For a while there, I was getting pretty bored by the local-man-stays-home-with-kids story. Too formulaic, I thought. Too little that was new or captivating. But I'm coming back around. I've begun enjoying the celebration of the choice to stay home of dads in all different parts of the country, and I'm actual heartened by the formula ... it suggests that there really is a common experience. So I smiled as I read through this nice piece on some Carolina dads who will probably root for the wrong team on Sunday but otherwise seem like super guys.

(The usual caveat: I still have *some* mixed feelings about stories like this. Moms who make these choices don't get newspaper stories written about them. And mothers who buck social norms and do great things in the workplace don't get glowing stories, either. I long to see the day when what someone does all day is newsworthy for reasons other than gender. But until we reach that point, I'll still eagerly read stories about at-home fathers.)

Interesting aside: Slowlane.com's Jay Massey says in the the article that Slowlane someday hopes to do some paid surveys of its own to better understand the profile of the at-home dad. I certainly hope so. But Slowlane's rebirth has been a long time coming. I've have a year-old offer of help, meager though it might be, to help get the site humming. Jay, if you're reading, let me know what I can do.