Stand up and be counted, dad bloggers!

As regular readers of Diary of the Dad may recall, I had a bit of a rant last year about my feeling that dads were being overlooked by voters in the MAD Blog Awards. It inspired a lot of constructive conversation and raised some good points I hadn't thought about so, with the nomination process for the 2013 awards well underway, I thought I ought to write a follow-up piece.

I was more than a little disappointed that no dads made it into the final in their own right last time round as I felt that the parent blogging community – where dads are more than welcome and play an active part in conversations – wasn't as well represented as it could have been. 

Secondly, their absence unintentionally added support to the baffling notion society still has that fathers aren't as important as mothers. Now as self-important as this may sound, those of us who blog are in a strong position to have our voices heard – the fact that charities in particular seek out bloggers to raise awareness of their campaigns is testament to this. 

This means we have a fantastic opportunity to show people that dads are just as important as mums. We know we make great teams together, but there are endless advertising campaigns for products aimed at parents that either fail to mention men, or show them as hapless figures of fun – affectionately portrayed, maybe, but bumbling fools nonetheless.

It's up to us to represent fellow caring, hands-on dads and show people that it's not just mums who are awesome parents. One of the salient points made by a lot of people who commented last year was that us dads are perhaps a little backward in coming forward and that's why we may have gone unnoticed. We weren't being discriminated against at all, we just needed to up our game with regards networking.

With all this in mind, I'm delighted to see that Keith from Reluctant Housedad has been appointed not just as one of the judges but also as a 'dadvocate', if you will, in encouraging dads to join in and gain recognition. I'm adding my voice to Keith's and urging other dad bloggers to put themselves forward. 

As of Monday, there were 161 of us registered on the Tots100 so come on, chaps, we know you're out there. Stand up and be counted, be loud and proud and don't be abashed about declaring that you'd love to be involved – I, for one, will be hitting the campaign trail!

For my part, I'll be voting for members of both genders and I hope that others do too. Good luck to everyone taking part; the MADs are an excellent celebration of blogging and I'm going to enjoy every minute – especially if some dads make it to the final!