BONUS: Top 10 Gifts for New Dads (ft. Taylor Calmus, Dude Dad Video Creator and Author)

**Transcript is Auto-Generated**

00:00:00:04 - 00:00:15:17
Matthew Krekeler
Welcome to Girl Dad Nation. In this bonus episode, Taylor Calmus of Dude Dad shares his top ten gifts for new dads.

00:00:19:03 - 00:00:20:07
Matthew Krekeler
Taylor, welcome back.

00:00:20:17 - 00:00:24:14
Taylor Calmus
Hey, thanks for having me. Episode number two. We're doing it, aren't we?

00:00:25:22 - 00:00:46:08
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. So in this bonus episode, I wanted to ask you about your top ten list for gifts for new dads and just recently I picked up your new book, "A Dude's Guide to Baby Size", which we gifted to a new dad. Josh Collins is my brother in law and they just had a baby girl, which is awesome.

00:00:46:18 - 00:00:48:23
Taylor Calmus
So congrats to them.

00:00:49:18 - 00:00:51:13
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. So I hope the book was helpful to them.

00:00:52:09 - 00:01:14:04
Taylor Calmus
Yeah. That's a great way to start off because that is my gift. Number one is by my book, very convenient to be able to plug my book, but also that it is written to be a gift for dads to be. I think a lot of dads, a lot of dads to be don't necessarily know how to get involved.

00:01:14:04 - 00:01:34:10
Taylor Calmus
And this book is like is basically a way to help them embrace this experience and jump in headfirst and get off the sidelines and be a part of not only, you know, the baby when it comes, but a part of the pregnancy and just figuring out how they fit into this thing and opening up their mind to what fatherhood will be.

00:01:35:08 - 00:01:37:00
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, absolutely. I love.

00:01:37:00 - 00:01:49:17
Taylor Calmus
It. And it's funny. It's funny. It's thoughtful. It's all of the things "A Dude's Guide to Baby Size" available now. Everywhere books are sold. Also, if you don't like to read, we have an audiobook version so you can listen to me. Read it.

00:01:50:07 - 00:01:56:10
Matthew Krekeler
Oh, that's great. Yeah, I typically listen to audiobooks in the car. So, yeah, that's a great way to get the same stuff.

00:01:56:11 - 00:02:12:12
Taylor Calmus
Me too. I honestly like I don't remember the last time I actually read a book. I always do audiobooks because then you can multitask. You're driving, you know, wherever you're driving to your commute to work or whatever it is you throw on the audiobook, you learn something on the way, makes a trip a lot faster.

00:02:14:08 - 00:02:14:21
Matthew Krekeler
That's awesome.

00:02:15:19 - 00:02:44:08
Taylor Calmus
Awesome. Okay. Item number two is also going to be something that we sell, but we made it because we felt it was something that was missing and we wanted to provide it. And that is a diaper bag for men. So yeah, we had our first baby. I got my own diaper bag because I, my wife just like puts so much stuff in her diaper bag that like, it was stuff for her.

00:02:44:09 - 00:03:03:12
Taylor Calmus
Not necessarily always the baby. Like she's put in her wallet and her, you know, all the stuff that women carry, right? She's putting that in the diaper bag. So anytime I would go somewhere and I'd be like, Oh, let me grab a diaper real quick. There'd be so many things in the way. And I'm just like lugging this big, flowery diaper bag around, and I'm like, You know what?

00:03:03:22 - 00:03:26:11
Taylor Calmus
Let me get my own diaper bag. So I had I had my own diaper bag, and then we created our own called the Dude Diaper Bag, which is basically just a sweet backpack. But it also comes with a changing pad. It comes with a wet, dry bag. So you can put like if you got like a blow out, you want to throw clothes in there and keep them, you know, separated from the rest of the bag can do that.

00:03:27:20 - 00:03:47:17
Taylor Calmus
But yeah, just having your own diaper bag as the dad. Super helpful because I also just found it like my wife does things different than I do. So I don't necessarily need all of the things that she brings along. I bring the bare necessities and you know, and then I have everything I need to know exactly where it is.

00:03:48:20 - 00:03:58:13
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah. That bag is awesome as well. So jealous of that. We got diaper bags before I really knew that was the thing. Otherwise I would totally get that bag.

00:03:59:10 - 00:04:29:16
Taylor Calmus
Thank you. Okay, item number three, this one might feel a little out of left field, but I'll explain it. A flat top grill. Okay, so this is a little expensive gift. You want to be sure this is probably like a wife to husband situation. Or maybe like, you know, giving it to your kid on their first baby. But mom is going to have a lot on her plate with a new with a new baby.

00:04:29:21 - 00:04:49:00
Taylor Calmus
So Dad's going to be looking to chip in wherever he can. And a great place to chip in is mealtime. Right. And the great thing about a flat, flat top grill is you can not only like make you can pretty much make anything on there, whether it's stir fry or burgers or pancakes, you know, like you can do breakfast, you can do dairy, do lunch, anything on that.

00:04:49:00 - 00:05:01:08
Taylor Calmus
And like it also gives you outside, gets you some vitamin D, which is good for your mental health. So a flat top grill is another great item.

00:05:01:13 - 00:05:02:00
Matthew Krekeler
That's great.

00:05:02:01 - 00:05:23:06
Taylor Calmus
You expecting that? And there will be you're never going to disappoint with that gift. Next one. Simple one. New underwear. He probably needs them. He probably hasn't been thinking about it. Just get him some new underwear. Find a clever way to find out his size. Get him some new underwear.

00:05:24:03 - 00:05:24:15
Matthew Krekeler
That's good.

00:05:25:04 - 00:05:27:08
Taylor Calmus
With. Why is it that, like, wool?

00:05:29:21 - 00:05:31:09
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, well, prioritize every other.

00:05:31:09 - 00:06:07:13
Taylor Calmus
Thing, everything else over top of that. And then you'll be wearing this pair in to literally there's holes in them and you'll keep wearing them for a while till your final like, you know, what I should do is get a new pair tools. Every every dad needs tools. Just, you know, be able to fix things real quick. So, like a nice tool set that has everything he needs all one spot, super convenient just so that he can, you know, put together the crib, fix the pipes, whatever he needs to do a nice, like, tool set.

00:06:07:13 - 00:06:39:18
Taylor Calmus
And if he doesn't have one, he needs one. The has one. It may be missing pieces by now, you know. So maybe he needs a fresh set of tools. Is my favorite gift item. Okay, I've got. Yeah. Okay. Next one. Caffeine. He's going to be as a new dad. You are met with this challenge where, like, you don't have as much time as you used to.

00:06:40:02 - 00:07:06:15
Taylor Calmus
Right? Or I guess the time never changes. Which changes is the responsibility. So now you have a lot more to do and a lot less time. And ultimately, what happens is you have to cut things out of your schedule. One of the things that gets cut out a lot is some of your sleep, you know. So whatever you need to do to keep energized however you consume your caffeine and low, lot of people drink coffee so you can do like a coffee subscription or something like that.

00:07:06:23 - 00:07:10:14
Taylor Calmus
A lot of people are drinking mud now. Have you heard of this or like I haven't.

00:07:10:14 - 00:07:11:16
Matthew Krekeler
Heard of much use.

00:07:12:01 - 00:07:33:08
Taylor Calmus
Or something. Wow. I don't know. It's not like people are getting off coffee now and going into other weird like herbs and stuff. I don't know. However, he wants to drink his caffeine to help him get some caffeine. That's number six. Number seven, a baby carrier or like a baby Bjorn kind of thing. Like, like get one that, like, fits him.

00:07:33:08 - 00:07:57:23
Taylor Calmus
That's made for him. And the baby there's that is one way that, like, super helpful to just, like, free your hands up, to be able to do other things while you're also washing the baby. But also, you got to remember that that baby was in utero for nine months, just bouncing around in mom. So they're actually very comfortable with movement.

00:07:58:05 - 00:08:20:21
Taylor Calmus
Right. They'll sleep better with movement and noise. Right. Like you can, like, scream at a baby and it doesn't faze them because inside the womb is extremely noisy. So giving them a baby Bjorn, he can go out, do his thing, you know, grill on the flat griddle while he's, you know, takes a nap or takes a bath, whatever she needs to do.

00:08:21:11 - 00:08:49:19
Taylor Calmus
Multitasking baby carrier, get him a baby carrier. Help him multitask. A swaddle, swaddle pack. This is a new product that we have just come out with. It's not release yet. Depending on when this episode comes out, they should be coming soon. But we designed a swaddle that has like images of ratchet straps all over it.

00:08:50:14 - 00:08:51:05
Matthew Krekeler
Oh, cool.

00:08:51:06 - 00:08:53:10
Taylor Calmus
Yeah. And it says that's not going anywhere.

00:08:55:21 - 00:09:27:19
Taylor Calmus
It's just a lot of it's like a as a dad joke on it. But swallows are super helpful. Again, babies are used to being in utero where they have no space. They're, like, crunched together. So swallowing a baby makes them feel like they're in utero again, where they're most comfortable, because that's what's familiar to them. So getting dad a good swaddle and like teaching him how to use it if he doesn't know how is super helpful because like a good tight swaddle will help get the baby down for a nap or bed so much faster.

00:09:28:07 - 00:09:47:14
Matthew Krekeler
So that's probably the number one skill that I am so glad I learned when I first had kids and my wife is even jealous because she prefers me to do the swaddle because she's like, I just can't get it like as tight as you're able to get it. And I'm getting compliments from the nurses at the hospital and stuff like that.

00:09:47:23 - 00:09:51:20
Matthew Krekeler
But yeah, I had to practice so much, that's all. Like you said.

00:09:52:02 - 00:09:54:01
Taylor Calmus
Where did you all lay?

00:09:54:21 - 00:10:00:03
Matthew Krekeler
I didn't work at Chipotle, but I made my own burrito is like, I'll be like Chipotle. Yes.

00:10:00:11 - 00:10:21:11
Taylor Calmus
Those guys. Yeah. They're going to be good swaddle too. Yeah. Yeah. But you've got to get this. You also got to get to swallows like hours, have a little bit of spandex in them. It's like bamboo and spandex and that that little bit of stretch allows you to get it. You stretch it, tuck it in, and then it's like a rubber band around them.

00:10:22:04 - 00:10:23:17
Matthew Krekeler
Yeah, that's great.

00:10:23:17 - 00:11:03:08
Taylor Calmus
Yes. Okay, swaddle the next one is, you know, if they have an office job or they're like, you know, not always home, just get him a picture. Get him a picture of the kid of mom or whatever. Get them a nice frame photo. Nowadays, everybody has a billion photos on their phone, but people often because they have them on their phone, they forget to like go get one processed and printed out and like there, you know, so that's that's just a fun, easy, simple gift that I think is pretty generic, but also like pretty great, you know, because that's just one of those things that's really mean.

00:11:03:10 - 00:11:45:03
Taylor Calmus
Get out. They will go and get it for themselves. So just get it for them and then it'll be, they'll be happy to have it. Yeah. And then last but not least, certainly not least number ten time off, you know, like help them have time to be able to spend with the baby, you know. Yeah. So if that means like, hey, pinch pitching in moaner long form for a little while or you know, baby sitting the older kids or, you know, whatever you can do to take a few responsibilities off his plate so that he can have more one on one time with the baby is is huge because they're they're only little for a

00:11:45:03 - 00:12:08:16
Taylor Calmus
very short amount of time, you know, like they're only a baby for really like a year and a half, you know, like out of our, our youngest is like about to toddle. And once he starts toddling, he's no longer a baby, you know? But it's crazy because I'm like, whoa, oh, it's gone, you know, just like that. So, yeah.

00:12:09:20 - 00:12:14:03
Matthew Krekeler
That's a great list. Thanks. And I'll put that list in the description to you.

00:12:14:03 - 00:12:23:19
Taylor Calmus
Five, obviously been thinking about it for a while. Yeah, yeah. I definitely didn't just make make that all up in the in the last 2 minutes.

00:12:23:23 - 00:12:33:09
Matthew Krekeler
That's a great list, even things that I didn't think about before. So yeah. And something as simple to you as just like a physical picture of your kids can mean so much.

00:12:33:16 - 00:12:40:11
Taylor Calmus
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yes. It's just something you won't do yourself. But if somebody gives it to you, you're like, Oh, I'm so glad to have this. Yeah.

00:12:41:07 - 00:12:42:09
Matthew Krekeler
Taylor, thank you again.

00:12:43:04 - 00:12:55:11
Taylor Calmus
Absolutely, Matthew. Thanks for having me.

00:12:57:05 - 00:13:22:20
Matthew Krekeler
Thank you to Taylor for sharing his top ten list and being part of Girl Dad Nation. Baby showers can be seen as a woman's thing, but more men are wanting to be involved as new dads themselves or be supportive of other dads. But oftentimes it's hard to shop for a new dad, so I hope this list helps. You'll find the list in the description for quick reference and I also recommend checking out dudedad.com for more awesome dad products.

00:13:23:13 - 00:13:46:02
Matthew Krekeler
Let me know your favorite dad gifts by messaging girl dad nation on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. You can also email me at GirlDadNationPodcast@gmail.com. Thank you for listening. Please share the podcast with a friend and if you'd like to support the show, go to buymeacoffee.com/girldadnation Until next time, go be a dad.