Posted on 22. Oct, 2003 by Brian Reid in General
An alert Rebel Dad reader sent me this fine column preaching the gospel of Ann Crittenden. But what caught both the reader’s eye — and mine — was that the entire column was written without any gender-based assumptions about who the stay-at-home parent would be. Such a balance isn’t nearly as common as it should be, and it comes in marked contrast to a book I pulled off the library shelf today: Daddy Smarts: A Guide for Rookie Fathers. It’s written by a guy I’ve spoken to before, and who I presume is a fairly intelligent go-getter. Yet his guide devotes zero time to the prospect of a dad staying at home and little time to the idea of mom at home … but a whole chapter on daycare. Hardly as “Daddy Smart” as the title would suggest.
I also missed this Bergen, NJ newspaper piece about men’s groups. It’s a generally nice article that spans a range of men-for-men support groups, including the suddenly very high-profile New Jersey dads group. The trend of men being men without being macho is one worth watching. The fallout can’t be anything but good.