Couple of nice, if throwaway, mentions in the press today. The San Francisco Chronicle (which seems to be good at gender-balancing parenting) ran this piece on a local "nurture center" for new parents and pregnant women. The noteworthy part -- a large and high-profile chunk of the article dealt with an at-home dad program.

And Salon's review of the new Ben Affleck flick, "Jersey Girl," begins like this:

Forget the overexposed bliss of motherhood: Nearly everyone I know who has ever become a father has fallen in love with it. And in some ways, fathers have it harder than moms. Even stay-at-home dads can find themselves floating outside that special bubble that encircles mothers and their children -- no matter how close they are to their kids, that's a mystery they're locked out of.

Leaving out the strangle "locked out of" the bubble comment, it's nice to note that fatherhood is now seem as a wonderful, life changing event. Kevin Smith, the writer and director, says this a personal movie that stems from his own experiences as a father. I'm generally a big Smith fan, so I'm interested to see how this movie plays out ...