Dads get 'creche course' in parenting

27 July 2011

Nine men are being sent on a crash course in parenting for a new Channel 4 series, Daddy Daycare.

The dads and dads-to-be will be working in three busy nurseries, volunteered by their wives and partners, many of them frustrated that their men are not pulling their weight looking after the kids.

In the three-part series (starts August 21st), made by Love Productions, the men - who've hardly changed a nappy between them - will be thrown in at the deep end. For the first time in their lives, they'll tackle every aspect of childcare under the watchful eyes of the nursery staff.

From feeding to nappy changing, and from naptime to playtime, each programme will follow three men as they try to cope with looking after dozens of kids in a busy nursery. Can looking after other people's children teach these men how to care for their own and support their partners more?

All of the men have little or no experience of childcare: some of them think it's easy or women's work, others feel they are too busy with their jobs to help, and many just aren't interested in getting involved.  Most are already dads, but some are facing - and dreading - fatherhood for the first time.

Over the course of a week, these men will learn a range of new skills by getting properly stuck in, to hopefully boost their confidence and interest in dealing with the kids in their lives.

Women do more than twice the amount of childcare in the home than men and nearly half of all mothers feel that their partners don't do their fair share. Meanwhile, only 2% of childcare workers are men. As a result, many kids are growing up without close, loving relationships with their fathers or positive male role models.

The dads (and dads-to-be) all have their very own reasons for not being more hands-on:

Garry is a self-confessed workaholic who runs an opticians and rarely spends times with his three kids. His wife doesn't think he has the patience or concentration to look after kids, but Garry wants to prove her wrong.

Father-of-three Paul has never changed a nappy, thinks childcare is women's work and wants to prove it.  But how will he cope with changing not one but dozens of nappies all day long? And will he learn to appreciate what his wife, Sally, does at home?

Grant gets wound up by his four daughters and worries he doesn't have the patience to play with them.  Can Daddy Daycare help him to turn over a new leaf?

Rich and his partner, Ian, want to start a family, but Rich has never looked after children before and Ian worries his dreams of a Von Trapp family might be unrealistic.

21-year-old Kadmiel has just become the father of triplets, but he's scared of the responsibility.

Motivational speaker PJ's finding it hard to adapt to having a baby around and offers to pay his partner, Michelle, to get up in the night when it's his turn to feed.  Can Daddy Daycare help him change?

Daddy Daycare is being made with the advice and support of major child childcare organisations, including the NSPCC and the Preschool Learning Alliance, and all of the men have undergone the same rigorous vetting procedure as any other nursery worker.

Channel 4 Factual Entertainment Commissioning Editor, Dominique Walker, said: "Men just don't do as much childcare as women - either inside or outside the home.  This series is a fantastic opportunity to address that; we follow these men as they are, literally, thrown into the deep end, but I also hope to open up a broader debate about why we are in this situation and what can be done about it. The fact that only 2% of childcare workers are men - and one in four primary schools have no male teachers - is incredible."

Daddy Daycare starts on Channel 4 on August 21st.