Grateful Dad #13.24: Life Lately
Hello! How have you been? It’s been quite a while since I last wrote a Grateful Dad post and that’s because I’ve been extremely busy with work. As much as I want to write more on this blog, my traffic hasn’t recovered yet, which means that my income from blogging is still dismal. Being a dad, I always prioritize projects and activities that put food on my family’s table. With that, blogging has been relegated once more as a hobby. I still wish though that I can recover some blog traffic, but I currently don’t have the time to explore other channels (like social media and newsletters).
Grateful Dad #13.24: Life Lately
Anyway, I would generally say that life’s been good lately. It’s not perfect but I try to focus my attention on the positive aspects of my life. That being said, here are some life updates that I’d like to share:
Career
I recently celebrated my second work anniversary. I initially didn’t expect that I would last long but thanks to supportive colleagues, a purpose-driven role, and a generous company, I’ve reached this far, and even got a promotion early this year. I’m just thankful that at this age, I finally found a career that I’m genuinely happy with.
Brand collaborations
This is one area that I’m struggling with. Only a few projects come my way, in fact, there are more rejections than realized projects. Even my old brand collabs have not included me in their recent campaigns. I know that it’s the brand’s prerogative to choose the bloggers and creators that they want to work with, but I do hope that those would still prioritize the ones that helped them in the past. A case in point is a cake brand for the recent Father’s Day campaign; they sent me an invitation with a deadline to confirm.
Since I like the brand, I confirmed within minutes of receiving the invitation, only to be told that they’d already filled up the slots and finalized the roster of creators. I still said thanks and told them that, hey, I genuinely like your products, so I wrote about your brand before.
While it was acknowledged, I felt that the brand should’ve gone out of its way to still send me something, even just a small token because that’s what good manners dictate. I can afford their products and I really don’t expect anything in return from brands that I write about. However, since they had an ongoing campaign anyway, I still wished that they prioritized me on their list. Just the same, I tried my best to move on from that event, keeping in mind the adage that if nobody told you, don’t ask…if you were not invited, don’t go.
In the end, when things don’t go my way, I try to go back to my purpose why I blog in the first place and this is to inform and help people with the information I put out.
Celebrating Father’s Day in San Antonio
Speaking of Father’s Day, this year’s celebration fell on a long weekend, so we took the opportunity to go to my parents’ home in Nueva Ecija. We haven’t been home for more than two months so my kids were excited to see their lolo and lola. Rafa loves riding his lolo’s tricycle on the way to the toy store, and this has already become our routine each time we go home.
As for me, it was a much-needed break from the stress brought on by recent events.
Back to family travel blogging?
In April, we went to La Union, our first major out-of-town trip this year. It was a great trip, filled with new experiences. The kids loved the beach, of course, but it was just sad that it was jellyfish season so we couldn’t go to the deeper portion of the beach.
Also, family travel blogging is my first love and I’m happy to write again about our family trip after a long time.
Being a daddy blogger in the Philippines
Involved fatherhood and special needs parenting are two topics that are a close second to family travel blogging. I just love that I can weave both topics together when I write in this blog.
Also, a recent realization is that daddy bloggers in the Philippines are just a handful. We are not yet a force in the local parenting niche, unlike mommy bloggers. During a recent restaurant collaboration, we were told that their restaurant was filled to the brim with mommy bloggers but for Father’s Day, there were just the six of us daddy bloggers that the restaurant was able to gather (we came to the restaurant on different days though).
Anyway, I’d like to give a shout-out to my fellow dad bloggers, content creators, and influencers:
Papa Jomsi: @papajomsi - Fatherhood / Blogger
Daddy Clavy: @revalcatamacir - Family Influencer
Daddy Ivan: @dadonthemove.ph - Blogger / Travel / Family
Daddy Dreus: @dreuscosio – Fatherhood / Marriage / Motivational Speaker
Daddy Navin: @overmydadbodyph - Fatherhood / Parenting
Daddy Ji: @jiteamuyph - Food / Travel / Parenting
Daddy Alvin: @daddydoodle.doo - Blogger / Parenting
Marc Mascardo: @thelamonking - Food
Daddy Je: @daddyje_ - Family / Parenting / Influencer
Bryce Larrossa: @brycelarrosa - Parenting / Vlogging / Influencer
Daddy Chitz: @daddychitz - Influencer
Daddy Jayson: @daddyjayson0201 - Influencer
Daddy Roghel: @deardadsph - Parenting / Influencer
Daddy Oscar: @heydadioscar – Influencer
By the way, many thanks to Papa Jomsi, I grabbed this list from his blog. I just hope that more and more dads will also share their experiences and parenting life hacks.
To wrap things up, those are the things that happened to me lately. There are good days and there are bad days, what’s important is that we remain grateful for the blessings that we receive.
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