Last month, I met another dad blogger from my Facebook group IRL (which is how the kids abbreviate in real life, which apparently needs an acronym now). We got SOP (slices of pizza) at a BAR (place where they serve alcoholic drinks) and I felt a sense of camaraderie that I don’t get when I show up to the local library and I have to try to shun eye contact with all the mothers for fear they misread my intentions. Maybe it’s because we didn’t have our kids with us and maybe it’s because the waitress was already shunning eye contact, but I got a taste of something else (not just the Yuengling). And I liked it.

The CEO is finally getting to an age where she is awake for long enough between naps to do something besides feed her, change her, pack her in the car and try to figure out how to waste another 45 minutes before her next nap. And this community of Facebookers I’ve joined is excellent, but there’s something to be said for ignoring my daughter in the presence of other fathers as opposed to ignoring her in front of the computer like I am now.

I tried unsuccessfully to find a SAHD (stay at home dad – keep up with me) group in my area a few months ago. There was one in which I lived literally half a mile out of the zoning regulations for the geographically pretentious group. And there were 79 others that were for moms, which all have this no dads allowed clause that I am simultaneously offended by and understand. BUT, this other dad blogger, Oren (check him out at http://www.bloggerfather.com/) told me about this big group down in DC. It’s probably the same group my wife told me about when I was trying to finish my final project last semester. I was too busy ignoring Mabel for my schoolwork to ignore her in a group of other dads. (Ed note: He doesn’t really ignore his daughter that much. But she did make it up the stairs once without him realizing she could even do that).

So I guess where I’m going with all this is that I’m going to finally reach out. For real. Not like when I go to the library and passively ask where all the moms are going with their children now. Maybe this will be fun. Maybe Mabel will hate it. Maybe it will turn out to be a lot of work and I’ll just be content to surf the internet while my daughter practices her stair-climbing. But I have hope for adult social interaction once again (IRL social interaction nonetheless).

And in case any of you dads in the DC area are in the same boat, check this out: http://www.dcmetrodads.com/index.php