One local dad’s simple goal is now building a movement and pushing forward a powerful message: Real dads show up. And they don’t have to do it alone.
When Mitchell Phelps relocated to Cleveland a few years back, he found himself navigating life as a new father in a new city, without a local support system or guidance on where to seek help.
“I was kind of going through the baby blues a little bit myself,” he admitted. “My wife was doing okay, but I kept thinking, ‘I don’t feel normal.’”
During his time on Instagram one day, Phelps came across a group of fathers in Dallas who were organizing walks with their children, known as the Daddy Stroller Social Club. This discovery served as the seed for an idea to create something similar.
“I said, ‘I think that’s the community I need,’” he recalled. “So I decided to build it here.”
That’s how the Cleveland chapter of the group was born.
In the beginning, it was just Mitchell, accompanied by his daughter Mylee, and a small group he had connected with through traditional means – by initiating conversations with dads he encountered at the supermarket or the playground and extending invitations to join them for a leisurely stroll.
“I literally set a date, picked a place, and started walking up to dads and saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got this thing going on. Wanna come through?’” he said.
The group’s first outing was small, but the idea took off. Now, some events attract as many as 50 fathers and their kids.
But it’s about more than just getting steps in.
After their group walks — called “strides” — the dads gather to talk. They swap parenting advice, share mental health struggles and connect over life’s challenges. Many say the group has given them a sense of community they didn’t realize they were missing.
“One of the guys specifically, every time afterwards he’s like, ‘Man, you have no idea how much I needed this,’” Phelps shared. “Another dad told me he’d never spoken to anyone about what he was going through until he came here.”
Fathers from all walks of life show up to these meetups—pushing strollers, chasing toddlers, and offering support to one another in real time. Some talk business. Others just vent. But all of them, says Phelps, are there to show up — for each other and for their kids.
“I just wanted to make some dad friends. Plain and simple,” he said, laughing.
That simple goal is now building a movement—and pushing forward a powerful message: Real dads show up. And they don’t have to do it alone.
