Posted on 27. Oct, 2003 by Brian Reid in General
Most of the stats I talk about here are simply too bad to be true, ginned up with lousy definitions or suspect surveys. But I’m happy to announce a stat that must be too good to be true: the number of at-home dads in Scotland has doubled in the past two years. What’s more, there’s been a quadrupling since 1996. Not bad, not bad at all. Of course, I have no idea where those numbers come from. The story says that a UK-based web support group did the research, but I couldn’t find anything on the study on the web site (it may exist, I just couldn’t find it). That’s not exactly a group of disinterested demographers. Still, the fact that the stat — accurate or not — was nonetheless believable enough for a paper to run with it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling.
And speaking of warm, fuzzy feelings, this AP dispatch on getting dads involved in PTAs makes me feel nice all over. That’s primarily because it suggests that dads will get involved if they see other dads. Involved fathering, in other words, may be contagious.