A few years ago, Bill McLeod didn't think he'd be traveling to single dad's town, much less embracing the experience.After graduating college in 1988, McLeod started his own mortgage business, which eventually became one of Colorado's fastest growing companies, married Sara in 1992, settled in Lone Tree and started a family.
"I was living the American dream," McLeod said. "I had a great business, a beautiful wife, two great kids and I had to stop and ask God, 'Why me?'"
Shortly after that, McLeod said, it all started to go in the opposite direction.
"Maybe I tested God with the question," he said.
In late 2003, things began to take a turn for the worst. It became apparent that his wife had a problem with alcohol, which would eventually escalate to a separation, a divorce and, ultimately, to her death.
Like so many fathers who find themselves on a path toward single parenthood, the experience for McLeod was naturally overwhelming.
"I first became a full-time single dad about five years ago," McLeod said. "I got onto the Internet and thought to myself, there's got to be a blue print or something to tell me what to do."
But there was nothing.
"Google came up with a lot of resources for moms, but there was nothing for dads," he said. "We have questions, too -- like how to balance work, take time for ourselves -- and there wasn't a resource to help the millions of single dads out there."
There are about 2.5 million single dads in America, and that demographic continues to grow by six percent each year, McLeod said.
"So, I asked myself how could I help dads," McLeod said. "Sure, I asked myself what makes me different from other single dads -- I've dealt with alcohol, a separation, divorce and death -- but my kids also had to deal with not only all of this, but the death of a mother, schoolwork and other activities."
Thus, McLeod set out to develop a Web site that would not only provide links to help dads find resources, but serve as a community for them.
"There comes a lot of responsibility for single dads, and a lot of them don't have a positive attitude," McLeod said. "There is a lot of sadness and depression, not necessarily about the kids, but about sharing custody, dealing with a separation or divorce and about being disconnected from the family."
As a result,
singledadstown.com was born.
"Dad's tend to internalize their problems and they also tend to believe that 80 percent of the world doesn't care about your problems, while the other 20 percent is glad you got the problems," McLeod said. "And the Web site offers a forum for dads to share their ideas, concerns, questions -- and they all do this by choosing to be anonymous. I just needed to do this. My mission became to help single dads. The Internet is supposed to be all knowledge, and this place for single dads wasn't out there."
McLeod launched
singledadstown.com about six weeks ago, and now the site receives about 2,000 hits a week, he said.
McLeod's Web site has now expanded to include a variety of topics, including financial support, dating advice, life coaching services for kids and a weekly online radio program with a series of guests relevant to everything single dad.
"Men are not wired to be mothers, but we do love our kids and want the best for them," he said.