#BiBs2016 Thank you! Now the hard work begins

Well this is interesting. It seems this lil’ ol’ daddy blogger has made it on to the shortlists for the 2016 Brilliance in Blogging Awards!

News of this development arrived in my twitter feed yesterday morning. A quick check of the BritMums website confirmed that I have been shortlisted in the Readers Choice category along with an awesome array of bloggers.

A look through all the categories reveals superb talent. Well done to everyone that has made it on to the shortlists.

I want to say a huge thanks to all those that voted for Dadbloguk. It means a lot to be shortlisted and I am grateful for every single vote. I’ll say it one more time for dramatic effect; thank you.

Now the hard work begins. If I am to stand any chance of winning, I need votes to ensure I get a place in the finals.

If you could bring yourself to vote for Dadbloguk one further time I’d be enormously grateful. All you need to do is fill in this form between now and Wednesday, 18 May. You’ll find my category right at the very end. Please do also take the time to vote for your other favourite bloggers along the way as there is some real talent on these shortlists. The winners will be announced at the BiB party held at this year’s #BML16 conference in June.

It only seems correct that I give you some reasons to vote for me. I’ve had a little rummage around in analytics to confirm what my most popular blog posts are. I’ve outlined four of them below, plus one vlog that’s proven to be very popular. I hope they give you reason enough to vote for me and if not, please do vote for someone else as everyone on the shortlists is worthy of it.

Are women, better parents than men?

This is a post I wrote specifically for #ThePrompt linky hosted by the Mumturnedmom blog. I didn’t appreciate what I was writing would have such staying power, but almost two years later it’s one of the main drivers of traffic to my blog! I hope you like it.

Introducing the Finnish Maternity Package

I recently had some dealings with a Finnish cultural organisation known as the Finnish Institute. Via this route, I was loaned a Finnish Maternity Package. This is a box of baby items offered to every Finnish family when a baby arrives. It comes in a large cardboard carton that is lined with a foam mattress. Yes, you guessed it, it doubles up as a cot! As a result, many Finnish children start life sleeping in a cardboard box. In this blog post and accompanying vlog, I unpack the package, item by item and explain its history. It is fascinating as the introduction of the package almost seventy years ago led to a dramatic fall in Finland’s maternal and infant mortality rates. To this day they remain some of the lowest in the world.

Fun at the dentist

One of my more humorous posts. This post details my experiences of visiting the dentist with my two daughters. It’s significant because it was the first time I took both of them at the same time. Things started going awry very quickly and by the time we left, the dentist’s surgery had been completely trashed.

Talking periods with Sanitary Owl. What’s the big deal?

As the name suggests, Sanitary Owl is a monthly subscription service for female sanitary products. In an incredibly enlightened move, the company asked me, a man, to review the service. How does a man who doesn’t have periods review liners and tampons? He throws chainsaw oil over them to check their absorbency. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the photos accompanying this blog post. I think it’s the most popular product review I have ever written.

Social isolation and the stay at home dad

This list wouldn’t be complete with a mention of my vlogging activities.

I’ve been vlogging a lot recently but one video stands out because it has been viewed so many times. It’s one I recorded about social isolation and stay at home dads. It was a video I put together very quickly while at a lose end one day. Despite this background, it keeps doing the rounds and I’ve had great feedback about it.

Thanks for your time. Here’s the link if you have been persuaded to vote for me. Best of luck to everyone on the shortlists.