New Dads United are a brand new football club who provide social 11-a-side football for new or expectant fathers in Kent. The club is unique in that it doesn’t have a team that competes in a league, instead there are monthly in house games where the dads play a match against each other, or they occasionally set up a friendly match against an external team.
As new dads, being able to commit to playing for a regular team every weekend is a thing of the past for most, so to be able to commit once a month is far more achievable without interrupting the ‘new normal’ weekend with mum and baby.
Becoming a new parent is stressful for both mums and dads. From the lack of sleep to feeding an extra mouth with reduced finances due to maternity or paternity pay. All of this can add to the general worries about whether you are doing parenthood ‘correctly’. Then for dad there is worries about mums recovery, separation issues with the baby after returning from a short paternity leave period, and losing a great deal of your previous social connections whilst trying to support your young family.
It is a highly under publicised statistic that 1 in every 10 dads suffer from post natal depression after becoming a father, a statistic that is almost equal to the amount of mums that suffer too, yet the support systems in place for men are virtually non-existent. This is why New Dads United providing physical activity through football and the opportunity to speak to like minded people going through the same experience can be of huge value to the 1 in 10 that need an avenue to talk.
Alongside this, as a dad there are all manner of potential issues that can be faced in the future from family separation and child access issues to domestic abuse, which is why New Dads United were so keen to have Dads Unlimited as their official charity partner and headline sponsor.
New Dads United is open to all dads, young and old as the club recognises that even older dads need support, but crucially they are able to provide guidance to the new dads by sharing their experiences. If you would like to get involved, you can visit the clubs website at www.newdadsunited.co.uk where you can express interest or sign up for an upcoming game.
