The good news, I suppose about the Motherhood Project is that no one seems to be paying particularly close attention to it. According to Google News, there are only a couple dozen items on it (though that includes a USA Today piece -- by a writer who has previously made me scratch my head).

First, let me get to my big issues with the Motherhood Project, and then I'll get into the dad stuff:

1) The folks who put it together have an agenda. The Institute for American Values pulled this together. Though nominally non-partisan, they are, as Chip points out in yesterday's comments, neo-traditionalists who are banging the drum for the marriage movement. That's all well and good, but they have as much of a stake in what their survey says as Spike TV had in theirs.

2) The Institute for American Values had a hand in the research. This wasn't commissioned of some academics and then watched at arm's-length (despite what the USA Today story by Sharon Jayson suggests). That makes it hard to take seriously the "key findings":

1. The majority of mothers in the study place a high priority on reducing family violence and promoting healthy marriages;
2. They would like more attention paid to the matter of financial security for mothers; and
3. They want to be employed, but in positions that demand less of their time. They want more time to spend with their children and on personal and family relationships.

How about that? Moms feel *just like* the IAV: they want out of the office and they want to promote healthy marriages!

3) Given 1) and 2) above, the finding that most moms are satisfied (97 percent. Seriously) is robbed of a lot of its meaning. IAV wants moms to be satisfied. They want moms to think that complete dedication to family is the root of all happiness. I'm glad the survey found moms are happy. And I'm glad that one of the take-aways is that society needs to take the role of mothers (or, as I read it, "parents") more seriously. But those sentiments are sprinkled in among the promotion of IAV's agenda and destroy my faith in the numbers.

The dad stuff confused much more than it illuminated, and primary caregving dads were pretty much ignored. To get to yesterday's point, the survey did ask this question: I wish the father of my children would take a more active role in their upbringing. Strongly agree/somewhat agree/somewhat disagree/strongly disagree. It's a pretty lousy question -- what does it mean to disagree with that? And who are the 33 percent of women who "strongly disagree"?

Reading through the text of the report is tough stuff -- every stereotype about women being more "nurturing" gets an airing. The implication (no one comes right out and says it) is that mothers are uniquely suited to raise children. This is, of course, bunk, but it does help glorify motherhood. (That's not to say that nice things about dads weren't said, but most of the pro-dad comments came as part of the dad-is-a-key-part-of-today's-traditional-family message.)

Finally, the survey would have been a great way to quantify who really considers themselves at-home parents. And indeed, respondents were asked "Who is primarily responsible for the day-to-day upbringing of your children?" But the answers didn't make much sense: 44 percent of women said they were doing it alone, 49 percent said responsibility was split and 3 percent said "spouse." (Interestingly, day care was not a listed response given to survey-takers, though the survey captured those that volunteered the info anyway.) I really have no idea what those numbers mean. Should I be celebrating the 49 percent of families in which care is shared? Or should the fact that 44 percent of mothers think they're going it alone bother me?

Tags: SAHD blog dad father mom mother motherhood