This is Bad Dad Redemption
Hello, my name is Mark Serrels. I’ve been a tech and video games journalist for almost 20 years now. But for the last 10 years of my life? I’ve also been a Dad.
A good Dad? A bad Dad? It’s hard to say.
But thanks to my day job I’ve written a lot about being a Dad. At Kotaku and CNET where I used to work and now right here, on Bad Dad Redemption!
It’s been a wild ride. The ride is still happening. As far as I know I am still on this infernal ride. And I’m dragging you along with me.
So What Are We Doing Here?
On the whole folks seemed to enjoy reading about my parental struggles. Some were parents themselves, others were about to be parents. I thought to myself – what if I created a space where I wrote about Dad stuff and only Dad stuff?
Because… I don’t think there’s that much stuff like that out there? (Actually I checked, there is a lot of stuff like that, but I’m still doing this.)
I remember, back when my long-suffering wife was eight months pregnant with our first son, panic reading a few “how to be a dad” books. Being perfectly honest: they were sort of woeful.
I remember one moment of despair. I was reading a book with a whole section that was essentially a very strained “Dad = cricket coach” analogy. It almost broke me. “What in the actual hell are we doing here?” I asked myself. I’m Scottish. Scottish people don’t like cricket. Scottish people don’t understand cricket. I could not — in any imaginable scenario — understand how a cricket metaphor was going to help me get through what is almost certainly going to be one of the most traumatic years of my life.
Point being: there’s not a lot of help out there for Dads. And what is out there has a whiff of, “ALRIGHT MY BLOKES LET’S GRAB A BEER AND GET REAL WITH EACH OTHER DOWN THE PUB” about it. That’s fine? But eh… nah.
OKAY SO LET’S GRAB A BEER AND GET REAL WITH EACH OTHER!
My plan is to absolutely write the shit out of this. To share my own experiences, to talk about my own struggles, etc.
But I also want to hear from you – what are you interested in? What would you like to read about? Shoot me an email at serrelsmark@gmail.com anytime, or hit me up on Twitter. My DMs are open! Reach out
