Dads, where are you?: A Father’s Day campaign in Spain

This blog was created by Joaquim Montaner Villalonga, Papas Blogueros.

In the lead up to Father’s Day, March 19, 2021, in Spain, the collective Papas Bloguereos launched the ¿Dónde están los padres? (“Dads, where are you?” in English) campaign to collect and publish personal testimonials representing different perspectives (social, academic, professional) during the month of March.

“Dads, were are you?” is a question we hear quite often in our culture. It is a silent question that we can read from many women’s eyes. It is a silent murmur that damages our ears. It is a screaming lament. It is a thunderous question. It is a question that even kids keep repeating to themselves.

While preparing our campaign, we wanted to find some answers to these questions: Are Dads present in kids’ healthcare? Are Dads participating in their kids’ sexual education? Are Dads sharing the mental burden of house-keeping? Are Dads using all the work-life balance measures that are available for them? Are Dads there during mourning processes? And during crisis situations? And what role do Dads play during break ups and divorces?

Our collective is very interested and concerned about this topic, as it generates some confusion and contradiction. We decided to share our concerns, and bring together different perspectives on fatherhood from a variety of women and men within and outside of our community.

The goals for the campaign #dóndeestánlospadres were to:

• Raise visibility around the daily work that some Dads are currently doing in caring for their kids
• Publish testimonials from caring dads
• Share posts about active fatherhood

Visit papasblogueros.com and @papasblogueros on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to see the campaign content and join the conversation. Collected testimonials are available here.

Thank you to all the participants who shared their vision and experience to make “Dads, where are you?” a very successful campaign. Your participation, your ideas, your insights, and your energy made managing a campaign like this worth it this year – just like last year.

And it’s been a pleasure; In fact, it’s been one of the activities that we most enjoyed.