Thursday, July 17, 2003

A surprising amount to cover today, especially given that I'll be away from blogging through the weekend. For starters, today's Washington Post has this op-ed by Rebel Dad favorite Joan Williams. Williams starts by laying out her oft-repeated dream scenario: a 30-hour a week job, with pro-rated benefits and advancement, that lets a worker be an actual parent at least part of the day.

But she veers off into our territory toward the end of the piece, noting that husbands of moms who stay home tend to become turbo-workers on the job and duds at home, effectively sapping the amount of parental attention kids get. (When both parents are working, parental attention seems to be given more liberally by dads, Williams argues).

But what about the flip side, when men stay home? Williams: "Studies suggest this may work better. Parental time with children may be less affected because employed mothers typically are less willing to consign all child care to the stay-at-home spouse. So children in families with stay-at-home fathers may well receive more parental attention than children in households with stay-at-home mothers." There's one heck of an argument for at-home fathering. As if we needed another one.

Let me take a brief break from the weighty sociological analysis to point out this article on a group of UK dads. It's nice that the Pregnancy and Birth study cited in this story has gotten such huge play on the other side of the pond, especially compared with the whisper in the U.S. generated by the careerbuilder.com survey that I've talked about here.

Finally, the world of child care is in uproar over the latest research on whether or not it's a bad thing. Some summaries of the report have largely been equivocal (Minneapolis Star Tribune) and some more negative (NYTimes).

But the really chilling piece is an op-ed in yesterday's WSJ (sub. required) by one of the better-known researchers involved in the effort, Jay Belsky. Belsky paints a less-than-rosy picture of child care centers and argues that there's a certain bias against knocking day care because it's the only option for so many. In short, he says that problems with day care are minimized, even by the people chronicling the effects. (Thanks to Full Time Father for the heads-up -- as well as his spot-on analysis. The Belsey column is posted on that blog, as well. Because of Rebel Dad's idiosyncratic obsession with intellectual property, it is not posted here.)

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