Testing times: eyes, maternity leave, and hearing your own failings
Adjusting to new routines with two kids, feedback at work boosts motivation, and the chaos of taking a child for an eye test.
Trampolines, making dad friends and the allure of power tools
Kids' birthday party antics, awkward small talk with parents, and musings on honesty and communication.
The fear of women
A mishap with my daughter leads to reflections on male privilege and the importance of challenging toxic behavior.
The rituals of manhood
Navigating manhood rituals, from embarrassing stag do antics to failed attempts at masculinity.
Naming things is hard – so I surrendered mine
Navigating the challenges of naming things, from software to bands to children, while relinquishing an identity along the way.
What my teenage poetry taught me about being a modern-day man
A nostalgic journey through embarrassing teenage writing resurfaces lessons and unexpected connections.
Getting out of my comfort zone in rooms full of beards (and mums)
An unexpected night of folk music and baby sensory classes leads to introspection and stepping out of comfort zones.
Take your kid fishing, they said
Father-son bonding through fishing memories, reflecting on peace, tranquility, and shared experiences in nature.
The unbearable lightness of beards
It turns out that my beard is a barometer of my life, signaling tough times and the importance of self-care.
Pub banter, sexist movies and the joys of being a dad
Pub banter, movie misogyny, and dad joy all in one edition.
I think I'm addicted to videos of men living on narrowboats.
Matt gets hooked on watching YouTube series about men living on canal boats to escape stress and find utopian bliss.
In which your narrator gets a stomach bug
Hello. This man has been feeling, well, sorry for himself. This email is a day late, which isn't so bad in the grand scheme of newsletters. But most of my...
Welcome to the Hotel California
Inside the Facebook campus: a disillusioned experience reflecting on the allure and control of big tech companies.
Why man caves are actually hugely important
A "man cave" is a bit embarrassing, isn't it? There are various other euphemisms for these spaces where men go to escape their wives, hide from the kids,...
In pursuit of the perfect Tetris grid (and what it taught me about life)
I remember reading somewhere that playing Tetris could be used to avoid post-traumatic stress disorder. According to research, people who played a game of...
On sixteen years as a partner: how did I manage to swing this?
I celebrated sixteen years with my partner Madeleine this week, a number so mind-bogglingly large that we had to count on our fingers to ensure we'd...
Do you need to know how to drive to be a man?
When I turned 18 years old, I received a razor in the post. It was a marketing campaign by Gillette to congratulate me on "becoming a man", even though I'd...
Why riding a bike with stabilisers is fine, and a Victorian ghost for Christmas
In the "festive perineum" between Christmas and New Year, there's a lot of time to kill. Alas, I was in charge of a four year old, whose appetite for sitting...
Why that box of old cables you're keeping can go in the bin
After clinging on to multiple boxes and bags of cables, adapters and historic electronics, I've realised that there are more useful things to be preserving for future scenarios—and they don't have any wires.
Why the Bear reminded me that working in kitchens is chaotic yet fun
We tried watching The Bear at the start of this year after hearing good things, but my partner Maddy got fed up with the intensity of the kitchen scenes and...
The Invincible Man
I was getting my hair cut this week and the barber was making small talk as he negotiated my sideburns. We were talking about children and their chaotic...
How well dressed are you?
Before my son started school, he went to nursery on the campus of the University of Birmingham where my partner works. When collecting him I’d sometimes take...
Jobs for the boys
A decade or so ago, I got myself into what I believe the youth call “Twitter beef” when I called out a tech conference happening in London with an all-male...
Coming out of my cage and I've been doing NOT FINE
I’ve been flat this week. Struggling to kick a winter cold, which can always be an energy-sapper, and also going a little stir-crazy. I normally work from...
International Men's Day
It’s my tenth issue of Man Feelings, and I’m very proud of sustaining this thing for ten weeks in a row. Today is also International Men’s Day—yep, you...
Now and then
I’m a huge Beatles fan. I blame my dad: our family are from Merseyside where the Beatles are even more ubiquitous than everywhere else, and every car journey...
The woes of being a travelling man
This is technically last week’s newsletter because I was on holiday in the sunny climes of Tenerife for all of last week. I toyed with trying to write that...
Boys don't cry... but perhaps men should?
Welcome to the seventh edition of this newsletter – thanks for taking the time to read it. I should take a moment to call out a great comment on a previous...
A tale of two teachers
When I was a teenager, PE lessons at school were the bane of my existence. Never the most sporty kid, I had to line up with the rest of my nerd friends and...
There's something in the water this week
Just after I sent out last week’s newsletter, the “Dads ‘n’ Lads” WhatsApp group I’m in sparked into life. Unrelated to my newsletter, one of my close...
Being a “hands-on” dad
Walking to the train station in Manchester city centre this morning, I saw a little boy of about four years old riding a tiny bike towards me, followed by a...
The prerogative to have a little fun
So last night I went to see Shania Twain. It was my mum’s birthday and she booked the tickets months ago for her partner, my sisters and I to go to a concert...
Being a "fixer" of problems
The difficult second newsletter – thanks to all the new subscribers who are interested in hearing about, well, man feelings. Turns out there are at least a...
This is Man Feelings
I should begin by crediting my friend Annie for inspiring the creation of this newsletter. A few months ago, I was mouthing off on Twitter—quelle...