Two years later, Slate did a nice piece of dad hormones, and USA Today followed up around Father’s Day with this gem.

But that’s only the start. This month brings fresh evidence of the ways that dads change over the course of childrearing: oxytocin (the so-called cuddle hormone), which has been long known to shoot up in new moms, shoots up just as much in dads. (This had been discussed before, but never published in a scientific journal.)

The research was straightforward. Eighty couples were followed for 6 months, their oxytocin levels checked a few times during that span. Levels of the hormone were similar in both men and women. What’s confusing is that we don’t really know why men release more oxytocin during this time. (It’s more clear in women, where lactation plans a part.)

What’s really interesting, though, is the conditions under which dads produce the most oxytocin. From the press release:

Finally, the findings revealed that oxytocin levels were associated with parent-specific styles of interaction. Oxytocin was higher in mothers who provided more affectionate parenting, such as more gazing at the infant, expression of positive affect, and affectionate touch. In fathers, oxytocin was increased with more stimulatory contact, encouragement of exploration, and direction of infant attention to objects.

No idea what it means, but it sure sounds like another argument in favor of the “activation parenting” theory, which holds that a crucial part of child development is parents who allow their kids some leeway to explore.

All food for thought. Any long-form journalists want to tackle this?

In the romantic comedy, Julia will play a working woman married to a stay-at-home husband. She loses her job, their roles are reversed, and she has to adjust to motherhood.

I honestly have no idea how this works as a concept. I’ve long argued that the reason that fish-out-of-water plotlines about dads suddenly thrust into a caregiver role have gotten more and more stale since “Mr. Mom” came out in 1983 is because clueless dads are less and less plausible in an era where at-home dads are being called ho-hum part of the social fabric.

So as cool as a reverse “Mr. Mom” is on some level, I’m not sure a movie about a clueless mom is going to work all that well. In fact, it begs for a first act in which Julia is set up as a completely out-of-touch working mom, which is not a stereotype I’m a big fan of, either.

But if this moves forward, it should prompt some interesting social commentary. This will be well worth tracking.

Here’s a sampling:

The Fourteen Points

#1. I don’t want to sleep with you. So can we please just chill about that.

…

#8. Every time your kid sees a SAHD with a stroller in the park, packing his kid’s lunch, handling visits to the doctor, picking him up from preschool, or hanging with their own mom on a playdate, she’s that much less likely to grow up believing that these things must always be women’s work.

#9. If I never see your husband doing any of the above-listed things on weekends, days-off, or after work, I start to think you’ve got a bum deal and maybe think they really are women’s work.

…

#14. I also really enjoy, and maybe even prefer, talking about things that have little to do with parenting.

First, Jason Sperber, the dad profiled by Today and by Marie Claire, wrote about his experiences on his blog. It’s worth the read. Part of what Jason talks about is the danger of being sucker-punched by the media. His experience with at-home fatherhood is pretty much glowing, from what I can tell, and yet the magazine chose to include some quotes from his wife that suggested something different. To her credit, the Marie Claire magazine reporter, Hilary Stout, apologized (in a fashion) and let Jason quote from that e-mail.

I can sympathize. A long time ago, a reporter for a national magazine played the same stunt on my wife and me. We gave, in total, nearly 3 hours of interviews, talking about how we made our decisions, how it benefited everyone in the family and the statements we wanted to make about gender roles and equity. And — out of that — were pulled two quotes that made both of us sound whiny. I was, to say the least, horrified. (And that’s why, all the years later, I’m not linking to it.)

The second bit of commentary related to Today was that, once, I ended up on set with Matt Lauer and that he mentioned to me (and rockstar academic Aaron Rochlen) that he hoped to be an at-home dad some day. Maybe all of this at-home dad stuff that has become so prominent on Today is just advanced research for Matt. I, for one, can’t wait to see him trade the wingtips for Chuck Taylors and make the annual pilgrimage to the At-Home Dad Convention.

With the caveat that I’m sure anyone can really trust celeb news, here is how it was positioned:

“Neil has been working his butt off since he was a little kid,” a friend of the actor tells me. “Everything was about his career until he met his soul-mate, David. Now, with twins due in October, Neil is thinking about taking a break. Moving from Hollywood to New York City to be a full-time daddy.”

Neil: if you’re reading … you might want to check out the kick-ass NYC Dads Group.

So the Marie Claire piece on at-home dads and breadwinning moms (arrestingly MSNBC subtitle: “Is this the new status symbol for alpha women?”) gets props for at least framing at non-traditional family roles through the eyes of the woman, for a change. Except that the piece, once it gets going, doesn’t actually look at that hard at those alpha women, instead choosing to focus on what — to modern magazine editors — the great irony of an at-home dad.

It’s almost not worth summarizing the piece, which fails to look at all closely on what the impact of at-home dads are on the women in their lives. There are all kind of important questions that can be asked of those women, but I didn’t see that any of them actually got asked. (In fact, a better take on this was done, um, 8 years ago, when Fortune put “The New Trophy Husband” on its cover.)

(I also want to give props to the Today Show — which based a segment on the Marie Claire article — for featuring all-around good-guy at-home dad Jason Sperber in their piece — the video is below — even if the show failed to really unearth anything new. I’ve lost count, but I think this might be the fourth Today Show piece on at-home dads this year, and, taken together, they show  a real inability to do much other than repeatedly scratch the same surface, again and again.)

It’s got one heck of a lineup of marketing gurus, especially online marketing gurus, if that’s your thing. There are some real luminaries of the blog world. And I’d be remiss in not noting that Cal Ripken will be there (as well as Roland Warren of the National Fatherhood Initiative).

The list of sponsors is growing, too. Should be an interesting confab, and though I won’t be there, I will be curious about the goings on. Twitter hashtag is #M3Summit, for those who want to track by Twitter.

[Registration runs $225, extra if you want to hang with Cal. It's happening Sept. 9-11 in Atlanta.]

If you’ve been before, you don’t need me to sell you on it. If you haven’t, it’s one hell of an inspirational weekend, and the guys are super. And I’ll be there, in the unlikely event that sways your decision.

Heck, I’ll do you one better: I’ll offer a money-back guarantee: if you show up and *don’t* have a good time, I’ll reimburse you for the registration fee. All you need to do is write a guest post for me on why you weren’t moved by the experience, and I’ll cut you a check.

[UPDATE: As a couple of commenters have noted, I failed to include a link or other information about the event. It's athomedadconvention.com, and it's being held in Omaha on Oct. 2.]

So, word to the wise: if you need to hold the stroller to stay upright, maybe you should pause for a moment and reconsider your choices. Just saying.

[Though I don't want to imply that the father here is an alcoholic, I do want to be sensitive to the topic. There is no question that drinking problems are serious, and hats off to those that have remained sober. This is a good excuse to link to Mike Adamick's brilliant and moving guest post for the NYT's Motherload blog last year: "Gins of our Fathers." If you haven't read that yet, please click over and check it out.]