It’s a sad fact of life that us dads have trouble being taken seriously.
Whenever we try and prove we’re perfectly capable of looking after children, our abilities are questioned. I'll give you a couple of examples.
Shortly after the birth of my second daughter, Izzy, I was sat in a café bottle-feeding her.
A woman strolled over, lifted the child out of my arms and declared to all who would listen: “He’s babysitting, he’s babysitting.”
I was left truly stunned. I just didn't know how to react and sat there, looking stupid while I was being made fun of by a complete stranger who had just taken my baby away.
Just a few days previously I had taken Izzy to register her birth. The registrar remarked that I was “brave” for going out on my own with my child.
It was no doubt meant as a compliment, but that comment was very offensive.
It was a baby in a pushchair, not a Great White Shark. She posed no threat to me whatsoever. There was nothing brave about what I was doing.
I grew up close to a large military base. I saw women in military uniform all the time. I would never, ever have gone up to them and said they were brave.
But a man with a newborn baby - an experienced father, to boot - for some reason deserves this title.
I'm afraid these sorts of occurrences are quite commonplace. I belong to a few different Facebook groups for dads where I found men complaining about the way they were treated on the run up to this year’s Father’s Day.
Some of these men had been approached by companies and asked if they would participate in advertising campaigns, most of which revolved around “dad dancing” or were “tongue in cheek”.
Several companies even approached me and, yes, I was offered a £30 pair of shoes on the condition I videoed myself “dancing like a dad.” You can probably guess what my response was.
Michael Flatley happens to have a child. I wonder if he was offered a pair of shoes in return for making a twit of himself?
It’s really quite sad that us dads are rarely taken seriously.
Motherhood has a much higher status and yet fathers are constantly made laughing stocks.
I’d like to think that dad jokes will eventually go the same way as mother-in-law jokes.
Dads have a very important role to play in their children’s lives. I appreciate that few men get to spend as much time with their kids as a stay at home dad like myself.
Even so, in most families men change nappies, cook food, rub grazed knees, do the school run, help with homework etc.
Many men are desperate to spend more time with their kids but the realities of working full time and providing for the family means they struggle to do so.
On the side of the coin, men such as myself who are the main carers for their kids struggle to be accepted in this role.
Unfortunately men and dads are seen as fair game. I'm afraid this is no laughing matter.
John Adams is a stay at home dad from Surrey with two young daughters; Helen aged seven and Izzy aged three.
He is married to Gill, who works full time and fulfills the traditionally male breadwinning role.
John, who writes the blog DadBlogUK, gave up a job in communications in 2011 to run the household and do the majority of the childcare.