Daggy Dads

Today I want to pay tribute to a very special kind of dag - the daggy dad.

So what exactly is a daggy dad?

It's hard to define the exact characteristics of a daggy dad. But it's easy to recognise one when you see one. A few sure signs that clearly identify this rather special species:

• He's the one at the family gathering telling the world's worst jokes. Again. Daggy dads take special pride in repeating the same jokes over and over. And the less funny, the better
• At the school performance, the daggy dad is the one who's jumping up out of his chair, singing and dancing along and generally completely embarrassing all of his kids (and anyone else in the family lucky enough to be attending)
• Daggy dad's always make a special effort to show their kids how "hip and groovy" they are. They like to make sure they're up to date with the latest music and the latest trends in whatever is trendy. That is, as long as you can define latest as at least ten years old.

Daggy dads have been a standard of both films and television. In pretty much every family movie featuring Steve Martin, he's served as a standard model for a daggy dad. And they are a regular component of sit-coms, from the dad in Modern Family, back through shows like Everyone Loves Raymond and many, many more before.

And let's not get started on the role of daggy dad's in commercials. He's the one we're all used to seeing, constantly shown up by his wife and kids.

But despite all their shortcomings, there's a lot to be said for daggy dads. They're warm and caring. They're funny (as long as they're not trying to be). They make everyone else in the family feel so much smarter.

So I'd like to end this by saying hoorah for daggy dads. I reckon they are without a doubt the best kinds of dads. And I should know, because I'm proud to say I'm one of them!


Are you a daggy dad? Is your husband/partner a daggy dad? Are you the child of a daggy dad?

Tell me about it. Place a tweet with the details and the hashtag #daglit and I'll send you a free copy of my daggy ebook, Doodling.