I received a video from reporter Sarah Hollenback that shows her interview with Rep David but first off the thanks to the dozens of e-mails you send to Cynthia Davis and reporter Sarah Hollenback of KOMU TV in response to her story about a new bill offering $600 a year to moms but not at-home dads. .

Ms Davis has replied to one of the dads who asked her to "Please let people know you could not possibly mean to exclude fathers as nurturing parents." 

Here is Ms Davis's response

"I will have a talk or a letter to the editor. This I noticed that the comment about nurturers was not in quotation marks. I can assure you that I would never say such a thing especially since I am married to one of the most marvelous men in the country. He is the one who is picking up the slack at home with our children while I am at the Capitol.

I also appreciate the civil discourse which is far more helpful than some of te disparaging remarks others are making based off an editorial. Thank you for being a great dad to your children. Please let me know if you need anything else.

Sincerely,

Representative Cynthia Davis

Last night the reporter Ms Hollenbeck sent me last night and is now posted on the TV's site.  Below is a short except from the six minute interview with her answer to the question of why dad's are excluded from the bill. I will let you judge for yourself.

First off the thanks to the dozens of e-mails you send to Cynthia Davis and reporter Sarah Hollenback of KOMU TV in response to her story about a new bill offering $600 a year to moms but not at-home dads. .

Ms Davis has replied to one of the dads who asked her to "Please let people know you could not possibly mean to exclude fathers as nurturing parents." 

Here is Ms Davis's response

"I will have a talk or a letter to the editor. This I noticed that the comment about nurturers was not in quotation marks. I can assure you that I would never say such a thing especially since I am married to one of the most marvelous men in the country. He is the one who is picking up the slack at home with our children while I am at the Capitol.

I also appreciate the civil discourse which is far more helpful than some of te disparaging remarks others are making based off an editorial. Thank you for being a great dad to your children. Please let me know if you need anything else.

Sincerely,

Representative Cynthia Davis

In the meantime Ms  Hollenbeck  sent me a video of the entire interview. Heres a short except of her answer to the question of why dad's are excluded from the bill. I will let you judge for yourself..

On my hot seat today is Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon,  and not just because she bought herself a truck for personal use with state money a bunch of years back or what I think are questionable parenting techniques. 

According to KMOU of Columbia, Missouri, Davis is trying to push a bill through the house to pay at-home moms $600 each year they care for children under the age of 16.A nice gesture, but dads need not apply. Davis informed the  NBC affiliate reporter Sarah Hollenbeck "only women can be nurturers" and has intentionally left dads out of the bill. 

Let's send send a bunch of an email's to NBC reporter Sarah at mailto:sjh4h5@mizzou.edu,%20athomedad@aol.com.  The more emails the better/  I don't think it will take too much pressure and a followup article from more dads to get her to re-think her misguided position.

There's an auto cc.to  me athomedad@aol.com if you click her email above. I'll keep you posted.

- Pete

On my hot seat today is Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon,  and not just because she bought herself a truck for personal use with state money a bunch of years back or what I think are questionable parenting techniques. 

According to KMOU of Columbia, Missouri, Davis is trying to push a bill through the house to pay at-home moms $600 each year they care for children under the age of 16.A nice gesture, but dads need not apply. Davis informed the  NBC affiliate reporter Sarah Hollenbeck "only women can be nurturers" and has intentionally left dads out of the bill. 

Let's send send a bunch of an email's to NBC reporter Sarah at mailto:sjh4h5@mizzou.edu,%20athomedad@aol.com.  The more emails the better/  I don't think it will take too much pressure and a followup article from more dads to get her to re-think her misguided position.

There's an auto cc.to  me athomedad@aol.com if you click her email above. I'll keep you posted.

- Pete

Syndicated columnist Dave Ramsey may be a good financial advisor, but when it comes to family you may want to stay away from this guy.

Here's the Q&A I came across today that pisses me off. 
 

Q, I bring home $2,800 a month, and my husband stays home with our two daughters – one 3, the other 3 months. He’s healthy and able, but he won’t work because he thinks he can’t make enough money to cover the cost of daycare. Our rent is $1,000 a month, and our other bills add up to about $2,000 a month. What do you think about this, and when is it OK to avoid daycare expenses by not working?

A. I’m an old-school guy, a crusty old dinosaur about some things. I grew up in a generation where a guy who did this kind of thing was called a wuss, or worse; not because he’s staying home with the kids, but because he’s staying at home while you guys can’t pay the bills!

I’m all about family togetherness, and with spending as much time with your children as possible, and I don’t have a problem with guys being stay-at-home dads as long as the family is in agreement and can afford to do that kind of thing. But if you’re just scraping by, or can’t meet your financial obligations, which seems to be true with you guys, that’s a different story.

This guy needs to get off his butt, fulfill his responsibilities as a man and a husband, and find a way to start taking care of his family!    — Dave

 

   Come on Dave, you havent been checking your math. Daycare alone for two kids one being a 3 month old comes pretty close to a weeks salary.  In fact at-home dad David Chapa of Downers Grove, ILL did all the dirty work on this topic and came up with these figures that I used in my book.

"Put together a simple spreadsheet. Daycare for two kids, nine hours a day at, what, $10 an hour?  That’s $450 a week, times, say 50 weeks in a work year. That amounted to  $22,500. OK, now you need a more dependable car for work. $350 a month, plus additional insurance, plus the extra gas (not even getting into wear and tear depreciation). That ends up to be about $5k a year. Dress business clothes?  Another $1,000 a year. Lunch at work?  Even if you only spend $3 a day extra, that’s $750 a year. According to my calculations, that’s about $29,000. Not to mention additional medical expenses, sick days, and all of the other "throw your kids in daycare" costs. But wait, there’s more!  If you’re spending $29,000, just to go to work, you need to make another $11k, just to pay the federal, state, and local taxes to bring home $29,000. ($40,000 per year, taxed at .28% = $28,800 take home). So, it costs around $40,000 in pre-tax dollars, just to break even, when sending two kids into childcare, just so you can "go to work." As always, your mileage may vary. Then, add in the social expense of having your children raised by strangers.

I feel sorry for this mom in the bible belt getting his bad advice, I just hope she knows how to add before taking this advice.  I'll send this post to him and see if he could pass on some more reasonable advice.

As a disclaimer David Ramsey Says on his website.  Our mission statement isn’t just lip service; it’s our mantra:

The Lampo Group, Inc. is providing Biblically based, common sense education and empowerment which gives HOPE to everyone from the financially secure to the financially distressed.

Enough said..

[ref: Man Up!]

An update on yesterday's inflammatory post....

 I received an email from Jennifer Grenz,  (pictured above with her twins) She's the original creator of the current Cloverdale group that banned Rick Kaselj due to the “security of our children”

She had broken away from the Canadian group because she thought the idea of excluding men was “totally ridiculous“. In short I connected Jennifer with Rick and they are now planning on starting a new playgroup together for all moms and dads.

Below is the full explanation from Jennifer I received of how this decision to exclude dads was reached.

Got this e-mail from a Boston globe reporter, she's done a few stories in the past that have been well done, if you fit the bill send her off an email to maggie.jackson@att.net

     Boston Globe's Balancing Acts Columnist, Maggie Jackson, is looking to interview new stay at home dads about their first days or months at home. What was the most surprising? How have others reacted? What drives you crazy about staying at home with the kids - and does this differ from what moms feel and learn? I'm particularly looking for dads who have begun staying home because they've lost a job or for economic reasons. Deadline: This Friday but the sooner the better!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while I had cataract surgery in my good eye 3 weeks ago and since the the other one doesn't work it's been  like watching a bruise heal.

Looks like we might have an impact on the 800-Flowers "Mr Mom" blunder. Several readers sent out a letter to take MR Mom off, and while a few got $25 gift certicates it didn't do the trick.  

An alert mom from Virginia just took a peek at the 1-800-flowers website today and  happened to look at the page for the Mother's day. Contest (http://ww22.1800flowers.com/landing.do?landing=41). She reports they no longer have the Mr.Mom category and they added the "Office Mom" category.

  For a Mother's Day PR stunt 1-800-flowers sent a press release yesterday announcing "the launch of The celebrate Mom For Who She is Contest"

 Apparently they've  picked the five most prevalent Mom personalities for us to choose from that best describes their mom the best and why. What may throw some of you dads off your diaper table is that Mr Mom is one of the categories. One of the prizes ...Tickets to The Martha Stewart Show.

A bit late here but.. Following up on his book The Man who would be dad, Hogan Hilling is now out with a handbook style Modern Mom's Guide to Dads. Hogan might be on to something here, cause when I was hawking subscriptions to my hard copy At-Home Dad newsletter my first publicity was in Women's Day. Let's face it, dads don't want to read about themselves, their wives do.  Hogan does a good job catering to the Redbook reading moms who are struggling with the age old, why-don't-just-we-talk-more-and why-can't-you-take-care of the kids exactly like-I-do problems. And oh yea the sex what happend to the sex? Do yourself a favor and get your wife a copy for Mother's Day. You know she wants it.