This Brooklyn Dad is the Straight Shooter of Parenthood

Mike Julianelle, a Brooklyn dad of two, talks honestly about the highs and lows (and everything in between) of fatherhood.

By Mike Julianelle October 9, 2019

Meet Mike Julianelle, the straight shooter behind the wildly popular Dad and Buried blog. He's one of the parenting influencers we love in the New York metro area!

Julianelle is a 40-something dad living in Brooklyn with his wife and two kids. He works as a content manager/marketing writer by day and his new job allows him to occasionally work at home and snuggle his toddler down for his nap. He is also a parenting blogger and influencer by night. “You can find me bitching about my kids and whining about parenting on my blog, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. You can also listen to my new podcast. Shockingly, it’s also called Dad and Buried on Apple, Spotify, and every other podcast platform!”

Why follow Dad and Buried? There isn’t another dad out there that can make us laugh so consistently at his often negative but oh-so-true musings about raising monsters…err kids.

Instagram | @dadandburied
Blog | dadandburied.com
Facebook | @dadandburied
Twitter | @DadandBuried

What is a typical day for you?

As a working dad, I get the dregs—the agonizingly frustrating get-ready-for-school routine and then the apocalyptically infuriating bedtime routine. As a stay-at-home dad, which I was until recently, I got everything—a lot of trying to fill my kids’ afternoons with activities that are logistically stressful and incredibly boring. It was great to have the extra time with my kids but I’d be lying if I didn’t say they got a lot of screen time just so I could get a break.

How did you get involved in blogging about parenting?

A few of my friends had kids before I did, and I saw them succumbing to what I like to call “The Parenting Collective.” It was literally like watching them get sucked into a cult. Their social lives and personalities disappeared as they transformed into kid-obsessed pod people. When my wife became pregnant, I was determined not to let that happen to me, and my blog was one of the ways I tried to hang on to the sarcastic, cynical personality I’ve always had. I wanted to use that tone when writing about being a dad, partially to prove that you can still be you when you have kids, and partially because most of the parenting stuff I saw online was sentimental BS about how amazing it all is. That rang false even before I had a kid of my own, and I wanted my blog to be more realistic about the challenge of parenting. But in a funny way!

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What do you think is a parent’s hardest job?

Not sure this is a job, per se, but one of the things I find most essential to raising kids, and most challenging to maintain, is parenting with consistency. No one knows what they’re doing, and we all do it differently, but so long as the way you do it is the way you always do it, you’re probably in good shape. Kids need structure, they need to know what to expect, and if you can establish a reliable pattern—whether it’s how you discipline or the bedtime routine or setting limits on screen-time or bringing them back to their bed when they try to co-sleep in the middle of the night—it will go a long way toward making your life easier. Not that I would know. I’m terrible at it.

What is the best thing about raising kids in the New York City area?

Two things: The access and convenience of living in a huge city, and its diversity. There is literally nothing my kids can’t experience, and nothing that isn’t within our reach, from world-class museums to incredible parks and playgrounds. And my kids are exposed to every type of culture, merely by virtue of living in such a cosmopolitan city. People from every type of background live next door, sit next to them in school, shop with us at the corner bodega. I love the lack of homogeny NYC offers and I think it will serve my kids well in the future, especially when it comes to feeling empathy and compassion for others who may not look exactly like them.

Who are your favorite parents/parenting sites to follow on social media?

I don’t want to name names because I’ll forget so many, but I stay away from the fake parents who pose every picture, and I avoid inspirational accounts that have nothing but positive things to say. I follow funny, witty parents who don’t take this whole nightmarish gig seriously, who aren’t afraid to poke fun at their kids, at themselves, and at parenting as a whole. I prefer to surround myself with moms and dads—in real life and online—who speak the truth about the challenges of raising kids, especially if they’re okay with using a curse word or three to describe them. Raising kids is hard enough without the unrealistic standards so many people present on social media. Give me the real, unvarnished truth over some sanitized, art-directed family photo any day.

Did you know Julianelle writes a column for NYMP called Ask Dad and Buried? Read his advice below: