Made redundant from a plush job before the birth of son William found Colin stranded and alone in no man's land. This was the start of his journey as The Associate Woman - getting him to participate in kindermusic, gymbaroo, the feared morning tea with other mums, and of course trying to find the right playgroup for both him and his young son.
Being the token Asian, and also many times the only Dad created loads of material for his first parenting blog DAD Blog This, and ultimately the creation of the SuperParents blog.
SuperParents was the idea to create a community amongst parents, to help each other in their role to take care of young children and aging adult dependents. As it grew, the SuperParents network was positively received by other parents and benefited from the amazing support from blogging buddies at the Digital Parents Online Community.
Colin, SuperParents and Associate Woman have been featured:
- Bron's Best Blogs - Dad Edition at The Modern Family
- Greatest Aussie Dad Bloggers by Reservoir Dad
- What style of parent are you? Article in Body & Soul
- In the Weekend West April 16-17 p58 on Tiger Parenting
- Photo Bombing 101 with Sawhole
- Aussie Mummy Bloggers Blogger of the Week Dec 26 2010
- Wild About Your Blog Award from Living Montessori Now
- UK MP Derek Wyatt Lists SuperParetns in the Guide to Child Online Safety Organisations
Colin, SuperParents and The Associate Woman have guest posts featured at:
- SEO: Getting Yourself on First Page at Mummy Bloggers Blog
- Inspirational: Three Lessons to Help You Go For It at Motivating Mum
- Story: FunDad Interview of 'House Husband' at Be a Fun Mum
- Story: 2 Minutes With at Tina Gray
- Parenting: Thoughts on Choosing a Sports Program for Your Child at Adventures with Kids
- Parenting: Human Children Raised Like Dogs at A Dose of Dannie
- Parenting: The Best Managers Make the Best Stay-at-Home Dads at Anne Egros
- Education: Let Your Child Take His Turn at Preschool Professional
- Entertainment: It's the SuperParents Cooking Show at Tina Gray
- Health: Get Over Yourself and Get Into a Healthy Routine for Diminishing Lucy
- Safety: Kids Safety Using Knives at Be a Fun Mum
Unfortunately the SuperParents blog was hit repeatedly by Trojan viruses in 2011 (see Share the Love), and the painful decision had to be made to stop using that blogging software and go with a more basic but robust software. The Associate Woman was thus conceived to not only replace SuperParents but to be a unique advocate of the woman's role (or truthfully the primary caregiver's role) in raising children.
SuperParents and The Associate Woman both draw from Colin's past experiences. Colin is business-trained and has worked with a wide variety of E-commerce and IT companies since the mid 90s. He has also a huge amount of experience as a high level athlete and coach in both Archery and martial arts. As most bloggers know, in the last 10 years, Colin has been a proud house husband, and has been active in two Montessori institutions in Western Australia.
Catch more background information in Black and Proud.
