A daily journal for dads  ·  Coming soon to iOS

Notice. Write it down. Read it back.

One question a day about your kid — not you. Answer it in a sentence, add a photo if you want. Then watch the same date stack up, year over year, in your own words.

Built for the dad who shows up.

One email when it ships. Nothing else.
Under a minute. No blank page, no streak to keep.
9:41
M Thu · Jun 25
Liam 4y 2m
From February · Worth asking
Recent
Wanted to watch the ducks go under the bridge before they disappeared. Stood on the bottom rail and called where each one would come out.
Monday
Slowed his steps to match hers the whole way across the plaza. Didn't let go of her at the curb.
Wednesday
Out cold before we reached the car. First quiet since six that morning, so I just stood in the tunnel a minute.
Last week

That's everything. Today's page comes back when you've forgotten you wrote it.

Notice
The Porch
Read Back
How it works

The whole thing is one loop.

Catch something today. Write it in a sentence. The app hands it back later — after you've forgotten you caught it.

  1. 01
    Notice

    Catch the thing he did today before it's gone — the word he made up, what stopped him cold.

  2. 02
    Write it down

    One sentence is the whole entry. Add a photo if the moment had one. Under a minute.

  3. 03
    Read it back

    Later, it resurfaces on its own. You forgot you wrote it. Mainstay kept it.

Catch it

The small stuff, before you forget it.

One small question about your kid — what they said, the word they made up, what they're into right now. No blank page, no wondering where to start.

The words come first. A sentence is the whole entry. Add a photo, or a short clip if the moment had one — about ten seconds, either way.
A nudge, not a chore. Don't like today's question? Ask for another. Skip as many as you want — there's no streak to break.
A photo holds the face. Mainstay holds the part it can't — what he said, and the word he just made up.
Two children leaning on a riverboat railing, looking out over the water

Notice it now.

Read it back

Go back through all of it.

Everything you catch lands here and stays — grouped by day, week, month, and year, the photos and the words together. You don't reread it for a while. Then some slow evening you open last spring, and it's all still there.

Days, weeks, months, years. Move through his life at whatever distance you're in the mood for.
Photos and words, kept together. Each stretch shows what you saved, and opens right back into the day it happened.
9:41
M Read Back Liam 4y 2m
Days Weeks Months Years
Earlier · 2026
1–31 May · 2026
May
24 kept · 31 photos · 4 clips
1–30 April · 2026
April
21 kept · 19 photos · 2 clips
1–31 March · 2026
March
19 kept · 22 photos · 1 clip
Notice
The Porch
Read Back
The Porch

You're not the only one
doing this.

A quiet feed of other dads noticing their kids — the wins, the grind, the days that sit heavy. No likes, no clout, nothing to perform. You tap Here to let a dad know he was seen, or you just read and feel a little less alone in it.

The Porch
posting as @driftwood.6
Sample posts
No performance
Words, not numbers.
Posts are text. The only response is Here — a quiet "I saw this, I'm with you." No followers, no likes, nothing to chase.
For the heavy days too
No one tries to fix it.
Mark a post Heavy and the room just sits with you. If it's heavier than that, 988 is one tap away — and we never put an alarm on a hard moment.
Four ways to say it
Tag it, or don't.
Story The Grind Heavy Asking
The payoff

Then one day, it hands it back.

You don't go back for it. Then one day the same page returns on its own — the detail you'd already lost.

You wrote · March 4
Can you check for bugs and monsters?
When did he stop asking you to check?
Can you check for bugs and monsters?
You wrote this — remember?

You forgot this. Mainstay kept it.

The long game

One date. Every year you kept it.

Every line you write also lands on its calendar date. So open one day — say the 4th of July — and you get that day across all the years at once. You watch him grow on the same date, a year at a time.

  1. Jul 4 · 20231y

    Slept through the whole thing in a sling on my chest.

  2. Jul 4 · 20242y

    Covered his ears and called the fireworks sky bangs.

  3. Jul 4 · 20253y

    Counted every one out loud, then asked who lights them.

  4. Jul 4 · 20264y

    Told me not to be scared — he'd hold my hand.

What's in it

Start free. The whole thing costs nothing.

The question, your kid's record, and the Porch — all free, for one kid. Premium is for when you want the whole archive backed up and more than one of them.

FreeAlways
$0

Everything you need to start the habit today.

  • A question that grows with your kid
  • Unlimited photos, every entry
  • Read Back — your record, grouped by day to year
  • The Porch — the dad community
  • One kid
Get notified
Premium14-day free trial
$7.99 / month

The whole archive, backed up and exportable. $7.99 a month, or $59.99 a year. Try it free for two weeks.

  • Short video clips, not just photos
  • Multiple kids, each with their own journal
  • Cloud backup of the whole archive
  • Custom questions when you want your own
  • Export to PDFComing soon
14-day trial · Coming soonGet notified

Cancel anytime. Your archive stays.

Coming soon.

Mainstay lands on the App Store soon. Leave your email and you'll hear from us the day it does — one email, nothing else.

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