As a result of the entrepreneurial spirit, society’s flexible gender roles, and yes, the struggling economy, the army of stay-at-home dads seems to be on the march.

Just ask West Seattle’s Eric Renn, who stays home with his 7-month-old son, Caden, while his fiancée, Carey Teemer, commutes to the city for her job at Vulcan. The three live together.

He said he often meets other stay-at-home dads while out running errands, and is forming a group, “SeaDaDs,” as in “Seattle Dads,” to meet weekly at 9 a.m. at the Hiawatha Park playground with tots-in-tow, both to blow off steam and to share common issues. The park is just south of the Admiral Junction.

“I’m a ‘father-preneur,’” said Renn. “I am a personal trainer in the morning, and run a Web-based business in the afternoon.”

Caden’s mom keeps regular business hours.

“I met with other dads last week about SeaDaDs at Freshy’s Coffee across the street from the park and we ran into three other stay-at-home dads there," said Renn. "There tend to be more organizations here for moms and babies to meet.”

This includes www.seattle-moms.com , and www.moms.meetup.com, which has a Seattle city-wide stay-at-home dads group mentioned on its Web site.

“I think pre-daycare socialization for the baby, and father, is critical, and structuring is helpful, too,” said Renn, originally from Atlanta. “It gets you out of the house and relieves stress. I like to say, ‘Learn together. Raise together.’ We’re not the frat boys we once were. We’re grown-ups and can talk about things, like sharing a ‘meal calendar’ since we dads are expected to have dinner on the table, and ways to help the baby sleep through the night.”

Renn said Caden wakes up every hour or two throughout the night, and he and Caden’s mother have looked into the “Ferber Method” as a bedtime routine. Renn is also into the “Zone Diet,” and stresses the importance of eating low glycemic index meals for weight loss and overall health.

SeaDaDs also meets, sans kids of course, the third Thursday night of each month for a drink at Prost! West Seattle.

“I think it’s important to have a group exclusively for dads and their young children,” said Karen Stensrude, a professional nanny who takes her 11-month-old, Maya, to Hiawatha Park to play. “We seem to have many organizations geared toward moms, so I think a West Seattle stay-at-home dads' group is a great idea.”