Would Your Husband Chair the PTA?
by Leslie Morgan Steiner (Two Cents on Working Motherhood)
In the run-up to Father's Day, American media gushed about fatherhood like never before:
* USA Today screamed "Dad's Pregnancy Hormones" describing the changes (somewhat minor compared to moms') that dads experience as fatherhood approaches. The subhead carried a National Inquirer-type claim: Changes Could Be Nature's Way of Ensuring Baby Survives!
* "Paternal Bonds, Special and Strange" was a New York Times Science front page full color exploration of how male animals and humans alike love babies: "No display carries higher status, or is more likely to impress the other guys, than to strut around the neighborhood with an infant monkey in tow." Okay, the article is referring to macaques from North Africa's Barbary coast, but I think we've all seen a dad or two in our own hood doing that strut.
* On the same day, the New York Times also ran "In Sweden, Men Can Have It All" dissecting how government-mandated "daddy leave" has transformed parenthood and gender roles in Sweden since becoming law in 1995. Divorce and separation rates have dropped dramatically, and shared custody has increased. One wife said she finds her husband most attractive "when he is in the forest with a rifle over his shoulder and the baby on his back." Rambo Dad, here we come.
And there's even a documentary film, "The Evolution of Dad: Fatherhood is Finally Growing Up" by Dana Glazer. The 94-minute film "explores the changing role of fatherhood and meets some of the most unique and heroic dads of the new millennium. Prepare to be inspired and moved."
Fawning articles, daddy support groups, documentary films: this is no trend. Not a manufactured-holiday-media-excuse-for-feel-good-articles. The new fatherhood is a movement that is gaining serious momentum, and is here to stay. Recent University of Maryland sociology data shows that dads today spend more than three times as much time with their children versus their own fathers - and the numbers are increasing every year. Which is a good thing for dads, kids, our entire country - and perhaps most of all, good for moms.
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Leslie Morgan Steiner authors Two Cents on Working Motherhood on MommyTracked. She is the editor of the best-selling anthology Mommy Wars and the memoir Crazy Love. Steiner is a frequent guest on the Today Show, MSNBC, and regularly contributes to The New York Times, Newsweek and Vanity Fair. She lives with her husband and 3 kids in Washington, DC.
