DAN Flanagan has decided it is time for stand up for dads and is organising raves for families to party before bedtime.

The Worthing father-of-one is fed up with the media often portraying dads as what he calls 'hapless' and is launching a PR agency aimed at promoting the more modern father who helps more with parenting.

The 42-year-old said: "There are more than six million dads with dependent children in the UK. Yet the majority of brands still treat us like we are buffoons – making lame jokes suggesting we can’t dance or change a nappy.

"Gone are the days when dads barely interacted with their children until they reached adulthood when the only emotion they showed was a complete meltdown on the motorway after the exhaust dropped off the car an hour into the family holiday.

"When dads looked after their kids alone they were said to be ‘babysitting’.

"The aim is simple; we want to change this."

The new Don’t Believe the Hype agency is a collaboration between a group of dads and will create multi-media, viral campaigns that show that dads care, take an active interest in their children and want to enjoy themselves while they do it.

With this in mind, Dan has just launched his own ‘Dadifesto’ to states the agency’s aim to challenge outdated media preconceptions.

He said: "Fathers today are hands-on, can change nappies, dress well, love good music and they definitely can dance. Yet companies get it wrong all the time.

"Dads no longer conform to 1970s sitcom stereotypes."

The brand will encompass an online magazine, promising writing about "fatherhood, funk and foolishness" and an events company which has already launched a successful series of family-friendly raves under the name TotRockinBeats.

After spending the last 12 months helping to put on gigs with Atom Promotions Dan decided there was a need to have events that catered for parents - that did not involve watching to Peppa Pig or having to beg the babysitter for an evening out.

He said:"My idea was to help bring families together on the dancefloor but have the music catering strictly for the grown-ups.

"I have a four-year-old son, Nat, he loves to dance, he also loves to paint, create and run riot on soft-play equipment, as most kids do.

"I wanted to make sure that he is utterly occupied. If he is happy, it means I can listen to the tunes and dance to the music I want - and we are all back home, tucked up in bed at 8pm. That way everyone is happy."

The next TotRockinBeats event is booked for a Halloween special on October 29 at the St Paul's Art Centre in Worthing between 4pm and 7pm with tickets available on Seetickets.com.

Then on New Year's Eve more than 800 people will be celebrating midnight at 6pm to allow the whole family to celebrate together.

Log onto dontbelievethehype.biz/dbth-agency/the-dadifesto/