Today should be a red-letter day for Rebel Dad. The Census Bureau has finally come out with a definitive, exhaustive estimate of at-home dad numbers. But there's no joy in Mudville. The demographers got it wrong.
Here's their number (we've seen this one coming): 105,000 (taking care of 189,000 kids). That's the number of guys out of the labor force for more than a year, with working wives, who list family care obligations as the reason for being out of the workforce. That's a tad less than the 2 million or so that's became the standard estimate after this Census report in 1997(in fact, the report takes a snotty attitude toward that 2 million number).
Why so low? In part, because they didn't count me. I still make some money on the side (as do 80 percent of Rebel Dads, if older Census data can be trusted). In the 1990s, they looked at who was going the primary caretaking -- which I happen to think defines an at-home dad. Now, they're looking exclusively at employment figures, which are simpler stats to gather, but a particularly bizarre way of capturing who takes care of the kids. The shift worker who busts his butt all night, then comes home to watch his kids all day gets zero credit from the folks at Census. Fair? Nope.
Also cut out of the argument are single dads and unmarried dads doing the child care. And woe to you fathers who only acted as Rebel Dads for part of the year, or those technically unemployed and looking for work: you guys were eliminated, too.
They calculate the number of at-home moms in the same way, which provides at least some internal consistancy. The artificially low number of at-home moms: 5.2 million. Comparing those two numbers, at-home moms are 56 more common than Rebel Dads. Worse, at-home mom numbers on the rise, while the Census says the number of at-home dads has been pretty static (though I've seen some pieces -- based on this report -- that suggest we're up 18 percent since 1994. But I can't find that in the report.) Sounds like we have some evangelizing to do.
(By the way, I will return to the happy dad's day pieces. This just seemed more important.)
Here's their number (we've seen this one coming): 105,000 (taking care of 189,000 kids). That's the number of guys out of the labor force for more than a year, with working wives, who list family care obligations as the reason for being out of the workforce. That's a tad less than the 2 million or so that's became the standard estimate after this Census report in 1997(in fact, the report takes a snotty attitude toward that 2 million number).
Why so low? In part, because they didn't count me. I still make some money on the side (as do 80 percent of Rebel Dads, if older Census data can be trusted). In the 1990s, they looked at who was going the primary caretaking -- which I happen to think defines an at-home dad. Now, they're looking exclusively at employment figures, which are simpler stats to gather, but a particularly bizarre way of capturing who takes care of the kids. The shift worker who busts his butt all night, then comes home to watch his kids all day gets zero credit from the folks at Census. Fair? Nope.
Also cut out of the argument are single dads and unmarried dads doing the child care. And woe to you fathers who only acted as Rebel Dads for part of the year, or those technically unemployed and looking for work: you guys were eliminated, too.
They calculate the number of at-home moms in the same way, which provides at least some internal consistancy. The artificially low number of at-home moms: 5.2 million. Comparing those two numbers, at-home moms are 56 more common than Rebel Dads. Worse, at-home mom numbers on the rise, while the Census says the number of at-home dads has been pretty static (though I've seen some pieces -- based on this report -- that suggest we're up 18 percent since 1994. But I can't find that in the report.) Sounds like we have some evangelizing to do.
(By the way, I will return to the happy dad's day pieces. This just seemed more important.)
posted by Rebel Dad at
9:51 AM
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