Perhaps the title of this post is a little misleading and I'll start by saying that this is a good thing. I'm not criticizing the publicity this is getting, because hey, I like the whole equality mindset. I like that in my future I won't necessarily be expected to drop what I'm doing to raise children if my (future) husband and I decide that one of us should be at home. There are options.
But quite frankly this article is a bit absurd and does not really paint a pretty picture of the stay at home Dads or, as this article from the Detroit Free Press calls them, the Do-it-yourself Dads (which sounds more like the Father of the children just spawned off children asexually or fathers who aren't stimulated enough by their partners). According to this article:
"Some fathers are still going to work 80 hours a week," he said. "But with modern technology and more flexible workplaces, a lot more guys have the possibility of being at play group on Tuesday morning. Working fathers, stay-at-home fathers or some sort of combination -- what unifies us all is wanting to play an active role in our children's lives."
I'm sorry, but working 80 hours a week with time to be at a play group on Tuesday does not seem like a great example of an active role in a child's life. Call my cynical and inexperienced as a parent (which I am), but I think that hardly qualifies with the role that the other parent is probably putting in to compensate for the 80 hours a week that the father is absent from home.I agree that the named examples in the article, Reid, Smithivas, and Josh, all appear to take a vital role in the parenting of their children, possibly more than their working wives; however, the above quote suggests that fathers' can be congratulated for any contribution that he makes into their children's life- Hey! Thanks for showing up for an hour once a week! Yes, more involvement, on any level, is an improvement if the kids really don't see their father that much. Yes, it must be frustrating for fathers with young infants to not be able to find a family bathroom or a changing station in the men's bathroom. The statistics are encouraging for the growth of "gender role neutral" parenting, but this article seems to struggle with a consistent idea of the so-called DIY Dad.
In other news...
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