Every year, Fathers Day gives us an opportunity to stop and appreciate the state of the modern dad and his role in parenting. This year, from the nation’s parks to the TV-sitcom-fathers to the far reaches of the World Wide Web, we can easily see that father’s continue to take back paternity and become ever more empowered in the raising of their children. Some fathers embrace their role above and beyond the norm and actively lead the way for this new generation of dads. These “Super-Dads” constantly seek to improve their skills and find camaraderie and unity with other like minded fathers. Four dads from Austin, Texas have made their mark in the complex world of fatherhood and parenting with the power of online video and online community. Their parenting video network, DadLabs, has rapidly become the modern father’s go-to site for parenting tips, advice and a healthy dose of humor.

“We want to provide dads with the most honest, informative and entertaining information and support all through our guy-colored lenses,” says Clay Nichols, co-founder and co-host of DadLabs. With a blend of video, social media and fatherhood, DadLabs has built a strong parenting community that stretches from coast to coast. This community of active fathers gives us the most vivid picture of the modern American super-dad available today.

So who are these super-dads? Whether expecting, new or veteran fathers, these socially networked men play a more active and creative role in the lives of their children, than the average dad. Using demographic data retrieved via the TubeMogul online video distribution system from onsite Viddler video plays on dadlabs.com, we can unmask these super-dads and start to outline the traits of the model modern dad. The most active online fathers are expecting fathers, called “due dads” by DadLabs, and are almost thirty years old. Most of these due dads are college graduates and, live in cities like Astoria (NY), Austin (TX), New York (NY), Louisville (KY), Houston (TX), Chicago (IL), and Washington (DC).

When it comes to the health of their families, most of the super-dads are actively involved in keeping up to date with all the current issues and ways to improve their children’s health. This is particularly evident in the grocery shopping with half the DadLabs dad becoming the primary grocery shoppers for their families. Grocery shopping has been a mother exclusive domain for quite some time.

Dadlabs’ Daddy Clay says, “Working and stay-at-home dads are all becoming much more active in the lives of their children and are interested in learning what it takes to be a great dad.”

These fathers are not your typical men when it comes to media consumption. The DadLabs super-dad watched less than 15 hours a week of television compared to the average of 40 hours. When it comes to Internet usage most spend at least 10 hours a week and up to 20 hours on average. A lot of this time is spent doing research on parenting topics, and getting sports and financial information and watching videos on dadlabs.com. By far the most popular DadLabs video of all time is a very informative episode of “The Lounge" entitled, “What Makes a Great Babysitter?” In this episode,  a panel of parents talk about what they look for in a baby sitter while enjoying a cold beer. 

The websites that have sent the most traffic to dadlabs.com are mega-parenting sites like babyzone.com and babycenter.com, which offer a wealth of parenting information but lack the understanding of fathers. A site which many of the DadLabs dads visit is parenthacks.com, a collection of practical parenting tips and, of course, hacks.

 “DadLabs not only offers us a wealth of daddy-data, but stands as the most focused and unique online video resource for dads by dads,” says Paul Kontonis, CEO of For Your Imagination, executive producers of DadLabs. “They are everymen and are smart about how they approach their site, their audience and their content and we’re proud of the network’s value to fathers.”

DadLabs gears their resources and social community for a Web audience, serving up content in small, easily digestible pieces, perfect for the dads that are spending less and less time watching traditional television.  With over 250 short form online videos, DadLabs has covers the most important and frequently discussed parenting issues for fathers. DadLabs videos have been viewed over 2 million times and won the 2008 Yahoo! Video Best New Uploader Award since its relaunch in late 2007. New episodes can be seen on www.dadlabs.com as well as popular online video sites such YouTube, Viddler, Yahoo! Video and iTunes.

Update on June 17, 2008 by For Your Imagination

In honor of Father's Day, Clay Nichols of DadLabs, has written an article for the Austin-American Statesman, "Highlights of the year in fatherhood." According to Clay, "Thankfully, the statute of limitations has run out on paternal paragons David Hasselhoff and Alec Baldwin, so let us move on to better role models like Tom Cruise and Kevin Federline."