fathers. There are lots of moms groups, said Bridgewater, who found that support for fathers was lacking. The yearn for community is global. People across the United States and from countries like the U.K., South Africa and Uganda have reached out to Bridgewater asking to start club chapters in their cities. Dads, Bridgewater said, have "seen this love," and want to express it, too. Happy Father's Day, Dads! |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #1 Dallas-based |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2024-06-16 18:42 |