As promised yesterday, I wanted to flag some recent press clippings.

When it comes to media mentions, there are two kinds of stories I love to see: ones where at-home dads are painted as extraordinary men and ones where they're painted as normal, average, everyday men. There's a paradox there. I want at-home fatherhood to be seen as socially normal, as natural a family arrangement as any other. But I also suspect, ironically, that stories that show us at-home fathers as something special help boost our numbers and help get us to that "normal" status.

The Washington Post had this second kind of story yesterday. A story about parents going back to school (becoming at-home parents/at-home students) featured a DC-based lawyer who got an advanced law degree while "defrosting breast milk, preparing toddler lunches and volunteering at a preschool." But the story wasn't about how extraordinary this guy was because of his sex ... he was just another parent, part of a larger trend. And that kind of ho-hum treatment is comforting.

And then there's this heartwarming story about an at-home dad struggling to deal with the midday void in his life that comes with a new kindergartener. But rather than focus on dad's gender, it looked at the issue: parents letting of their kids. Again, dad was received the exact same kind of treatment that a mom would have.