For young dads, researchers and professionals who are invested in co-creating a more authentic view of young fatherhood and celebrating the valuable role young dads play in supporting their families.
Sign up to our network for the chance to submit to one of our regular video questions or learn more about how you can get involved in our research. We'd love to hear your stories and examples of good practice.
Or, simply come back and visit us again to stay up to date with the latest news and research about young dads and father-inclusive support.
Early analyses of our findings from Wave One of interviews from the study. We explore the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis on young fathers and the professionals who supported them.
Briefing Paper One: Negotiating âearningâ and âcaringâ through the COVID-19 crisis: change and continuities in the parenting and employment trajectories of young fathers
Briefing Paper Two: From social isolation to local support: Relational change and continuities for young fathers in the context of the COVID-19 crisis
Briefing Paper Three: Supporting at a distance: the challenges and opportunities of supporting young fathers through the COVID-19 pandemic
A major aim of our study is to promote the benefits of father-inclusive practice among professionals in different sectors.
Read onâI know so many, so many people my age that have had, had kids and got married, you know, have a house and a family and everything and theyâve done it young, because they wanted to do it young and, you know, just people need to appreciate that, and the fact that, you know, the whole stay at home dad thing is not something to be ashamed of, you know, if youâre a dad and you wanna take your daughter out for the day, or you wanna take your kid out for the day on your own, well why is that frowned upon, why canât you take your child out for the day â
â I definitely wasnât.... How quick you can fall in love with a kid that youâve only just met. Like, because obviously, like, you donât, like, know it when itâs in the belly and stuff like that, but then, but when itâs out and you just, you sit there and your little lass, like thatâs a little me. Like, you just fall in love straight away. â
âI think both a mother and father combined, itâs communicating and both being on the same page of whatâs best for your child or children, and for both, itâs just being there 100% for them and not, like, putting yourself first, itâs, you know, putting the childâs interests first... Theyâre essentially a blank slate really, they look up to you, they look up to you for, like, guidance on how to, how to behave and how to, you know, like grow and develop, and if youâre not putting their interests first, it can, you know, damage their social, emotional, mental health... â
âJust the stigma, the fact that, you know, the, the judgemental looks me and my wife get when we go out with, you know, we go out with our daughter and we take the dog with us, and the judgey looks we get, you know, weâve had, you know, weâve heard comments from people and, you know, someone turned round and said, you know, âThatâs obviously daddyâs money thatâs bought that car,â or, âOh, heâs obviously only with her cause heâs got her knocked up and now heâs stuck with her and daddyâs paid for this, and daddyâs paid for that'.â
âItâs still the sense of judgement I get from other people when they find out that I have a child.⯠And they say, âoh how old is she?â.⯠I say, âoh sheâs tenâ.⯠And they say, âoh how old are you?... And yeah so I think, I think my age, that has been a significant factor in it just because it is, it is outside the norm and I do recognise that but equally, as I said before, itâs, itâs not anyoneâs business.⯠You know?, it was a choice that I made to be involved in my childâs lifeâ
âto talk about some of these topics that at times can get quite, you know, quite emotional, like it really wound me up that there was no, I went to a pub, or went to a restaurant and there was no baby changing in, I couldnât change my daughter at all. I came out of there like, you know, like shaking, I was absolutely shaking, you know, quite upset by it... If the stigma can go or something about having, you know, male toilets, if youâve got baby changing in the female toilets then youâve gotta have it in the male toilets, you know. If itâs in the disabled toilet, itâs not a problem, it isnât, you know, everyone can use them, but if itâs just in the female toilets, itâs wrong. Itâs even borderline, you know, you could say itâs discriminating against you really, if you wanna go down that whole sort of 21st Century crap. â
âI feelâŚlike privileged to be, like, a part of it. Is that the right word I was looking for? I dunno if thatâs the right word, but I feel good about being a part, and itâs good to know, like, people are actually interested in fathers or young fathers, rather than weâre being, like, kind of a minority. â
ââŚitâs just lush watching her do little things, like there, sheâs just took her dummy out of her mouth and stuff and, like, sheâs learnt to put it back in her mouth and stuff and itâs little things, when she plays with her teething toys and all, she gets, you can just see her learning stuff every day and itâs lush, itâs a privilege.â
âIâve got more confident as being a dad.⯠Like, Iâll take my daughter out by myself and that to places now, like I would never like to when I was, like, younger.⯠Just people would judge you, like look at you with your tracksuit bottoms and then your pink buggy and that, think the state of him, but now, like, I take her out on me own, I take her to the parks and that, I take her, like, soft play.⯠I took her to the football match the other week as well. âŚdads donât get any preparation for this, theyâve just gotta do it when the babyâs here and itâs difficult.⯠And then for me, when, like, when I first gotta, like, change my daughterâs nappy and that, there was way too much pressure on us, I didnât have a bloody clue what I was doing and there was somebody watching us with a notebook, like cause you know how we were both young, just to make sure that we can look after the baby and that, and itâs way too much pressure when you donât know what youâre doing â
âBig big big changes.â
âif I can help put my, you know, just help a little bit with the stigma, or try and get it made a little bit more looked upon to have baby changing in male toilets, or not having just in female toilets, just little things like that, if I can help, if I can help with that, then Iâve done my bit, you know, I canât stand here and moan about it if I havenât, if I havenât tried my bit to help.â
âI think itâs one aâ the best times that you could have in your life... Having a bairn. â
âMaybe be more, like, persistent with, like, contact with my daughter and, like, maybe have been, like, more stern with, like, my daughterâs family and been, like, to say to them, like, this situation that has been going on isnât right, like, there needs to be, like, improvements. Cause I feel like I definitely took a backseat and I didnât say anything to them for, like, quite a while, when things were, like, not going my way, and I was just kind of, like, letting it slide. On some level I wish, like, Iâd, like, stood my ground and, like, stood up for myself and my daughter and just said this isnât right, needs to be a change. But obviously, that did end up happening eventually, cause I ended up taking them to court, so there is only, like people say, there is only so much a person can take, so.â
âI hope that my child grows up knowing that both her mam and her dad love her more than anything in the world and that we donât hate each other and weâre glad that sheâs here, like in the world. Yeahâ
ââŚIâve been told several times they donât like separating a child from their mother, even social workers have told us that they donât feel comfortable separating a child from their mother, but the way it is, itâs like they were comfortable separating a child from their father when they separated me for two year, and there was no dangers, there was no police records⌠âŚa woman can do everything a man can do, but mothers, they get a lot more rights when it comes to their kids than what fathers do.⯠As I say, the courts, it makes a man feel like, I even said the other day when I rang a solicitor, I was really annoyed, to me, they look at us as Iâm a father so I mean less to me kids.⯠Thatâs the way a lot of this stuff works, they look at a father means less to his kids, a motherâs a lot more important in that sense.⯠To me, I feel like a dad.⯠Iâve never really looked at it specifically as a young dad.⯠Obviously, when youâre talking about age wise then yeah, I am a young dad, yes.⯠To me, a dadâs a dad.âŻâŻâŻâ
âI was walking down the street and she says, âWhoâs baby is that?â And I says, âItâs mine,â and then she literally eughed at us and threw them faces, âI wouldnât dare let my kid have a baby that youngâ, and all thatâ
â... all through, like, the pregnancy with the mother of my child , we hid, hid that she was, like, having a baby, because we were terrified, cause she was so young, what people were gonna say, so we, like, kind of hid it, so I think itâs gonna be like a totally different experience if I have, like, another baby with anyone or owt again, because Iâll be able to have a baby shower, Iâll be able to do these things and actually celebrate it, rather than, like, hide it as, like, something to be negative about. Cause I was young.â
âI wanna, even though Iâm not with, with my child's mother anymore, I wanna, I still, I donât wanna make her life difficult or anything like that, I wanna support both her and my child as much as I can â
âI wasnât prepared. It came out of nowhere. I knew why it happened obviously [laughs]. But no, I donât think I was prepared... Yeah. I think, I think especially for young parents, young dads, most, 99.9% of the time they are gonna be unprepared... itâs so unexpected theyâre not gonna be prepared, you know, and I think thatâs why I like this job is cause I think weâre, weâre very unique in a way to help them prepare without bombarding them with, like, so much information that theyâre just gonna, like, forget. But also be there for them if they need anything on that professional level... it could be that theyâre not emotionally stable or ready, theyâre just worried, they could be thinking about school, GCSEs, other things happening in their lives. And, and then they could be thinking well, where do I go to find this information out, what am I supposed to do? Itâs a whole panic. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think, I think emotional is a big one cause especially hearing that for the first time, I didnât know what to say. I didnât know how to act. Yeah, just didnât know how to act at all [laughs].â
âIâm not the best at saving money, but when it comes to my daughter, I know I need to have money there for her, I need to be able to sustain her.âŻâ
âJust as long as theyâre happy. Iâve always said in life as long as theyâre happy doing what theyâre doing. Itâs keeping them safe and it, thatâs all I really want really. â
âJust believe in yourself I think. Thatâs one aâ the ones I struggled with when I was younger cause I was always like, âI canât do this, I canât do thisâ. Everything was, âoh I canât do this. Oh Iâm not gonna be able to do thatâ. I think just having a bit of belief in yourself and actually engaging in stuff and that, you know, lifeâs about spending time with your children, not what you can give to them. Just as long as theyâre happy. Iâve always said in life as long as theyâre happy doing what theyâre doing. Itâs keeping them safe and it, thatâs all I really want really. â
ââŚdads get rewarded for doing the general things.⯠Say the mother takes them to school, itâs just a general thing, but a guy takes their kids to school, and they get praise for it, itâs like thatâs wrong.⯠Do you know what I mean?⯠Itâs like itâs 50/50, you both do what you can.⯠And yeah, like guys do get praised for doing more of the sort of housework thing now and, I donât know, it just doesnât seem fair to women really in general, because I mean, they still do it and they donât get any more praise or any less praise for doing what the guys do, if you know what I mean.⯠âŚthere is also a bit of a stigma around it, I mean you see some parents, like males, going to school, and a lot of women or a lot of people think they havenât got a clue, so theyâll try and sort of explain what you have to do, where you have to go, even though say youâve been doing it for ten years. â
â I think being, being present and seeing your child for who they are I think is the most important. Like, not necessarily being present, but when you are with your child at least being present and also just to, when I say see your child for who they are, I think I mean you donât, cause a lot of parents expect their child to be certain things or like, âOh, I react like this, or my spouse, or their parent reacts like this, so theyâre gonna react like it,â but actually try to see what it is that you get from, like how, who they are, which is super interesting cause theyâre a mix of everything. But like to actually see that and not, not put expectations in that..â