Dadicated Joe

When Patrick first searched "fathers to be" online, Google returned one result: "Did you mean mothers to be?" That was 20 years ago. This conversation is about changing that.

They say there isn't a handbook for how to be a dad, but it turns out there is! Patrick wrote it, the "Fathers to Be Handbook, A Roadmap for the Transition to Fatherhood". In it he outlines how men can change their mindset from thinking their job is to provide, stay calm, and support from the sidelines, to fully connecting and embracing the experience not just for their baby and partner, but for themselves.

Patrick Houser has spent decades helping men understand that fathers are not bystanders in birth. After his own first birth experience showed him how emotionally intense and unsupported this season can be for dads, he went on to become part of the first documented waterbirth in the USA and helped build FathersToBe.org, an initiative that supports men through pregnancy, birth, and early fathering.

"All you can do is all you can do, and all you can do is enough." — Patrick Houser

If you are an expectant dad, a first time father, or someone who felt completely unprepared the moment that baby arrived, this one is for you.

What we get into:

• Why first time dads are often left emotionally unprepared for fatherhood

• How to prepare for birth as a dad before the baby comes

• What a dad's real role in birth looks like beyond just showing up

• Why men feel powerless during pregnancy and what to do instead

• How to support your partner without trying to control the process

• Why the "yes" mindset changes everything in the delivery room and beyond

• How to bond with your newborn when the baby has not lived in your body

http://www.fatherstobe.org/

https://www.instagram.com/patrickhouser7/

Other episodes: Pregnancy for men https://youtu.be/6oxTJbCWw-k

Birth 101 for men https://youtu.be/s8lQLCkOJK0 Post Partum Shit show https://youtu.be/5tTOX-oyqD4

👉 Get 15% off your first Serenity Kids order with code: DADICATED15 https://myserenitykids.com/

Being Dadicated isn't about having all the answers.

It's about showing up.

It's about committing to the kind of dad—and man—you want to be, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

Joe Carr is a dad to Della, husband to Serenity, co-founder of Serenity Kids baby food, and the voice behind Dadicated Joe.

Follow Joe Carr on social media

Instagram: @dadicatedjoe

TikTok: @dadicatedjoe

YouTube @dadicatedjoe

Raw milk changed Craig McCloskey's experience with dairy. The safety question is more nuanced than you've been told.

Craig McCloskey cut out dairy after years of congestion, allergies, and digestive issues — and it worked. But when he reintroduced raw dairy years later, none of those symptoms came back.

In this minisode of DadicatedJoe, Craig and Joe unpack why that happens: raw milk versus pasteurized milk, how fermentation changes the game for kefir and cheese, and the surprising experiment where raw milk fermented into something drinkable while pasteurized milk just molded. They cover the history of pasteurization, the sanitation failures that made it necessary, and why modern raw milk farms that test every batch for pathogens may produce milk with fewer harmful bacteria than what's legally allowed in grocery store pasteurized milk. For anyone navigating dairy intolerance or questioning whether all milk affects them the same way, this conversation offers a practical, evidence-grounded way to evaluate your options.

👉 Get 15% off your first Serenity Kids order with code: DADICATED15 https://myserenitykids.com/

Being Dadicated isn't about having all the answers.

It's about showing up.

It's about committing to the kind of dad—and man—you want to be, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

Joe Carr is a dad to Della, husband to Serenity, co-founder of Serenity Kids baby food, and the voice behind Dadicated Joe.

Follow Joe Carr on social media

Instagram: @dadicatedjoe

TikTok: @dadicatedjoe

YouTube @dadicatedjoe

What would your 7-year-old daughter say if you asked her for honest feedback on your parenting?

I invited my daughter, Della, onto the podcast to find out. I asked how she thinks my wife and I are doing, which rules feel unfair, and what she wishes I understood better.

Her answers were funny, thoughtful, and more honest than I expected. She told me how rushing makes her feel, why my phone pulls me away, and what she needs when emotions get big. She also reminded me that children notice far more than we realize.

This episode is for dads who want to understand fatherhood through their child's eyes. You may not agree with every answer, but asking the questions can strengthen the relationship.

👇 In this episode, we explore:

• What do children really think about their parents?

• How does rushing affect your child emotionally?

• What do daughters need from their dads?

• How can dads become more emotionally present?

• Which parenting rules feel unfair to children?

Link to Serenity episode https://youtu.be/X-NuUeBn2ac

Link to toddler tantrums https://youtu.be/I7dE_MOlwXk

👉 Get 15% off your first Serenity Kids order with code: DADICATED15 https://myserenitykids.com/

Being Dadicated isn't about having all the answers.

It's about showing up.

It's about committing to the kind of dad—and man—you want to be, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

Joe Carr is a dad to Della, husband to Serenity, co-founder of Serenity Kids baby food, and the voice behind Dadicated Joe.

Follow Joe Carr on social media

Instagram: @dadicatedjoe

TikTok: @dadicatedjoe

YouTube @dadicatedjoe

One simple rule protects kids from sleep deprivation, sketchy content, and online predators — and most parents aren't using it.

Julianna Lorenzen, co-founder of Healthy Screen Habits, shares the one non-negotiable rule every family needs: no screens in the bedroom or bathroom. She breaks down the "5 S's" — the five dangers that screens behind closed doors expose children to — and explains why the real battle isn't parents versus kids, but families versus Big Tech.

With over 200 episodes of evidence-based, scientifically-backed research, Julianna has helped thousands of parents shift from policing screen time to teaching genuine digital self-regulation.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

➡️ Why rigid screen time limits fail (and what actually works)

➡️ How tech companies exploit your child's psychology and physiology

➡️ The collaborative approach that ends screen time battles

➡️ How to teach kids to be the boss of technology — before it bosses them

This isn't about demonizing screens. It's about raising kids who use technology intentionally.

🔗 Connect with Healthy Screen Habits: 🌐 Website: https://healthyscreenhabits.org

🎙️ Podcast: Healthy Screen Habits (200+ episodes)

👉 Get 15% off your first Serenity Kids order with code: DADICATED15 https://myserenitykids.com/

Being Dadicated isn't about having all the answers.

It's about showing up.

It's about committing to the kind of dad—and man—you want to be, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

Joe Carr is a dad to Della, husband to Serenity, co-founder of Serenity Kids baby food, and the voice behind Dadicated Joe.

Follow Joe Carr on social media

Instagram: @dadicatedjoe

TikTok: @dadicatedjoe

YouTube @dadicatedjoe

Taylor Sanchez is not your usual touchy feely sensitive dad influencer. He is a regular American dude, raised by a "rule with an iron fist" kind of dad, and decided he wanted to do it differently. With no previous experience or resources, he started making social posts about his personal journey of figuring this out, and it resonated with thousands of parents!

In this episode, he shares how he figured out through trial and error that emotional intelligence, breaking generational cycles, and prioritizing his marriage can change everything — for his daughter, his wife, and himself.

Most dad advice stops at "provide and protect." Taylor Sanchez is breaking a 100-year family pattern and he says it all starts with how he treats his wife.

Taylor runs the Built Different channel, where he helps dads move beyond just being the breadwinner. As a first-time dad to a baby girl, he's doing the emotional work most men never learn and he started before she was even born.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why Taylor began developing emotional intelligence years before becoming a dad — and the one daily practice that rewired his reactions

• How the tone of your entire household is set by your relationship with your spouse — and why "serving the baby means serving the mom first"

• Breaking generational cycles without cutting family off — including how Taylor repaired his relationship with his own father

• The identity shift nobody talks about: moving from "guy who fixes things" to "dad who feels things"

• The biggest lies dads are sold about money, power, and parenting as sacrifice — and what actually brings peace

This isn't a checklist episode. It's a conversation about becoming the dad you needed when you were a kid.

👉 Get 15% off your first Serenity Kids order with code: DADICATED15 https://myserenitykids.com/

Being Dadicated isn't about having all the answers.

It's about showing up.

It's about committing to the kind of dad—and man—you want to be, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

Joe Carr is a dad to Della, husband to Serenity, co-founder of Serenity Kids baby food, and the voice behind Dadicated Joe.

Follow Joe Carr on social media

Instagram: @dadicatedjoe

TikTok: @dadicatedjoe

YouTube @dadicatedjoe

Feeding kids has become way more complicated than it should be. After building Serenity Kids around nutrient-dense ingredients, I've seen how much fear, confusion, and bad advice parents are handed around baby nutrition, first foods, healthy fats, organ meats, and processed food.

Craig McCloskey and I get into the deeper question underneath all of it: how do we nourish our families without turning food into stress, control, or guilt? We talk about ancestral health, raw milk, nutrient-dense foods, postpartum nutrition, and how new dads can build a home where real food feels normal.

Inside this episode:

• How can a baby's first foods shape their taste, health, and picky eating • How organ meats, bone broth, eggs, meat, and dairy support growing kids • Why babies need healthy fats more than most parents realize • What ancestral health looks like in a normal family kitchen • How to avoid ultra-processed foods without creating food fear • Why dads can model better nutrition through structure, not control

Link to his channel

You can watch those episodes. Baby Food and feeding episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qtgMhJtIQw&list=PLV-0dTh77R_nI1i3WZ7kYeagM51WeC2-h&index=34

Why I Raise My Daughters Like Bison | Taylor Collins on Fatherhood & Sustainable Food https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOvXbatAIm0&list=PLV-0dTh77R_nI1i3WZ7kYeagM51WeC2-h&index=66

👉 Get 15% off your first Serenity Kids order with code: DADICATED15 https://myserenitykids.com/

Being Dadicated isn't about having all the answers.

It's about showing up.

It's about committing to the kind of dad—and man—you want to be, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

Joe Carr is a dad to Della, husband to Serenity, co-founder of Serenity Kids baby food, and the voice behind Dadicated Joe.

Follow Joe Carr on social media

Instagram: @dadicatedjoe

TikTok: @dadicatedjoe

YouTube @dadicatedjoe

Being physically there for our kids is not the same as being present. I know how easy it is to be in the room, but still carry work, stress, old wounds, and unfinished emotional work into fatherhood.

Stephen joins me to talk about sobriety, men's work, the Mankind Project, and what his absent father taught him about becoming a present father. We get into fatherhood, emotional awareness, breaking generational cycles, and why new dads need other men if they want to show up with more honesty, steadiness, and connection.

Inside this episode:

• Why presence means more than being home

• How an absent father shaped Stephen's parenting

• Why men's work matters for dads

• What emotional awareness gives your family

• How father-daughter weekends create honest conversations

• Why dads need safe spaces outside the home

👉 Get 15% off your first Serenity Kids order with code: DADICATED15 https://myserenitykids.com/

Being Dadicated isn't about having all the answers.

It's about showing up.

It's about committing to the kind of dad—and man—you want to be, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

Joe Carr is a dad to Della, husband to Serenity, co-founder of Serenity Kids baby food, and the voice behind Dadicated Joe.

Follow Joe Carr on social media

Instagram: @dadicatedjoe

TikTok: @dadicatedjoe

YouTube @dadicatedjoe

Why do entrepreneur dads who've built successful businesses still feel like they're missing fatherhood?

Jon Vroman built Front Row Dads after his wife told him: "Thank you for being a moment maker for the rest of the world, but we want you to be a moment maker at home too." That wake-up call changed everything.

In this episode, Joe Carr and Jon Vroman go deep on:

→ Why dads hide at work (even when they don't realize it)

→ How to shift from "businessman with a family" to "family man with a business"

→ The systems Jon uses to protect family time without sacrificing revenue

→ How you can use business tools to enhance your family

→ Why your kids don't need a provider, they need your presence

→ The "lowest heart rate" concept that changes how you show up at home

→ What is Front Row Dads, and might it benefit you?

If you're in burnout, have fear you're missing the window with your kids, or if the guilt of always choosing work first feels familiar — this is your episode.

👉 Get 15% off your first Serenity Kids order with code: DADICATED15 https://myserenitykids.com/

Being Dadicated isn't about having all the answers.

It's about showing up.

It's about committing to the kind of dad—and man—you want to be, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

Joe Carr is a dad to Della, husband to Serenity, co-founder of Serenity Kids baby food, and the voice behind Dadicated Joe.

Follow Joe Carr on social media

Instagram: @dadicatedjoe

TikTok: @dadicatedjoe

YouTube @dadicatedjoe

About Front Row Dads The Front Row Dads podcast is for good men who want to level up their dad game. It's for fathers who value working on themselves so they can deepen their sense of purpose through finding the most effective and efficient steps needed to fulfill their role as husbands and fathers.

Front Row Dads https://frontrowdads.com/

Jon's podcast https://frontrowdads.com/podcast/

I didn't feel free to go water skiing or spend three hours making a costume when my wife was still worrying about the house. It didn't feel fair, so I didn't do it. And then I felt resentful.

Fair Play changed that for us. It gave my wife and me a clearer way to divide the household mental load, not just the chores. When I fully own my cards, she does not have to keep worrying about them, and I do not have to carry vague guilt every time I want space for myself.

This is for dads who care but feel tired, stretched thin, or stuck between being present and wanting freedom. The Fair Play method helped me see that self-care is not the enemy of fatherhood. Resentment is.

Inside this episode

• Why dads need self-care without guilt

• How Fair Play reduces household resentment

• Why moms still carry the mental load

• How couples can divide chores more clearly

• What unicorn space gives back to dads

• How freedom can make you more present

Past Episodes:

Want to go deeper on this? Start with my Fair Play episode, where I explain the system that helped us stop fighting about chores and start sharing the household mental load more clearly.

Fair Play: Why Moms Still Carry the Mental Load (and How Dads Can Change That): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ2KExQ-Y8Y&t=1s

Then listen to my conversation with Ken Blackman, our relationship coach, for a deeper look at marriage, intimacy, and staying connected as parents.

Why Marriage After Kids Fails (It's Not What You Think): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3up1FDPaIFw&t=12s

And don't forget to check out the DILF shirt — Dad I'd Like to Follow — for the dad who wants to lead with presence, not pressure. https://www.etsy.com/listing/4422135471/dilf-unisex-softstyle-t-shirt-fun-gift?sr_prefetch=1&pf_from=shop_home&ref=shop_home_active_1&logging_key=7ca0c461de2dafc613d3f4bac409fb48dfbba498%3A4422135471

👉 Get 15% off your first Serenity Kids order with code: DADICATED15 https://myserenitykids.com/

Being Dadicated isn't about having all the answers.

It's about showing up.

It's about committing to the kind of dad—and man—you want to be, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

Joe Carr is a dad to Della, husband to Serenity, co-founder of Serenity Kids baby food, and the voice behind Dadicated Joe.

Follow Joe Carr on social media

Instagram: @dadicatedjoe

TikTok: @dadicatedjoe

YouTube @dadicatedjoe

I wanted a formula for a better marriage. Ken Blackman basically told me that was the problem.

After more than 10 years of coaching Serenity and me through our marriage, business, and parenting, including many very real breakdowns, Ken has seen the pattern clearly: I keep trying to replace presence with scripts.

If your relationship has felt different since having kids — harder to connect, easier to drift — this episode is for you. We get into why the old ways of showing up stop working after fatherhood, why trying to be the "good husband" or "good dad" can still leave you emotionally checked out, and why your partner is probably not the actual problem.

Ken also helped me tell the truth about something I hadn't talked about publicly before: the years I spent addictively numbing out when marriage, fatherhood, and business felt like too much all at once — and how close that took us to the edge.

The real work, it turns out, is not finding the right formula. It is learning to feel, to own your choices without resentment, and to build something with your partner that actually fits your family.

Inside this episode:

• Why the perfect marriage formula does not exist

• How fatherhood changes the emotional connection with your partner

• Why resentment builds when dads say yes without owning the choice

• How to stop numbing and start feeling again

• Why your partner is probably not the problem

• How to co-create a relationship that gets better over time, not worse

Resources mentioned

• Read Ken's blog: https://kenblackman.medium.com/

• Brené Brown: https://brenebrown.com/

• Esther Perel https://www.estherperel.com/

Other episodes: Keep the Spark Alive https://youtu.be/j0MvVRe3Vng

Enhance your Relationship with your Wife and Yourself after baby with Scott Wild https://youtu.be/3y7NnwqNTRE

Reel: https://riverside.com/shared/exported-clip/6272cd4099370c81176d

12 years in, my and Serenity's relationship is the BEST it's ever been. We run a successful business together, have an amazing daughter, and have ten times the connection and intimacy we had in the honeymoon phase.

We are proof that this is possible! But it was not easy! We could not have done any of it without the support of this man!

👉 Get 15% off your first Serenity Kids order with code: DADICATED15 https://myserenitykids.com/

Being Dadicated isn't about having all the answers.

It's about showing up.

It's about committing to the kind of dad—and man—you want to be, even when it's hard. Especially when it's hard.

Joe Carr is a dad to Della, husband to Serenity, co-founder of Serenity Kids baby food, and the voice behind Dadicated Joe.

Follow Joe Carr on social media

Instagram: @dadicatedjoe

TikTok: @dadicatedjoe

YouTube @dadicatedjoe

Ken Blackman is one of the BEST relationship coaches in the world. In this episode he shows us how the best formula for having a perfect marriage is that there is no formula! We have to throw out what we thought marriage was "supposed" to be and create the marriage that works for us.

The good news is that finding the right person is only 14% of the battle. So it's overwhelmingly likely that you already have a person who works; the rest is doing the work.

Learn more about how you could have a thriving relationship like mine on this week's episode: The Formula for Perfect Marriage After Kids with Relationship Coach Ken Blackman

• Learn more about Scott

  Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottsolowild/

  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottsolowild/