Boy, I can't think of a 24 hour period in which at-home dads have received so much attention on America's broadcast networks. First, there was "Meet Mister Mom" last night, which I decided to take a pass on. I know there are some things that you really must see for yourself, but I decided that even the interest of daddy research wasn't enough to get me to sacrifice an hour of my time for what looked to be dreadful. Since I did not actually watch it, I will humbly decline from talking about the show. Instead, I'll link to the Zero Boss's (Jay Allen's) posting at Blogging Baby, which reads, in part:
If, rather than watching NBC last night, you watched CBS this morning, you may have caught Full-Time Father, Mike Paranzino, on The Early Show. Mike is now something of an advocate for task-less parenting: he believe his job is to take care of the kids, not to cook or clean. It came up kind of incidently in the USA Today profile of Mike, and now his whole no-housework thing has gone broadcast, too.
Here are my caveats: I've met Mike, played with his son. He's a nice guy, and, from what I can tell, an excellent father. He gets all kinds of points from me for refusing to play the suburban at-home parent Martha-Stewart-clone contests. He also knew he'd be stirring up trouble.
But let me be real: Mike's choice isn't available to 99 percent of us, no matter how well we plan, and it's kind of weird to see a really wonderful at-home dad profile devolve into a story about paying your way out of stuff you don't like to do. "He's a trail blazer; but he's a trail blazer with a staff," said his neighbor, and that's just about right. The whole "staff" thing gets in the way of the "parenting" thing. And while I could stand a little less laundry and a break from the mop, avoiding household tasks is not my goal in life.
While there'?s much work still to be done on the average American male, much has changed since the time of Ward Cleaver. Dads are more involved in the lives of their children than ever. But you wouldn'?t know it by watching this tripe, where the guys are made to seem more motivated by a paltry $25,000 scholarship than any fatherly feelings for their offspring. I feel like I need a hot shower - followed by a Cosby Show marathon.Read the whole thing, particularly the part where Jay explains how real dads would handle the silly challenges thrown into the mix.
If, rather than watching NBC last night, you watched CBS this morning, you may have caught Full-Time Father, Mike Paranzino, on The Early Show. Mike is now something of an advocate for task-less parenting: he believe his job is to take care of the kids, not to cook or clean. It came up kind of incidently in the USA Today profile of Mike, and now his whole no-housework thing has gone broadcast, too.
Here are my caveats: I've met Mike, played with his son. He's a nice guy, and, from what I can tell, an excellent father. He gets all kinds of points from me for refusing to play the suburban at-home parent Martha-Stewart-clone contests. He also knew he'd be stirring up trouble.
But let me be real: Mike's choice isn't available to 99 percent of us, no matter how well we plan, and it's kind of weird to see a really wonderful at-home dad profile devolve into a story about paying your way out of stuff you don't like to do. "He's a trail blazer; but he's a trail blazer with a staff," said his neighbor, and that's just about right. The whole "staff" thing gets in the way of the "parenting" thing. And while I could stand a little less laundry and a break from the mop, avoiding household tasks is not my goal in life.
posted by Rebel Dad at
5:56 PM
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