“We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child - It’s the courage to raise one.” President Barack Obama – Father’s Day Speech - June 2008 on his campaign trail. For Brandon Hay, the founder and Executive Director of the Toronto-based men’s support community, the Black Daddies Club (BDC), a typical day goes a little something like this… “I get up in the morning sometime around 5 a.m. to drive my wife to work, get home and check my email for 15 minutes. Get my kids in the bath, prepare breakfast and lunch ,get them dressed, drive them to school and daycare get home around 9 a.m., return emails and phone calls, at 11am I then pick up my middle son from school and bring him to daycare.” “ I head out to do any BDC related business such as meetings, speaking engagements, drafting press releases, phone calls, etc. until 3 or 4pm (depending what part of the city I have to go), I then pick up my wife, then my kids from daycare or school. I take my kids to the library then play in the park (if its summer), do homework with my oldest sons, Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays my eldest son plays football with the Scarborough Thunders from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. I make dinner, get them ready for bed and do the whole thing all over again the next day.” To the unassuming spectator, it would be hard to fathom this devoted family man was once a young … [Read more...]