Lockdown Dads

In this, the last episode of Lockdown Dads, James and I reflect on 18 months of pandemic podcasting as England celebrates "Freedom Day."The truth is that the fear of catching Covid, home school disruption, and getting through the days are as prevalent as ever. We consider some of the hopelessly optimistic predictions we made in year - lockdown could be all over by June!? But also the certainty of the stay at home messaging v the weariness and low level anxiety of July 2021.We talk about some ...

Our final guest on Lockdown Dads is Will McDonald, Group Sustainability and Public Policy Director at Aviva plc aka "The Job Share Dad."As one half of the most senior male job share in the UK, Will is a bit of a hero in the dad space, shining a light on the rare world of job sharing (especially when it comes to men)We learn about Will's path at Aviva and how a conversation about wanting to explore a job share became a work "marriage" to Sam that has lasted 4 years already.We discover the prin...

Olga Fitzroy, award winning sound engineer and parental pay equality campaigner joins us to discuss inequalities faced by the self employed. We discover her role in Pregnant Then Screwed's legal challenge against the government and discuss the legislative environment around self employment and shared parental leave.Plus school is out again, with education disruption only just starting to be discussed in government. Ian's garden gets short listed for a prize and we briefly ponder the upc...

Simon Gregory, Managing Partner of GPS Return joins us to talk about parental return to work and we explore the differing challenges faced by men and women.We discuss how societal expectations influence the opportunities to return to work and later access flexible working and how Simon's business supports and coaches individuals and businesses to find the right person or right opportunity for now.James explains why T.W.A.T working is the next big trend while Simon talks about his 288 mile 24 ...

To mark the publication of the Fatherhood Institute's new report "Lockdown Dads - the Untold Story", we sat down with Dr Jeremy Davies, Head of Communications, to discuss fatherhood, the opportunities presented by the pandemic and what exactly is "the untold story" After we covered dodgy backs, out for beers and Moroccan pandemic experiences, we learnt about Jeremy's path. Journalist, becoming a father in 1999, a PhD and joining Father's Direct, the organisation that later became t...

Coach, consultant and 'living system', we talk to Ethan about his journey from googling 'male trapped in female body' to father of two, including a lockdown baby.We discuss the power of flexible working as an enabler for Ethan to be the person and the dad he wanted to be and how a throw away comment about a new kitten - 'Look! Two mummies' was the catalyst for the addressing the fundamental identity crisis his life and ultimately lead to visiting the Alternative Parenting Show.We cover the ro...

Eternity Leave is a wry, semi autobiographical novel about being a stay at home dad, and the author, Simon Kettlewell, joined James and Ian to talk about his inspiration from over 20 years as primary carer to his four children. It's story that had extra chapters added in Lockdown as older children returned home and his 16 year old son struggled with remote learning.We learn about his path from NHS clinician and manager via working in mental health services in Eastern Europe to a rural idyll i...

We look back at the guests, the stories and the tips that caught our eye since January.00:30 Weathermen, Ian’s course development, Covid scare at school and Couch to 5k 03:00 James finally gets physio on his back05:15 Working from home with kids around06:30 The return to office life and the Goldman Sachs way of working 09:00 Are the government actually consulting on flexible working rights?11:00 Linking working patterns to gender equality12:00 Home-school since January14:00 The nove...

In 2012 Rhian Mannings’ life suddenly and tragically changed when first her young son George died, followed 5 days later by her husband Paul.In this important and uplifting conversation, we explore how support was missing for bereaved parents like Rhian and Paul and how, what she imagined would be “hobby”, turned into a nationwide charity called 2 Wish Upon A Star providing immediate and ongoing bereavement support for families, individuals and professionals affected by the sudden and traumat...

Brian Ballantyne, Co-Founder of Men for Inclusion, author of “Confessions of a Working Dad” and one time Babycenter moderator joins James and Ian in Episode 37 of Lockdown Dads.It’s an open and honest discussion in which we discuss what it means to be good ally, how Brian’s own family were a prompt to volunteer in diversity and inclusion voluntary work and why men must be involved if we aren’t just creating inclusion echo chambers.Plus “Centrist Dads”, Burnout and recharging batteries and how...