Topic: tv shows
Meet Mister Mom NBC Aug.
2 at
Updated: Thursday, 15 February 2007 1:44 PM EST
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at
home dad
men
who change diapers change the world
Meet Mister Mom NBC Aug.
2 at
Sharon
Jayson of USA Today tapped several blogs, at-home dad playgoups
members, myself. and the National Center for Fathering several weeks ago
looking for the perfect dad in the Maryland area. The search was tough as she
was looking for one of the 98,000 dads who
fit the definition of an at-home dad. Her frantic week-long search came up
with Michael Paranzino of Bethesda who writes his Full
Time Father Blog. He got the full USA Today treatment in today's
issue with a full
day interview profile, a photographer who tagged along for the day resulting
in a nice audio
gallery show complete with Mike's narration. A sidebar
was also added repeating the 98K number and comparing it to a staggering 5.4
million stay-at-home moms stat. She
threw in a quote from Yale researcher Kyle
Pruett who agreed that kids of at-home dads, feel loved, adored and
treasured but says at-home dads will always be a small segment.... .I
don't see us having mass societal shifts in that direction.... our society wants
men working hard and making lots of money. I agree to a point with
Pruett as dads who don't make a penny will probably remain scarce.. However you
can't ignore the increasing number dads who make a few bucks on ebay to
pay for the diapers.
The
new foreplay - Cleaning the kitchen:
At the At-Home Dad message board there's been talk on house cleaning. During the discussion "Cliff" dug up this 2-year-old old research out of UCAL which I couldn't help but to share with all: Dad's that clean house likely to have better behaved children and wives who find them more sexually attractive
2 movies, 2 dads 2 bad - First off this weekend, we got a stay-at-home dad
(laid off cartoonist)
in Son of the Mask (it's
basically Mr Mom meets the Dancin Baby). Then next weekend we got Hollywood's
Mr. Macho himself, Vin Diesel taking care of the kids in The
Pacifier: Prepare for Bottle.
As you click on the official movie link,
you see Vin Diesel with his hands full and the Diesel in the background
muttering "you gotta be kidding me" Not a good start here. The
film is billed as the story of an undercover agent who, after failing to
protect an important government scientist, learns the man's family is in danger.
In an effort to redeem himself, he agrees to take care of the man's children
only to discover that child care is his toughest mission yet. What
is fascinating to me, is both movie posters are nearly identical in theme. Both
have dad in dead center with a baby (or two) in hand and mom standing on the
side. The message is clear, involved dads (or dads trying to be involved) are in
high gear and selling in Hollywood. It is encouraging to see the image of dad
with their kids featured, but I'll wait for the full reviews to see if we have
any improvement over Mr
Mom or Daddy
Daycare.
A
Chip off the old blog - I'd like to welcome daddychip
to the daddy blog block. He's a former stay-at-home dad who wishes he could
have stayed at home longer. It's refreshing to see a dad still sharing his
thoughts after his kids are in grade school. From reading his first posts
he's a good dad in my book. Check out his neat post
about the demise of his car. and his son's reaction to Mr Tow truck hauling it
away. These at-home-dad-car-posts have gotten my attention as I was busy
wrecking my Buick Lesabre last week in a harrowing accident with a semi.
The guy just pulled into
my lane (blind spot?) sending me spinning into an Escort which then hit a limo. (No
injuries). Funny though, I remember countless movies of people watching
the world go round when their car spins, but when I was whirling around, I can
just remember one moment in time looking directly into the oncoming cars headed
toward before a second back-side SMASH into the truck. The Buick probably saved
my life, If I had a SUV I would
have rolled over, If I had an escort I wouldn't be here. In any case my car was totaled
so I am in the hunt for a new car.. Sorry, I don't think I will be buying
athomedaddy's Escort
as I will
continue with a new Buick. (The Escort post should probably be posted in
athomedaddy's dark
side.)
Posted by athomedad
at 9:09 AM EST
Updated: Wednesday, 16 February 2005 11:05 AM EST
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We
all know at-home dad penguins can treat their wives like this
on a bad day, but
would
you believe they stand outside in sub-zero temps with no food for 65 days for
their
kids?
The
National
Geographic reports
that the penguin egg?s father balances it on his feet
and covers it with his brood pouch, a very warm layer of feathered skin designed
to keep the egg cozy. There the males stand, for about 65 days, through icy
temperatures, cruel winds, and blinding storms. And they eat nothing that whole
time. Due to this evidence, the
Northeast
Wisconsin At Home Dads features their new
hero on their site.
Reporter Anna Krejci, of the Green Bay News Chronicle interviewed the Northeast Wisconsin group leader Bruce Cantrall and 2 other dads about the penguin while they were corralling 6 kids at their local library. Bruce reports, We were asked by the reporter if we do a "background check" on our members. (We have an application process on our web page before joining the email list or having anyone look at photos). I do not expect a reporter would ask anyone from a Mom's group that question. I asked the reporter if she had children or was married, she said she was single with no kids . I suggested that she could always become a work-at-home or away mom as a reporter with a stay-at-home dad taking care of her children. Did she ever think of that when looking at possible mates? No was her answer. All in all, the story bought in one more dad and Bruce notes that The group feels it was a very positive article on the importance of dads in their children's lives. They included 3 nice photos with the kids and the dads doing things together
I
have been admiring Ben MacNeill's stunning graphics at the Trixie
Update over the past year. It should follow some of the "early" computer
art circa 1984. He ought to submit this
one or my favorite, the daily
feeding cycle (agitated) into the Museum of Modern Art. It should be
labeled informational minimalist art so we can get the next
art movement started. Ben's latest work of art at left breaks down the
famous "two naps to one" event. For those not in the know Ben
hits a certain keyboard key every time his daughter does nearly anything. (He
has smacked the F9 key three thousand five hundred and thirteen times due to
diaper changes). It was fun to check these stats, but the graphs didn't
seem to show the trends in the short
term. Over the long haul however, you can actually see the agonizingly
slow and uneven process of naptimes on his graphs. By taking the emotional
element out of the process, it's reassuring to any new dad to step back and see
Ben's visual proof that those diaper leaks, naps and bottle routines that seem
like they will never end always do.
Playgroup update: I've added 2 new playgroups and a new website to the Network.Tom Henry of Stockton, CA.(tjhenryjr67@yahoo.com), Matthew Feinberg of Missouri City, TX (matthew@feinberg.org) and Seattledads new site at www.seattledads.org.
Like
the New England Patriot's Defensive End Richard
Seymour (pictured at left with his son by the Globes' Stan Grossfeld),
working at-home dads have quietly taken the spotlight in the media in the last
several years. Also like the Pats they don't have a real spokesman
either. Sure the reluctant
Tom Brady gets the GQ treatment but that's it. (Remember, Terrell Owens
got more attention then the entire New England Team combined in one Ad.).
In any case the media seems to be enjoying putting together the
terms "working dad" and the "at-home dad" qualifier
in the same breath. Reading through some "working dad" articles
just in the past week I kept noticing sentences like... "As
the co-owner and chef of Three Oaks Chocolatier in Torrington, and a
stay-at-home dad to three young boys....." or "He
gets to schedule his work to spend as much time as possible with Joey, now 4 ?.
He calls himself a stay-at-home dad" or "Being
a stay-at-home dad three days a week, I've deep-six diapers, cut the crust off
PB&J's, and made the ultimate sacrifice: sing along with Barney".
These dads seem to be emphasizing that, yes we do work, but we are still caring
for their kids and we're proud of it. The media isn't the only ones
noticing, The Families and Work Institute
note in
a 2004 report that Gen-X daddies (working dads between the ages of 23-37)
spend nearly an extra hour (or 3.4 hours/day) with their kids as compared to 25
years ago. What I found even more encouraging is that that the early returns
(their samples were are too small to give out numbers) are showing Gen-Y dads
(18-22 years old) are trumping the X-ers. Look for this new generation of
dynasty dads to be making more noise in the coming years.
I am done posting for the year (The kids are out of school)
till then, call the kids in and share a few tunes from your 8-bit past.
01.
Yerzmyey - Jesus Holy, Born So Lowly
02.
Nullsleep - Silent Night
03.
Vim - When A Child Is Bored
04.
Paul Slocum - Up On The Housetop
05.
Bit Shifter - Let It Snow
06.
Goto80 - Last Christmas Hot Digi Rmx
07.
Dma-Sc - The First Blip Blop Noel
08.
Hally - Xmas Songs Arcade Punk Mix
A chance to help one of our own: Teri Thompson Children's Fund
