Ingo Wey Wants Dads to Know They’re Not Alone

On National Day, Ingo Wey and some 30 other fathers turned up at Tanglin Mall, each with their child (or children) in strollers. From there, they embarked on a 40-minute walking loop around the Botanic Gardens before settling in for a hangout at Tanglin Cookhouse. Passersby occasionally stopped to take a second look — not because of the number of them, but because they were all fathers. Mothers are still traditionally seen as the primary caregivers, so a convoy of dads pushing strollers makes for an unusual sight.

For Wey, though, there is nothing particularly unusual about it. This is what many of his Sundays now look like, and he has been organising these meet-ups almost every other week.

Wey started Dad Life Club in March as a community-based support network for fathers in Singapore. A first-time father to an eight-month-old daughter, he was looking for a way to navigate the isolation and uncertainty of early parenthood — an experience he describes as involving “quite a learning curve”.

“[There were] moments of something new, a little bit of stress and angst and a lot of confusion, but also nice moments together as a new family. You start asking, ‘Is this normal?’” Wey recounts.

It is a question familiar to any new parent, but perhaps less often voiced by fathers. Wey, who was born to Taiwanese parents and grew up in Germany and the UK, has called Singapore home for the past decade. Yet even after years here, he found it surprisingly difficult to find a community with other fathers in the same pivotal moment of life. He had seen communities like these flourish in the UK, US and Europe, and began wondering whether the same kind of social movement could take root in Singapore.

The answer, it seems, was yes — but it started small.

Wey wanted to create a space where fathers could share the realities of this particular season of life without having to over-explain themselves. He put out a Facebook post in several community groups, and six fathers showed up for the very first Stroller Sundays. Since then, the walks have grown to include as many as 40 fathers per gathering — a number Wey now caps for crowd control. The WhatsApp group that grew alongside it has also become a daily sounding board for fathers looking for tips, advice or simply reassurance, with over 1,000 members.

Watching the group grow, the stroller walks are perhaps only the most visible part of what Wey is building. The real draw seems to be the sense of recognition: the small relief of discovering that someone else is figuring it out too.

As the community grew, Wey began thinking about how it could take on different forms. He wondered, “Would people really want to come to a playroom filled with 20 dads and their kids?” There is nothing wrong with it, he says, but recognised that some fathers might still find the idea awkward or unusual. Part of what Dad Life Club is trying to do, then, is normalise exactly that, to make it feel less unusual for fathers to occupy these spaces together with their children.

In just five months, the club has expanded beyond stroller walks to include playdates and family social mixers, all built around the simple ideas of “play” and “grow”, with at least two meet-ups each month.

Perhaps that is the sweet spot Dad Life Club has stumbled upon: a way for fathers to socialise without having to leave fatherhood at the door. There is something quietly equalising about it. On weekdays, one dad might be a finance executive, another a teacher, musician or delivery driver; on Sundays, they are simply fathers trying to keep their children entertained, fed and reasonably happy — all while doing that with other like-minded people and giving their wives a break. Win-win. 

And that, to Wey, is what makes the rise of such interest-led communities like this so compelling. They are not simply about finding people who share a hobby or passion. They are about finding people who are at the same stage in life and sharing the same experiences. At the same time, the growing popularity of these groups reflects a broader shift in fatherhood itself: The new generation of dads is increasingly hands-on, visible and comfortable taking up space in the everyday rituals of childcare.

Changing a nappy, taking your child out alone or spending an afternoon in a playroom are no longer things done only by the mother. The dad is no longer just the supporting act.

Wey also sees value in the simple act of meeting face to face. “We’ve got a craving for that connection and just doing something, seeing [each other] face to face, seeing body language, connecting with that,” he says. In an age where community can just as easily exist inside a WhatsApp group, there is something reassuringly old-fashioned about showing up — and that is exactly what keeps people coming back. 

With at least 30 to 40 per cent of attendees returning for subsequent gatherings, Dad Life Club events are so successful because they are activities grounded in real life.

It is, by Wey’s own admission, quite a logistical undertaking. Fortunately, he runs his own e-commerce business with his wife, giving him some flexibility to make it work. But the effort is deliberate. For Wey, the offline component is “critical”. “Otherwise, it just becomes one of those places. You could go to Reddit and do the same thing. And it feels very anonymous.”

That balance between the digital and the physical is what makes Dad Life Club feel less like another parenting group and more like something special. The WhatsApp group is where the conversations start, but it’s meeting in person that makes it feel like a real community.

Maybe that is the evolution that has taken place in modern fatherhood: not just giving mum a break, but realising that dad needs a community of his own, too.