The Weird World of Wilkie

Local writer creates new and odd perspective on daddy blog format with The Undad

Edmonton Examiner

By Doug Johnson

Wednesday, November 26, 2014 1:08:48 MST PM

Night of the Living Dad, Evil Dad, the Walking Dad and Dad or Alive were all taken, so writer, journalist and father Trent Wilkie had to go with the Undad as a title for his daddy blog.

This kind of worked out for him.

“When I found the Undad, not everybody would know that it’s a play on the word dead, but also, with me, as the Undad, because I never wanted to be a father. Before I met my wife, I was pretty sure I was never going to have children,” he said, adding that, in his own way, he’s making fun of the baby industry. “I am the Undad, in my own eyes.”

“Some of the main things I want to get across, though, is how much I love my son. I’m adopted. I don’t have any blood relatives that I’ve ever met in my life. My adopted family are the best people in the world, and I love them because they are my family. But there’s an intrinsic connection between you, a person, and their offspring, and I’m experiencing that. There’s a lot of emotion for me,” he said.

For reasons of letting their child keep his online identity his own, Wilkie and his wife Elizabeth, substitute his name with Voldy, short for Voldemort, the villain of Harry Potter fame who, the books put forth, must not be named.

In a later, unsolicited text from Wilkie, he added that his wife “acts as editor and makes notes after each post. She also makes fun of (Wilkie) and mocks (his) rampant pomposity.”

Wilkie has always enjoyed writing, so when he took a parental leave from the Edmonton Examiner a few weeks back, starting a daddy blog seemed like a logical choice.

“My wife and I were talking about something to stop me from driving her crazy, and because you can’t just throw someone in a sanitarium anymore, she suggested that I start a daddy blog,” he said.

Wilkie had a vision of what this was supposed to look like: hampers, exciting walks in the park, etc., but he was pretty sure that wasn’t for him and his weird desire to swear and make fun of stuff.

His friend suggested that he could do whatever he wanted with the blog, which is what he did.

“I love my son and I’m excited to watch him grow, and I’m excited to learn as he grows,” he said.

“Plus I’ll have an outlet that will let me, I don’t know, archive the interesting things that happen and some of the ridiculous things that happen.”

He recalls, for example, being nearly trampled by “grannies,” at the mall as they realized he was carrying Valdy with him.

He later details how he felt the need to defend himself with a sword, though such implements are, thankfully, prohibited by law.

He blogged about his mall excursion in his off-kilter fashion.

“I see the world in a different way because I choose to,” he said.

For more information, visit theundad.com

*Trent’s note: To confirm, I do have a sister in Nova Scotia, who was also adopted. We are not sure if we are full or half siblings, but the Nova Scotia Adoption agency confirms that we are related. I’m not sure why I would have said why I don’t have any blood-relatives that I’ve met. I’m guessing I just had a bad case of daddy-brain, which is like mommy brain, but way stupider.