THE DADDY SATURDAY STORY

RECLAIMING FATHERHOOD

By Justin Batt

When my wife Heather and I had our first child I had no idea that fifteen years later I would be leading an international platform on fatherhood. My wife Heather and I were married shortly after graduating from Clemson University and we started our careers in pharmaceutical sales and teaching. I quickly climbed the corporate ladder and Heather decided to leave teaching and become an entrepreneur by opening a bridal store in Charlotte, North Carolina. We named the store after our first child, our daughter Hayden Olivia and I found myself alone with our newborn daughter all day on Saturdays. Fast forward and three boys later I had continued climbing the corporate ladder and was traveling frequently during the week. I would come home on Fridays exhausted, stressed out, and wondering what to do with four young kids for 8-10 hours on a Saturday. I remember one Saturday in particular when I had an awakening moment that changed the trajectory of my role as a father. I was challenged with the question, is this time with my kids a burden or a blessing, an inconvenience or an assignment? I realized that I had been given a gift and wanted to make the most of the time I had with my kids in the home. I began planning our Saturdays with intentionality and tried to create “epic” moments with our four kids. This one act changed everything in our relationship and the time we spent together. The kids began looking forward to our days together and one Wednesday morning my middle son Mason said, “What are we doing for Daddy Saturday?” and we named it and claimed it.

Five years ago, I was asked to give a TEDx on fatherlessness and my eyes were opened to how big of an epidemic fatherlessness is in our world today. I knew I had a solution that could help other dads avoid the same mistakes that I had made and I could help fatherless kids at the same time. I wrote the book Daddy Saturday as a practical field manual for fathers and launched the Daddy Saturday Foundation with a mission to create events, experiences, education, and technology to help dads engage their kids and end fatherlessness. The organization is now international through Daddy Saturday Kenya, we work with the Pro Football Hall of Fame to put on the world’s largest Fatherhood Festival, partner with NFL players to bring the positive message of fatherhood to the masses, and partner with organizations locally to make an impact in the community. My wife Heather and I currently live in Columbia, Tennessee, on True South Farm where we raise our four kids, hold fatherless kid camps, youth events, and Daddy Saturdays almost every weekend.

If I could offer a few principles from the Daddy Saturday platform to help dads and moms engage their kids with intentionality to raise good kids who become great adults, I would share the following:

Time with your kids doesn’t have to be extravagant, extraordinary, or expensive to be epic ... it just has to be intentional. We encourage parents to use what they have around the house and in their local community to spend time engaging their children and we provide a

playbook and resources to help them do so. We are best known for our crazy videos of our epic adventures together on Saturdays like bubble wrap battles, pickup truck hot tubs, slime battles, obstacle courses, etc. This most often comes from what we can find around the house or activities in the local community.

Don’t be your kid’s hero, instead be their guide! Dads, you are your kid’s hero and always will be. You must allow your child to experience success and failure with you as their guide. When you do this it also allows other men to come into your kid’s lives as guides and open up experiences and opportunities in areas you don’t have expertise in. I know little to nothing about deep-sea fishing and my kids constantly asked to go when we lived in Charleston, South Carolina. I have a mentor who has been deep sea fishing his whole life, and he took me and the kids out for an unforgettable experience. This is something I never would have been able to give my kids on my own.

Far more is caught than taught. Do you consider yourself a consumer or a creator? As a parent, how you model everything in life will be picked up by your children, especially your use of technology. If you routinely have your head in your phone scrolling your kids will too. One of the biggest ways we can impact the next generation is to help them become creators and not just consumers. Engage their imagination and creativity by helping them produce and not simply consume. This could be starting a YouTube channel on a topic they enjoy, starting an e-commerce business, or a social group based on an area of common interest. This year we’re launching a gamified mobile app for dads and kids, a fatherhood cryptocurrency coin, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of athlete dads, metaverse and gaming training for dads, and experimenting with AI technology for fatherless kids. A big shift is coming through the metaverse and how much time kids spend online and in front of screens or on VR. It’s only going to get harder with the wave of technology coming, so start modeling the behaviors you want to see in your children now.

Do hard things and get comfortable being uncomfortable. Each day before school I walk the hill in front of our home with the kids for what we call our “Driveway Devotional”. It’s about a quarter-mile down and back and 500' of elevation gain. The top of the hill is very steep and gets your blood pumping. On Wednesdays, we carry sandbags for what we call “Heavy Day Hump Day”. Each day before school my kids do something hard and overcome an obstacle. During the day when they encounter something difficult, they can look back and say to themselves, “I climbed a hill this morning and conquered that, so I can overcome this”. On Wednesdays, they overcome something even harder, because they will experience hard things in life and it’s important to have the mental fortitude and resiliency to overcome.

Run at the pace of your people. One of the biggest challenges I’ve had is running at the pace of my people. I have a very high personal velocity and bring a lot of energy to everything I touch. This also means I can get so passionate about something I begin to lose focus on the things that matter the most. When Daddy Saturday began to take off, I had a wake-up call as I was a corporate executive in my day job, running an international non-profit, supporting my wife’s business, running Spartan obstacle course races, and most importantly raising four kids.

I decided to do a personal inventory and refocus my time and energy and pace on the things that mattered the most ... my family. I began incorporating my family into the areas of my life like exercise, where I would often go it alone. I made decisions independently and we also made decisions as a family to align our pace. We now homeschool our kids so I get the opportunity to spend so much more quality and focused time with them and it’s relieved so much pressure due to the sheer amount of proximity.

Daddy Saturday is willing and able to serve the fathers, families, and fatherless of Middle Tennessee and beyond. It would be a pleasure to support those in need and I also appreciate your support of our mission to end fatherlessness. Please visit daddysaturday.com and follow along on social media, @daddysaturday, for ideas, resources, and tools to help you raise good kids who become great adults. If you have suggestions, opportunities, or would like to give to the cause please contact me at info@daddysaturday.com

Fun for the whole family!

My big vision for impacting fathers and kids has led to the Fatherhood Festival taking place this Father’s Day: WHERE: PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME — CANTON, OHIO WHEN: JUNE 10 –11, 2023

Learn more at FatherhoodFestival.com.