Posted on 01. Nov, 2003 by Brian Reid in General
The trend-spotters overseas are beginning to pay more notice to at-home dads. Today, the Guardian has an overview of how the old-school mum-at-home, dad-at-work family could be a “thing of the past”. The story bounces around a bit, but it did have one detail I had missed — a legislative effort in the UK to allow two weeks of paid paternity leave. Two weeks ain’t that long, but it would be almost unthinkably better than what we have here …
My Parenting magazine subscription finally seems to have lapsed, and I don’t think I’ll re-subscribe. I borrowed a couple of copies of its rival, Parents, and I didn’t have to look hard to feel excluded. On the October cover: “Mommy It Hurts: How to Tell Real Aches from Fakes.” On the Novemer cover: “Organizing Ideas for Really Busy Moms.” Nice work from the self-proclaimed “#1 Family Magazine.” Family? Aren’t there dads in most families? I saw marketing research for Child magazine bragging that its readership was 87 percent female. Assuming all the kid-raising mags have similar demographics, is it a good marketing idea to alienate 13 percent of your readers? I have a sinking feeling that my answer to that question doesn’t track with what magazine execs think …
At-home dad and inventor Robert Klick gets more good press. (I mentioned yesterday how he won Oprah’s Million Dollar Idea Challenge on Thursday. He’s in the Hall of Fame now … And while we’re talking at-home dads and Oprah, househusband/goofball Joe Mozian gets more good PR from Oprah on Friday’s show (Joe has apparently lost lots and lots of weight. Go Joe! Two at-home dads in two days … maybe we are taking over.