Welcome to Boot Camp (ft. Greg Bishop and Chuck Ault, Boot Camp for New Dads)

In this episode I welcome Greg Bishop and Chuck Ault from Boot Camp for New Dads. Greg is the founder of Boot Camp for New Dads, and Chuck jumped on board early on and has helped it grow. I was fortunate enough to attend Boot Camp before my first daughter was born and I highly recommend it for any new dad! Really enjoyed this conversation around fatherhood!

LINKS

Boot Camp for New Dads

Boot Camp for New Moms

Thank you to Greg and Chuck for sharing their stories and being part of Girl Dad Nation. Check out the links in the description to learn more about Boot Camp for New Dads (and Boot Camp for New Moms). I hope you have found people in your life to learn from and share this amazing journey with.

Thank you for journeying with me.

If you've enjoyed this podcast, please let me know by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts and sharing the show with a friend.

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There is no greater joy than being a dad!

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Girl Dad Nation is made possible by the generous support of our listeners and my wife, Executive Producer of my daughters and this podcast. 

Transcript

**Transcript Auto-Generated**

00:00:00:13 - 00:00:19:02
Matthew Krekeler
Welcome to Girl Dad Nation. In this episode, I welcome Greg Bishop and Chuck Ault from Boot Camp for New Dads. Greg is the founder of Boot Camp for New Dads, and Chuck jumped on board early and has helped it grow. I was fortunate enough to attend boot camp before my first daughter was born and I highly recommend it for any new dad.

00:00:19:15 - 00:00:25:13
Matthew Krekeler
Really enjoyed this conversation around fatherhood. Let's get to it.

00:00:27:17 - 00:00:38:00
Matthew Krekeler
Hey, guys, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here.

00:00:39:05 - 00:00:40:02
Chuck Ault
Thanks for having us.

00:00:40:08 - 00:00:40:16
Greg Bishop
Yeah.

00:00:41:17 - 00:01:05:02
Matthew Krekeler
So I'm joined with Greg and Chuck. And you both are part of boot camp for new dads. And I just love that mission. I was blessed to be able to find it right before my daughter is born. And now I have three kids. So it was great to have that boot camp before diving into parenting. But my wife and I went through the birth class.

00:01:05:08 - 00:01:30:22
Matthew Krekeler
But then there is an opportunity just for me as a new dad, to meet with other new dads and learn from them. Get to ask them any question like no question was off limits, which was great. And I had so many and really get to learn from them. And yeah. Just dove into this head first, so. Yeah. So first, Greg, you started boot camp for new dads and just tell me a little bit about that story.

00:01:30:23 - 00:01:37:01
Matthew Krekeler
When did you first become a dad and why why were you inspired to start this boot camp?

00:01:38:00 - 00:01:56:11
Greg Bishop
Right. And it's somewhat of a long story, so I'll keep it as short as I can. But I first became a dad in 1981, but prior to that, I had six brothers and six sisters. And my parents want a large singing family. And when you have that many brothers and sisters, everybody pitches in, take care of the babies.

00:01:56:21 - 00:02:18:01
Greg Bishop
And there was no no, you know, no boys versus girls kind of issues. We all did it. And and I liked it. I mean, the diapers were were a pain. We had we used pins in cloth diapers back in the old days. But but I remember liking it. And and then when my first came along, I knew what I was doing.

00:02:18:01 - 00:02:43:13
Greg Bishop
And I scored huge points with Alison, who didn't. And it's kind of nice to be good at something in life. And taking care of babies was was what I was good at. And so that was pretty cool after after three years. So my friends were asking me questions about babies and and that was, that was cool. And after four, I decided, well, you know, other guys, you know, new dads would benefit if an experienced dad showed them how to, you know, enjoy their babies.

00:02:43:13 - 00:03:03:08
Greg Bishop
Basically, that was the issue. Enjoying your babies was what I reason I started. I personally think babies are the most spectacular creation in the whole universe. Sometimes I think alien babies could be a little cute, but they're not really anything close. But anyhow, and you know, to me, every baby is is that's just spectacular. So that was kind of what happened.

00:03:03:08 - 00:03:26:20
Greg Bishop
And and then I'm a hospital consultant. And so I talked the third time as the charm. The big hospitals turned me down, but the third one actually had an opening. And I was like, they were a client of mine before they opened. And I talked him into doing boot camp as a as a marketing issue. And so when their job was education coordinator came on board, she was told that we're going to do boot camp.

00:03:27:10 - 00:03:48:05
Greg Bishop
And when I told her that we had a rule no, no women over to fill out and that to her and she she was she was gracious, gracious and wonderful enough to let me do it. Debbie Nielsen And so I recorded it. And I'm sure, you know, she and her friends had had a good laugh over some of the stuff our guys go off on.

00:03:48:05 - 00:04:07:07
Greg Bishop
But basically they, you know, she got ten dads to be together from the champions education programs and asked a couple of friends to bring their babies and help me out. And that was the first boot camp. We started off telling them some of the things, you know, some stuff we learned that we thought was important. Ask them, you know, open up for questions or whatever.

00:04:07:07 - 00:04:22:10
Greg Bishop
The first one said, I've never held a baby before we had ours. And that's really how boot camp got started. And that was our curriculum by the way, I can't believe they let me do that, but that's how it got going. And then, you know, and then I just did it as a hobby for like five years or so.

00:04:23:01 - 00:04:45:00
Greg Bishop
It was just something pretty cool. It's nice to be a guy, you know, with with limited social, redeeming value. But all the women and, you know, around the neighborhood or whatever knew I was doing boot camp so that that kind of scored me some points. That was probably a huge part of my survival from those years. But anyhow, that's how it worked and it just was kind of amazing.

00:04:45:10 - 00:04:55:04
Greg Bishop
In some ways. It still works that way. Chuck came along and made it made it work really well and but that best that's the history there.

00:04:55:04 - 00:05:26:04
Matthew Krekeler
Great. I love the humble beginnings of that story. Just a dad knowing that there's other dads who maybe over there had but just want to pass that along and then not really necessarily having a curriculum or whatever it sounds like from the start. I know it's grown sense there, but yeah, I think that's so great. And I know for myself like I never really changed the diaper before but for my own kids and was still even uncomfortable like holding babies like before my own kids.

00:05:26:11 - 00:05:46:16
Matthew Krekeler
So having the boot camp, it was like maybe even the first time that like I held another kid that was like under like 12 months old. So yeah, I think that's so great. And then, Chuck, how what's your story and your connection to boot camp? When did you come along to the whole program?

00:05:46:16 - 00:06:18:16
Chuck Ault
So while Greg is out there in California doing his thing, as he just described, I'm in Colorado working in community health at a Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, and the community health director who at the time was a young Catholic sister, came to me with this article. She'd snipped out of a newspaper somewhere, and it was a story about what Greg was doing in California and she was like, We need something like this here.

00:06:18:16 - 00:06:49:18
Chuck Ault
And then the sort of back story on that is I was expecting my second baby in 97, so I had this representation and based on my experience with my first one, I had this reputation around the hospital as being a guy who was a pretty good dad and maybe not as good of a worker as I was a dad, because I would I would frequently bring Haley with me to work and, you know, this was before that was happening in widespread ways the way it does now.

00:06:50:01 - 00:07:07:06
Chuck Ault
And so she just kind of thought I was the right person to connect with. Greg So we called him up and we said, Greg, how do you help other people do what you're doing out there in California? And he's like, Well, you just come out and watch me do it. And then you, you know, take it back home and do it yourself.

00:07:07:06 - 00:07:30:09
Chuck Ault
And that's exactly what we did. So in July of 97, I went out and met Greg for the first time. I sat in on one of his workshops, saw conversations happening between men that I'd never seen happen before. I was completely sold on it. I think afterwards we went to like a gaming arcade and drove go carts and video.

00:07:30:13 - 00:07:55:07
Chuck Ault
Yeah, that was the debrief. That was the training and up and I went back to Denver and we started offering it in September of 97. We started offering it monthly, then twice a month, then three times a month. And I think we're doing six, six times a month these days. You know, it just really, really took off. And then the good news is a lot of other hospitals saw what we were doing.

00:07:55:07 - 00:08:23:10
Chuck Ault
So other hospitals picked it up and and now you can't throw a stone and not hit a hospital that has bootcamp fatigue. That's right. So yeah. So it was to this day that's what how many years is 25 going on. 26 years ago. Like it's still is exciting, invigorating, amazing and all because of what you noted. Matthew, there's these sort of humble beginnings, you know, and that true ness to what guys really need and what they're interested in.

00:08:23:10 - 00:08:24:10
Chuck Ault
Yeah, right.

00:08:25:09 - 00:08:47:04
Greg Bishop
That's good. Yeah. I should mention a little history. Here are the name. Our name for the first year, I called it boot camp and and that was meant something different back then. I often think I should have kept that name to today. But anyhow, but we, you know, and I just wasn't I just wasn't like the women around always loved it.

00:08:47:04 - 00:09:06:14
Greg Bishop
The guys not so much. And so we talked about it in our boot camp. We're next to a marine station, to our marine base where young Marines and one young Marine, you know, said, you know, my what do you say? My, you know, my my short one is always screaming at me and reminds me of my drill instructor.

00:09:07:03 - 00:09:09:00
Greg Bishop
You ought to call her. Yeah, do that.

00:09:10:01 - 00:09:10:11
Matthew Krekeler
That's great.

00:09:10:11 - 00:09:20:20
Greg Bishop
And that's that's how, that's, that's. So we changed any boot camp for the defense at that point. But that was yeah. The my yeah, my, his, his drill instructor apparently was short and was screaming. And so that was kind of the connection there.

00:09:21:16 - 00:09:43:16
Matthew Krekeler
That's great. Yeah. I didn't know it had that farmer name, but I liked the name Boot Camp. And then I remember very distinctly, like at the end of basic training, I got a onesie all in camo for my daughter with boot camp for new dads. I am basic training and yeah, I had my daughter wear that until she quickly outgrew it.

00:09:44:10 - 00:09:47:09
Matthew Krekeler
But I love that. And yeah, I think that's so great.

00:09:48:05 - 00:10:05:06
Greg Bishop
You know, we still offer those and instead of getting in trouble these days due to the, you know, the gender stuff and everything, you know, we just had, you know, some guys ordered pink ones for their boys and some women, you know, mothers wanted the green ones for their girls. And so all that stuff seems that worked out pretty well for us.

00:10:05:06 - 00:10:07:04
Greg Bishop
But that's that's another little tidbit there.

00:10:08:23 - 00:10:18:08
Matthew Krekeler
Awesome. Well, it has been the biggest thing that you've noticed from dads after they go through boot camp confidence.

00:10:19:14 - 00:10:39:08
Greg Bishop
You know, they walk out of that workshop thinking, I can do this, and then they do and they come back as veterans. And it's, you know, just obvious. I mean, men go through a big, huge transformation as we become dads and just getting the rookies and the veterans in the same room made that very clear. And it made it clear to the rookies.

00:10:39:08 - 00:10:43:15
Greg Bishop
And they sort of sort of figure out, well, that's where I'm going to end up. That's cool and good to go.

00:10:45:05 - 00:11:02:11
Matthew Krekeler
Now, is there one thing from your experience now, your daughters are grown, but from your experience, is there one thing that you thought, why hasn't anyone told me this before you become a dad? And then now looking back on it, having that experience.

00:11:03:18 - 00:11:24:05
Greg Bishop
You know, it's a little different for me because my dad was great at babies. And that's one reason I was you know, there was just, you know, that's just what you did with all those kids. He was orphaned at age seven. And when my and so I was I was the king of the king of the hill when it came to babies in my neighborhood, that sort of thing.

00:11:24:13 - 00:11:48:21
Greg Bishop
But when my kids started growing up, I didn't have a clue. And neither had he. And so that that was a huge, you know, deal for me. You know, challenge for me is that, you know, babies are kind of easy to take care of and, you know, compared to teenagers and that sort of thing. And I just remember going to the boot camps because I was I was, you know, I did them for decades.

00:11:48:21 - 00:12:11:07
Greg Bishop
And I would, you know, meet with this group of veterans and rookies and just get personally charged up to take on the challenges I was facing. So I got, I think I got as much out of boot camp as any new dad did. It was just kind of in a different way. But that that was the big deal for me, was that, you know, I often said there should be somebody somebody should organize a boot camp, new dads of new teenagers.

00:12:11:07 - 00:12:13:15
Greg Bishop
And and and so anyhow.

00:12:14:09 - 00:12:48:13
Chuck Ault
That's so true. And and what Craig says about the sort of what's in it for the coach, the person leading boot camp is so true. And it and it pertains even as your kids get older and you know, I've had moments where I've been sitting in a boot camp class with a lot of expected dads, the brand new dads, and remembering that experience for myself just gives me that sort of grounding to be a better father of adult children, which I think to Greg's point, is a bigger challenge than the babies, for sure.

00:12:48:18 - 00:13:14:06
Chuck Ault
Like of just figuring out like what the world like how what what is your role as a parent when you can no longer tell them what to do? Right. Yeah. You, you know, you sort of take this consultant role where you're like, well, you know, if you want some thoughts, here they are. Yeah. So always nice to have that come back to that grounding in the beginnings of your experience as a dad and nothing to remind you of it.

00:13:14:06 - 00:13:19:02
Chuck Ault
Like sitting in a room full of guys about to have this happen to them. It's exciting.

00:13:20:06 - 00:13:38:18
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. And then how has the program changed over the years? I know you've formalized some stuff you've also written some books with I think is a dad adventure. But yeah, as the program and the curriculum has developed, what kinds of things have you added to the program?

00:13:40:04 - 00:13:41:18
Greg Bishop
And Chuck, you go for that. That's you.

00:13:41:19 - 00:14:01:03
Chuck Ault
Okay? Yeah. You know, it's sort of interesting because in a way, nothing's exactly been added, you know, sort of what what we've learned that cumulative knowledge of, you know, sort of all of these years of doing boot camp in a lot of different places is sort of what guides the the trick dilemma, if you want to call it that.

00:14:01:19 - 00:14:25:14
Chuck Ault
You know, we've we've, I guess, had some confirmation that there are some universal conversations that must happen. Right. And and this notion that your biggest challenge going into this really isn't the baby. It's it's the new mom. Right? Like, if you can master that piece, then a lot of other things fall into place. And the baby's kind of easy in comparison.

00:14:25:14 - 00:14:47:04
Chuck Ault
But because so much of the conversation is guided by the veteran dads to, you know, bring in their babies and volunteer to kind of tell their story, we feel like the workshop's just sort of constantly updating. Like, for instance, in 97, there was never a discussion of, you know, apps that track your baby's crying or peeing or something like that.

00:14:47:10 - 00:15:08:05
Chuck Ault
Sure. Yeah. And now there is, of course. And so one of the one of the bright spots in not having a really rigid, rigid curriculum is that we've allowed it to just kind of take shape in the community where it is. And in the time period that it exists right. Like it just really is kind of a reflection of just sort of what's going on like right now.

00:15:08:14 - 00:15:24:21
Chuck Ault
And, and that's I think that's what makes it effective. And it's also what makes it possible for so many guys to sign up for it, sit through the 3 hours because it's relevant, right. It's it's what you need to know right now. What would you add to that, Greg?

00:15:26:10 - 00:15:46:13
Greg Bishop
Well, you know, all of that and and just getting men together to do something. And that's the way we've dealt with, you know, when we played football, we got together, you know, the different sports. That's the way they do it in the military. We look up to the veterans. They tell us what they've learned, the hazing somewhat. But, you know, that's just kind of standard.

00:15:47:22 - 00:16:10:21
Greg Bishop
And and just but just that whole the way men connect it just, you know, it just reflected that. And it worked really well from that standpoint. You know, I think if we did it, the bar that might have made us a little bit better, perhaps. But it's just men getting together. Take an honest challenge together. And that was just you get a sense of camaraderie in the room, the sense of solidarity, and you just don't get that elsewhere.

00:16:11:05 - 00:16:13:00
Greg Bishop
So that would be I would add definitely of that.

00:16:14:09 - 00:16:54:00
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, I agree. You've really built an opportunity to have community among other men who are preparing for this new role. And we do that with like different opportunities, like through work. You mentioned military, other kinds of training, but really like what greater of a role than as a father and to not have someone as a mentor like we look up to all these other people and all these other aspects of our lives, but it's great that now, like preparing for that big fatherhood role, you create a space where you can have those mentors open up the conversation and it doesn't seem so scary, so foreign.

00:16:55:04 - 00:17:21:07
Matthew Krekeler
And then you're also creating the space, giving permission for dads to be vulnerable in a way that sometimes society like men, we feel like we need to have it all figured out. And so it's great to just create that space to say, hey, like, yeah, I don't know what the first thing like I need to do with my child when I bring her home or whatever, and to have that space to say like, Yeah, here's all the things like what does feeding look like?

00:17:21:07 - 00:17:46:03
Matthew Krekeler
And then the other aspect of that, as you mentioned, how am I able to better care for my wife or my partner in that relationship? Because it seems like there's a lot of resources, which is great for moms and I know to boot camp for new dads also has bootcamp for New Moms, which is awesome, but naturally I think women are more inclined to find those relationships, seek out help.

00:17:46:17 - 00:17:58:18
Matthew Krekeler
But for men to create a space where we're able to to have that community, I think is so great. So, yeah, I'm so impressed with like what you guys are doing and so glad to have been a part of it.

00:17:58:21 - 00:17:59:17
Greg Bishop
Cool. Thanks.

00:18:00:10 - 00:18:12:09
Matthew Krekeler
And then I also want to ask too, from your perspective and just resources that you've seen over the years, what are the best resources you can point new dads to?

00:18:13:13 - 00:18:37:06
Greg Bishop
And you know, just slam dunk is other dads, which we do in spades and in boot camp for new dads. And they're talking more among themselves these days, just in general, which is great. But that that's really the big issue. It's like anything else you want to learn from the guys that have been doing it. And yeah, and that's that's the that's the issue there, you know, holding babies pretty cool before yours comes along.

00:18:37:06 - 00:18:40:15
Greg Bishop
But yeah, just the other dads. That's it. That's, that's what I would say.

00:18:41:12 - 00:19:05:06
Chuck Ault
Yeah. And I think an underutilized resource and one that I think is interesting for dads to connect with is their own father, if that's a possibility. Right. I think it's really customary for mothers to tap the experience and wisdom of their own moms. And I think it's less so for dads. And I think it's interesting to have that conversation about like sort of how was this for you and what's changed?

00:19:05:06 - 00:19:40:07
Chuck Ault
And, you know, I'm always reminded of this story that happened when Haley, my firstborn, was about two and a half or three years old. And I was over at my parents house and my dad, who was just sort of definitely a dad of his generation, not not always a sensitive communicator, not able to always say what was, you know, what he wanted to I was in another room and I heard him say in a loud enough voice for me to hear to Haley, you know, your dad's doing a really good job.

00:19:41:01 - 00:20:08:00
Chuck Ault
I just had this little conversation with her about about me as a dad. And I remember being so touched by it and also thought that it was just loaded with a lot of symbolism about sort of what's inbounds and what's out of bounds and, you know, all of that. And so although we may find few the like sort of similarities between us and our dad, you know, there are there is some common ground there.

00:20:08:00 - 00:20:23:11
Chuck Ault
And if all you take away from it is, wow, I have a lot more opportunities to sort of engage with my kids than he ever did or, you know, whatever it is, I think it's a conversation worth having. So I feel like it's an underutilized resource. And, you know, your dad will be have asked.

00:20:24:10 - 00:20:48:23
Greg Bishop
It's a it's a tough situation in the sense that when I became a father, my generation, we we tripled our time with our kids compared to moms. An interesting little factoid is that the dads have reached the level the moms had reached in term in 1972 terms time of their kids. But since since then, about 2010 mothers have doubled in that same time period.

00:20:48:23 - 00:21:05:18
Greg Bishop
Mother's doubled there. So we're still way behind the curve as far as moms are concerned. But I think that connecting with their own dads is a huge issue. And and the problem is most most fathers have the you know, just get the message that, well, things have changed so much that we really don't have much to offer our sons.

00:21:05:23 - 00:21:26:03
Greg Bishop
The fact is, we tripled our time with art. So that's really changed. But we still hear the same same sort of thing. And I think that it'd just be cool if guys understood that more and reached out to their own fathers. And when they come to meet the baby for the first time, sort of take him aside and in a room and just kind of hand him the baby, just, you know, man to man alone, dad to dads sort of thing.

00:21:26:03 - 00:21:39:19
Greg Bishop
And I think that, you know, as we become fathers, we really could use some allies. And and having you know, our fathers and our fathers alone, that sort of thing could be really cool if we reach out to them so that I would just mention them.

00:21:41:02 - 00:22:14:22
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, I agree. And I think it's a proud moment too. Like when I brought my daughter and to meet my parents and then my in-laws to like have my dad in the room, like seeing me as a dad now. And it's like, like it's just such a special moment to be able to share that with him. Yeah. And yeah, just to think about like all the ways that, like, I'm so grateful for him growing up and now like all the ways that I was raised and everything and all of those great things that I now want to pass on to my own kids.

00:22:15:08 - 00:22:38:04
Matthew Krekeler
And yeah, that especially hearing it like, Yeah, I'm so proud of you or you're a good dad or like or all those things the way that they want to be involved in your kids lives. Like it's yeah, it's really great if you have that opportunity. I know not everyone has has that same relationship, but yeah, it's really great if you're able to appreciate that for sure.

00:22:38:04 - 00:22:42:04
Chuck Ault
And that probably wasn't the resource answer you were looking for. Matthew But you.

00:22:42:04 - 00:23:02:21
Matthew Krekeler
Know, that's great. That's great. Yeah. Well, I created this podcast too, as a way of sharing things that I've done or from guests, like things that they are doing currently. So I have a whole episode talking about how my wife and I do cloth diapers with our kids and like, here's just the practical. Like everything that we did for that.

00:23:02:21 - 00:23:27:07
Matthew Krekeler
And then I hope to do another episode coming up soon on like technology for dads talking about the apps that we use, like here's the specific apps that track feeding and diaper changes and all that kind of stuff. And then how to use like Google Assistant to like better manage your schedule in your life. So my wife and I are definitely trying to to use the modern technology as much as we can to help us out.

00:23:28:01 - 00:23:31:14
Matthew Krekeler
And I know that that's changed a lot since you had young kids.

00:23:32:23 - 00:23:33:10
Chuck Ault
For sure.

00:23:34:05 - 00:23:45:15
Matthew Krekeler
But yeah, both of you have daughters. So I wanted to ask. Yeah, as a dad, two daughters. What's the best lesson you have learned from your daughters?

00:23:45:15 - 00:24:05:01
Greg Bishop
For me, they're just smarter. They're more intuitive, you know? They're just they're different. And and so I would say that would be, you know, a major one that you just have to think more. And you can you can talk more to them, too. They're just used to, you know, be capable of doing that and that sort of thing.

00:24:05:01 - 00:24:25:08
Greg Bishop
But I think that that would be the huge one for me and kind of realizing that was really, you know, was kind of fundamental. You know, I could ask them questions and even advice at young ages that I would have never asked my sons for. And and I get great answers. And so that's what I throw out.

00:24:26:16 - 00:24:57:05
Chuck Ault
Yeah. Mine minus along the same lines as, you know, I learned to be a better communicator because they needed that. Right. And, you know, I only have two daughters. I didn't have sons, so I don't know what that would have been like. But that talking to friends and people who have boys, Greg's right there. They are different. I feel like I learned so much from my daughters about all of these complexities that I knew existed around women.

00:24:57:05 - 00:25:24:02
Chuck Ault
And I kind of saw it from its origins. I was like, Okay, there's a reason women are so complex. They're just different, right? They're different. Like, they're they are they're more they're more intuitive. They're more sensitive to mature more quickly. They, you know, just all these things. And as I learned that I felt so grateful to have daughters, I was like, gosh, in some ways this is like kind of easy because I'm having like this really cerebral conversation with this eight year old.

00:25:24:10 - 00:25:38:20
Chuck Ault
And, you know, my friend who has an eight year old son is like just trying to get him to stop running. I was like, this works for me. It's cool and daunting. It feels like a lot of responsibility. Wow, that's a.

00:25:41:09 - 00:25:48:07
Matthew Krekeler
And then for each of you, do you have a favorite memory or funny story that you remember from raising kids?

00:25:49:12 - 00:26:13:07
Greg Bishop
And I have lots of favorite memories, especially, you know, growing up the younger because I took them camping and fishing and, you know, all kinds of stuff. I just, you know, fact, I used to be able to say, I don't think I'm allowed to say this anymore. But one of the cool things about becoming a dad is you get to raise your your girls like boys and so you can do stuff with them and that was like my wife, you know, her father, one of the boys didn't have one.

00:26:13:07 - 00:26:29:21
Greg Bishop
And she became, you know, she she cleaned his fish when he came back from fishing and just a lot of stuff. And that's that's, you know, that sort of thing. But I think that but then but then they, you know, when they went to kindergarten, boom, all of a sudden they come home dress pink and they want to do all that really stuff.

00:26:30:05 - 00:26:46:13
Greg Bishop
And I was I was really at a loss, you know, I used to build stuff with them and this sort of thing. It was just, you know, kind of changed. And so, you know, I got them into softball and I had never played or anything like that myself. But it was that was a you just a spectacular experience.

00:26:46:16 - 00:27:06:01
Greg Bishop
My one daughter, you know, she always had that batting glove in her pocket, never, ever remember to pull it out and such. I taught her how to hit. She was really fast and every time she was, you know, she was on the field. She was always in left field. And I would stand out, set aside the fence and try to, you know, kind of help her whether to move up or move back.

00:27:06:04 - 00:27:33:07
Greg Bishop
She never did catch a fly ball in her whole career, but it just made her tough. You know, where you know, she talks to me about getting hit by the bars and so on. And that alone is is kind of cool. But yeah, it give them into something after, after they meet all the other girls. I imagine that's changed somewhat these days, but just the other girls have such an influence and it doesn't, it doesn't really, you know, target dad so much or you know, include that so much.

00:27:33:07 - 00:27:37:06
Greg Bishop
But anyhow, yeah.

00:27:37:06 - 00:27:59:11
Chuck Ault
I'll fall back on my sort of the standard funny story for this because it's one of the just stands out for me. You know as Haley was becoming a teenager, so she's like 13 years old, we started to find ourselves in a real different place in terms of our relationship, like a lot of friction, a lot of just these sort of weird arguments that would pop out of nowhere.

00:28:00:07 - 00:28:37:06
Chuck Ault
So I had picked up this book and it was about dad daughter communication and I was reading it and Haley saw me reading and she's like, What you read? And I'm like, Oh, it's this dad daughter book. And she's like, Why? And I'm like, Well, with the hope that, you know, I could learn some stuff and be, you know, better communicator and you fast forward a couple of days some things had flared up she's mad about something and she did her standard like run up the stairs to go slam her door to her room, which was how she always punctuated the end of the argument.

00:28:37:14 - 00:28:47:07
Chuck Ault
And before she slammed her door, she said, You know that book you're reading, it's not working. Slap.

00:28:47:07 - 00:28:49:10
Matthew Krekeler
Wow, that's quite the review.

00:28:49:21 - 00:28:53:07
Chuck Ault
Oh, yeah, right.

00:28:53:07 - 00:29:28:17
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. One star, Amazon one star. It's that's always okay. So we're always out of time. But yeah, before I get to my last question, what would you tell dads like dads to be? Yeah, maybe they've never heard about boot camp. Maybe they're hearing about it for the first time right now. But what would you tell them that could either be about boot camp or just in general this great experience that they're going to go on over the next, you know, the rest of their life raising kids, but especially as their kids are young.

00:29:29:08 - 00:29:31:08
Matthew Krekeler
What would you tell those soon to be dads?

00:29:33:02 - 00:29:35:23
Greg Bishop
That's a tough one, Chuck. You take a shot at that. I'm thinking here.

00:29:36:03 - 00:30:03:22
Chuck Ault
Okay, you think about it. I'll take a shot. I think what I would tell a new dad and this has a little bit to do with boot camp and a little bit not is that, you know, more than likely you're going to wing it right? Like it's in your nature to wing it if you want just a little bit of context and background so that you can wing it well, spend the 3 hours and it's only 3 hours in a boot camp for any dads workshop.

00:30:04:08 - 00:30:16:13
Chuck Ault
And you will have everything you need to do to go out there and wing it to the best of your ability. You know, we're not going to tell you how to do this, but we're going to give you some pointers that that make the winging it a little less painful.

00:30:17:19 - 00:30:20:04
Matthew Krekeler
I love it. That's a great promo for boot camp.

00:30:20:19 - 00:30:42:12
Greg Bishop
Well, and and I would just add a little bit to that and that, you know, they don't know that they're going to transform into dad. They're going to be better men. They're going to be on a whole range of issues. They're just better people. And and so just kind of pointing out, you know, Exhibit A in a boot camp is you rookies, you know, look around Exhibit B are the veterans.

00:30:42:19 - 00:30:59:08
Greg Bishop
And that's where you're going to end up. And I think that that's a that's sort of a key message. I think that we do in boot camp is kind of, you know, let them know they're going to be just great. They just get involved. They charge it. They go after it like a man with anything else. And it's all going to be good.

00:30:59:08 - 00:31:21:05
Matthew Krekeler
I love it. Thanks. And then my final question and I ask all my guests this, but think about your daughters right now. And if they were to listen to this episode in the future, think about them and you can address this specifically to each of them. What is one thing you would like to share with them? What is one thing you would tell them?

00:31:22:20 - 00:31:43:05
Greg Bishop
For me, it's absolutely how proud I am of them. You know, I think I raised them to be tough, not because of feminism, anything like that. It just kind of the natural thing. And and they have been tough and they've taken on challenges in such. And I just want them to know how spectacularly proud I am of them.

00:31:44:13 - 00:32:12:12
Chuck Ault
I think my message would be similar. I think I would say to both Haley and Madison, you know, the pride, my cup runneth over, right? I mean, I am just so amazingly proud of these, you know, wonderful adults that they've become. And occasionally I see a little glimmer of something that I feel like I gave them. And I'm like, Yeah, I think I did that.

00:32:13:21 - 00:32:29:06
Chuck Ault
And, you know, they're just they're amazing. And there are fewer and fewer opportunities as they are adults to say that in a way that doesn't just sound completely sappy and that would be the message I hope they would hear from me.

00:32:30:14 - 00:32:42:21
Matthew Krekeler
Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Both of you.

00:32:42:22 - 00:33:02:05
Matthew Krekeler
Thank you to Greg and Chuck for sharing their stories and being part of Girl Dad Nation. Check out the links to the description to learn more about Boot Camp for New Dads and Boot Camp for New Moms. I hope you have found people in your life to learn from and share this amazing journey with. Thank you for joining with me.

00:33:02:16 - 00:33:19:11
Matthew Krekeler
If you've enjoyed this podcast, please let me know by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts and sharing the show with the friend. Girl Dad Nation is on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. You can also email me at girldadnationpodcast@gmail.com. There is no greater joy than being a dad.