I met Dustin a few weeks ago. He's doing his masters at the University of Baltimore, so I met up with him one day to talk about the secret world of blogging for fun
It's great to meet new people through the Dad Bloggers group. I really feel like I've made nearly 400 friends in the last few months. But it's good every once in a while to meet a real person, and talk over beers about blogging, about parenting, and mostly about the way we take ourselves too seriously when it comes to both.
Dustin is--
Well, here's the way he describes himself on his About page:
Dustin Fisher is an amateur standup comedian, storyteller, freelance writer, and stay-at-home dad, all of which are just better ways of saying “unemployed.” He has worked in the area of collegiate recreation for the previous 14 years and ran a day camp for nine of them, during which he got the reputation as being “good with kids,” which basically means he has no regard for his self image and makes a good target for ridicule. He is hoping to translate this lack of self-respect into a postive parenting style.And it's funny to me, because people have always told me I'd be a great dad because I liked playing with kids, and I also never believed them, because hanging with kids is not the same as taking care of them and raising them. Turns out I'm not too bad, so my guess is that Dustin isn't half bad as well.
Dustin's blog, Daddy Needs a Nap, is a great testimony to modern life for parents. We try, we struggle, and we do fine as long as we make some jokes along the way. Dustin has moved away from stand up, and more into a little bit more serious spoken word. It's a thin line, I guess, because his recent video is still funny. It's serious and maybe less exaggerated than standup comedy, but it's still funny. Funny in a I-Think-We-All-Need-A-Hug-Now way, but still funny.