Go to many towns or cities across the world and you'll quickly find a mother and child group, but for dads with babies, toddlers and young children, there aren't always similar opportunities.
Dan Flanagan who lives in the U.K.'s West Sussex county is hoping to change that with a new father and child social group called Dad La Soul. The volunteer-run group aims to eradicate social isolation experienced by dads and give them a fun, welcoming environment where they can spend time with their kids.
"Being a dad can be quite a lonely life, but men don't like to talk about that," Dan, 44, tells HuffPost. "But once you get over those initial barriers and have conversations, these common themes keep coming up, such as 'I had to miss the parents evening or sports day because I couldn't get home from work' or 'I only get to see my son at bedtime and I don't know what to do'. When you open up those conversations, you start to realise there's a different side to blokes - we don't just want to talk about beer and the World Cup."