Editor’s Note: Last year’s Halloween celebration was cancelled due to the unfortunate events of Storm Sandy. It’s one of our favorite dads group events of the year and it was our intention to make a major comeback at this years’s 5th annual Halloween bash. We delivered! Thanks to NYC Dads Group member, Oskars E., for sharing his thoughts about the experience and special thanks to Tommee Tippee for sponsoring the event – L.S.
As we were about to the leave the house for NYC Dads Group’s Halloween Celebration generously sponsored by Tommee Tippee, my lovely 6 month old daughter Ela, dressed up as a “Tulip” gave me a ‘scary’ surprise – a poop. The pungent smell indicated that we had serous business on our hands that caused us to fully change her clothes (luckily the Tulip costume didn’t get spoiled).
So, like most parents rushing to get from place to place, we arrived late. Upon entering the wonderful and spacious playspace, I was pleasantly surprised to see so many dads with their kids running, playing, jumping, hiding, screaming and all other types of engaging stuff kids do!
I was a little bit worried that we wouldn’t be able to meet other fathers with infants, but I was happy to see a couple of young babies the approximate age of our daughter. This was my first indoor gathering with NYC Dads Group. I felt a very warm welcome from all of the active dads (I guess we are all in the same boat so everyone understands each other). I truly enjoyed seeing all of the children dressed in amazing costumes – the adorable girl dressed as a shark, the little teddy bear, Yoda from Star Wars, superheroes, a skeleton, a beautiful black cat, a lion, astronauts, a scary pumpkin, etc… so many kids that I couldn’t follow all of them as they were moving around the room like rockets… unstoppable!
The dads were much more relaxed…most likely due to the reason that their kids could not escape the room with only one door so we were able to start and finish the conversation without chasing after the little ones. I placed myself on a softly padded play carpet and had a nice chat with Martin from England who’s gorgeous daughter was dressed as a scary pumpkin. I enjoyed our conversation and finding out that we had a lot in common – we were both born in a foreign country, both of our daughters are a mixture of different nationalities, we’re both home-sitting fathers, The camaraderie among all of the dads was so refreshing.
The dads and their children enjoyed pizza, cupcakes, snacks, and everyone had a really good time. My daughter went to the bathroom again at the party – not a blowout this time – but, it was great to have the bathrooms equipped with a place to change my daughter and the Tommee Tippee diaper disposal systems so it didn’t smell. At the end of the party, we were all given some generous parting gift bags from the sponsor including one of their diaper disposal systems. I’d like to express gratitude to the organizers, Lance and Matt, for starting up such an amazing meet-up group of dads and organizing events where you can join a bunch of men talking about their experiences of being a father. I’m so glad I’ve found a place where I feel like I belong! Special thanks to Tommee Tippee for the food and all of the parting gifts.
Leave a Reply