How to enrage at-home dads: 1. Produce a piece for national TV, on, say Abe Lincoln. 2. Refer to childrearing by men as "babysitting." 3. Question the very ability of men to do the job at all.

This from CBS Sunday Morning, which, long ago, did a very nice piece on at-home dads. But that's apparently a distant memory:

"On Sunday mornings, Mary would go to church -- Lincoln would come to work -- if you'd call that work -- and he would bring the boys. And the boys would raise hell."

And Lincoln would read the paper.

"This is so typical of a man babysitting, let me tell you," [CBS News Correspondent Cynthia] Bowers laughed.

This has the guys over the Yahoo! group a bit steamed, and I can't say I blame 'em. We ain't babysitters. We're parents. (And a little a little hellraisin' every once in a while never hurt anyone.)

Also: Miriam Peskowitz and The Truth About the Mommy Wars -- the subject of yesterday's post -- gets well-deserved props over at Mothers Movement Online. Check out the Peskowitz interview, which includes a serious discussion (!) of at-home dads:

When fathers are part of families, they?re crucial. That?s why I call it both a motherhood problem, and a parent problem. It?s coming down more harshly on mothers because so many of us tend to be the primary parent, yes. But we need to include the experiences of fathers who parent; they?re very isolated, need friends, and have important insights. (I?m very critical of books like "Perfect Madness" that write off this generation of fathers and say they don?t want to parent; they haven?t done their research.) I?ve noticed that because men tend to feel anger as anger (not like women, who tend to turn anger inward into shame), at-home dads really notice the loss of prestige when they decide to parent, and they are very vocal about it.

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