The Inside Poop >>   I've noticed a small trend about two types of at-home dad stories. You know, the ones about us and the ones about celebrity dads. Every time a story about dads with kids crosses the copy editor's desk he/she has to describe us as a Mr Mom or a Stay at-home dad in the headline.  For instance Brad Pitt was a Mr Mom in this  headline about missing the Oscars so he could stay home with the kids a few days, but Bruce Cantrall's  Northeast Wisconsin At Home Dads group were Stay-At-Home Dads in this headline.  Of course we will always find a misplaced Mr Mom heading but it just seems they will be reserved more for Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise's table. 

 Do your own research here:  googlefight   

I added this new video feature to help sort out the growing trend of daddy videos being posted on YouTube.  After wading though a few bad dad music videos I managed to find an interesting mix of TV commercials, local at-home dad interviews, old TV shows (check out McComb at the top of this list),  a daddy home cleaning video (this guy can clean!), a comedy bit, and of course clips from the Mr Mom Movie. If you are looking for the Mr Mom music video from Lonestar (the most popular search), its not on YouTube but you can see it here. (I added a new videos link to the masthead so you can view them when this post is buried)

Check out these annoying noises this collection of six gentle, expertly recorded "white noise" sounds.

1.   Clothes Dryer Hum

2.   Hair Dryer Whistle

3.   Washing Machine Purr

4.   Vacuum Cleaner Waltz

5.   Washer and Dryer Combo Special

6.   White Noise Plain Wrap

And that's what happens when this at-home dad from California got a little too close to his oven fan. If you don't want to spend the $14.95 you may download my son's version for free.

Well we've seen that monkeys can be at-home dads, but  how many other male animal species can make the same claim? A quick look in YouTube  uncovered this male rat experimenting with the primary care-giver role. I began an afternoon search for the hardest working animal dad, so I looked for more research and researched that research and the Oscar for hardest working male species goes to.... The Emperor Penguin. And by a landslide. And its not because they were last years Oscar winner for best documentary, or that they were chosen to be the mascot for the  North East Wisconsin At-Home Dads. It's because after the female penguin lays her egg she hands it off to dad and takes off shopping for more food.... 2 months later she comes back, but not before dad (with the egg balanced on his feet the whole time) freezes and starves half to death. 

Below are the 4 runner ups:

1. The Seahorse Dad  - Tennessee Aquarium's curator of fishes says the male gets the eggs from mom and carries them to term. Dad isn't technically pregnant but he's got them 'em in his pouch till they are born.. These guys really got cheated out of the award. 

2. The Reah (Big Bird) Dad - (The largest bird from South America.) When the Reah mom hatches her eggs she shacks up with other Reah dads while the biological dad takes over and attacks anyone, (even the mom) who comes near the eggs.   (He beat out the Cassowary Bird Dad, from Australia who sits on the eggs for a few months then does the child care for the first nine months. not bad.)

 3. The Sand Goby Dad (a small fish from the British coast) - Nothing to be proud of here really. This research from the  University of Florida - (2004) shows that when the females are watching and double-checking everything like wives usually do, the dads will protect the eggs, but when mom isn't around the house,  dad tends to eat them. The researchers note "being a good [Sand Goby] father is very sexy. This is almost a cliche, as it has become a standard joke that the best way to get women to be interested in you as a single guy is to borrow a baby or a puppy. Women obviously find ‘caring guys’ very sexy". 

4. Lions, bears, prairie dogs, orcas, gray whales, and sheep (tie). - If you have read this far, these animals and more are explored in  Jeffrey Masson's amazing, extensive (and certainly more legitimate then mine)  research of other research in his book, The Emperor's Embrace: Reflections on Animal Families and Fatherhood

Disqualified

The Barking Frog Dad Fraud  - The Barking Frog dad was getting credit for guarding the "egg clutch" which stemmed from 1950's research but it was disqualified for a nomination because the Tucson Herpetological Society put the myths to rest with their own studies stating " our radio-tracking data from Arizona suggests that males move too frequently to guard eggs and that females may stay with the clutch (Goldberg and Schwalbe, 2000)."

Check out this vintage 1983 TV clip of Hour Magazine that was just stuck on youtube. You got host Gary Collins  interviewing the relatively young Kyle Pruett and a dad who Collins giddily exclaims is a real life Mr Mom!  What's interesting about this kids glove interview is that Collins describes it as a "relatively new phenomenon"  How did they know this? Well I am guessing they got their proof due to the the hot movie Mr Mom which was was coincidently released that year. 

Playground News Update -  I've added 2 more entries to the playgroup list... first, Brian Russell of Oregon noticed  there wasn't a single dad's group in the state, so he decided to be the first one. If you live in or near Portland, get in touch. Second If you live down-under check out the Aussie Dads from Australia.