Tag Archives: NUFC Family

⚽ Sunday: The Toonverse Chronicles:  001

Week 1

Why I’m Raising a Black-and-White Wizard

The first item of baby clothing I bought? A mini NUFC shirt. Not a bottle, not a onesie. A Toon top. Because for me, football isn’t just about sport—it’s about belonging.

Welcome to The Toonverse Chronicles, where passion meets parenthood, and raising a Newcastle fan becomes an emotional training montage worthy of the empire strikes back—but with more wafer thins.

🪄 The Magic of It All: 
Our bedtime stories alternate between Alan Shearer and Albus Dumbledore. We celebrate goals like spell-casting victories. Somewhere between match replays and wand battles, my little one started to get into it.

⚽ Lessons from the Gallowgate End:
– Loyalty isn’t about never losing—it’s about never walking away.
– Tradition matters—rituals like wearing black and white or doing silly half-time dances are part of family identity.
– Hope, even when we’re 2–0 down in life, makes everything worthwhile.
– Raising the little one like the Carabao Cup whilst she is giggling and I like every other Geordie is on cloud nine – Priceless.


💡 Favourite Moment: 
The day I got to put my youngest in her first proper toon top. there is nothing like it.

🏁 Full-Time Thoughts: 
It’s not just football. It’s not just parenting. It’s shared belief. And that, to me, is a kind of magic. It is going to be a magic we all feel when we start going to the lasses matches next season as the youngest is just about old enough now.

🚀 Welcome Aboard the Dadnauts Mission💂‍♂️

Hello, I’m Darren—a former Guardsman turned full-time dad, part-time blogger, full-time nerd and full-time worker!

I started Dadnauts to document a mission that never really ends: raising kids while staying true to your passions, personality, and even your inner Jedi.

This isn’t just a parenting blog. It’s a transmission from the edge of chaos and creativity—where matchdays collide with nappy changes, lightsabers turn up in the sock drawer, and bedtime feels more like a boss battle than a routine. If that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.

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🧭 Why “Dadnauts”?

I wanted a word that captured the sense of exploration that comes with fatherhood. Something that said, “you might not know what you’re doing, but you’re giving it everything you’ve got.” Like an astronaut being handed a pram and a banana-streaked toddler and sent to explore Sector 7B (otherwise known as “soft play”).

Dadnauts is about navigating the unpredictable, blending your past with your present, and finding joy in the small victories—like a warm cup of tea or a goal scored during nap time.

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🗓 What You’ll Find Here

To keep this space fun, focused and useful, I’m sharing four different blog series, there will be one post per series a week. Here’s the mission roster:

🛠 Wednesdays — Dadnaut Toolkit
From time management to snack diplomacy, these posts offer field-tested ideas to stay sane, creative, and intentional. It’s the Guardsman in me, still drawing up plans and finding structure—just now there are bottles and lots of routine changes involved.

🪄 Thursdays — Wands, Wookies & Wipeouts
Where fandom meets family life. We’ll dive into Hogwarts house parenting styles, Star Wars snack tactics, and those moments when your kid refers to you as “Darth Dadious.”

🚀 Saturdays — Mission Logs
These are honest weekly reflections from the thick of it. No sugar-coating. Just the real stuff—wins, fails, funny bits, and everything in between.

⚽ Sundays — The Toonverse Chronicles
Football means something different when you’re introducing it to your kids. Expect black-and-white pride, bedtime chants, and reflections on passing down a sense of community, belonging and belief.

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🫡 Who This Is For

If you’ve ever changed a nappy with one hand while holding a toy wand in the other—welcome aboard.

If you’ve tried to sneak in writing time after bedtime but got ambushed by your own exhaustion—you’re not alone.

And if you believe being a dad doesn’t mean giving up your interests but growing into them with your kids—you’re a fellow Dadnaut already.

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📡 What Comes Next

The first Dadnaut Toolkit post drops this Wednesday—followed by fandom chaos on Thursday, reflection on Saturday, and football & fatherhood on Sunday.

Until then, grab a cuppa, scroll through the mission logs, and maybe follow along on X @Dadnauts for sneak peeks, outtakes, and snack-fuelled side quests.

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Thanks for being here, 
Darren 
Former Guardsman, Current coordinator, full-time Dadnaut!

https://twitter.com/dadnauts?s=09