One Heck of a Year
It's the time of year for navel-gaving retrospectives and starry-eyed futurism, and I suppose that this site shouldn't be any different. I'm not brave enough to make predictions about 2006, but I can offer some perspective on the five most interesting stay-at-home-dad stories of 2005. Here they are, in ascending order:
5. FMLA survives, for now. In February, the word went out that the Family and Medical Leave Act was due to be gutted. But the year has ended without the ax falling, thank goodness. FMLA is probably responsible for a fair number of men spending time with newborns that would otherwise be impossible, and paternity leave is a bit of a gateway drug into at-home dadism. Let's hope the law remains untouched in the new year.
4. The blogosphere explodes. There were about 25 at-home dad blogs on my blogroll a year ago. Now there are about 60. More fathers took to the internet to share their experiences, thereby reducing isolation and helping forge a new kind of community.
3. Parenting magazines notice us. The national parents magazines continue to pretend that dads exist only marginally, but on more than a couple occassions, they slipped up and wrote thoughtfully about fathers. Notable: the September Parents, which featured an anecdote headlined "We have daddy day care," the October Parents, which had a piece on "Daddy Power," and the November Parents, which featured extended excerpts from Eric Snowdeal's outstanding blog about his preemie.
2. SAHDs go mainstream (and no one cares): This year saw at-home fathers characters on Desperate Housewives and 7th Heaven. And no one really noticed. Despite my close inspection of DH this year, the SAHD character, Tom Scavo, hardly figured in any of the plotlines. Though RebelMom thinks he could stand to shave and change out of his sweatpants every once in a while, I've been impressed that the writers have managed not to raise a single bumbling dad stereotype. (Good move. The already-forgotten summer reality show, Meet Mr. Mom, did nothing but traffic in those stereotypes. And it bombed. Big time.)
1. Rocketing numbers. Almost no one noticed that the number of at-home dads was up 50 percent in 2004 as compared to the 2003 numbers. And though I hate the way the census folks count us, the giant leap suggests there's something big going on.
Thanks to everyone who has supported this site by reading it, listening to my over-ambitious early podcasts, listening to my erratic later podcasts, buying stuff from the rebeldad.com store, participating on the wiki, linking to rebeldad.com, subscribing to the RSS feed, putting up with some of the general geekery, commenting on posts and saying hello at the convention. I can only hope for another year like this one.
5. FMLA survives, for now. In February, the word went out that the Family and Medical Leave Act was due to be gutted. But the year has ended without the ax falling, thank goodness. FMLA is probably responsible for a fair number of men spending time with newborns that would otherwise be impossible, and paternity leave is a bit of a gateway drug into at-home dadism. Let's hope the law remains untouched in the new year.
4. The blogosphere explodes. There were about 25 at-home dad blogs on my blogroll a year ago. Now there are about 60. More fathers took to the internet to share their experiences, thereby reducing isolation and helping forge a new kind of community.
3. Parenting magazines notice us. The national parents magazines continue to pretend that dads exist only marginally, but on more than a couple occassions, they slipped up and wrote thoughtfully about fathers. Notable: the September Parents, which featured an anecdote headlined "We have daddy day care," the October Parents, which had a piece on "Daddy Power," and the November Parents, which featured extended excerpts from Eric Snowdeal's outstanding blog about his preemie.
2. SAHDs go mainstream (and no one cares): This year saw at-home fathers characters on Desperate Housewives and 7th Heaven. And no one really noticed. Despite my close inspection of DH this year, the SAHD character, Tom Scavo, hardly figured in any of the plotlines. Though RebelMom thinks he could stand to shave and change out of his sweatpants every once in a while, I've been impressed that the writers have managed not to raise a single bumbling dad stereotype. (Good move. The already-forgotten summer reality show, Meet Mr. Mom, did nothing but traffic in those stereotypes. And it bombed. Big time.)
1. Rocketing numbers. Almost no one noticed that the number of at-home dads was up 50 percent in 2004 as compared to the 2003 numbers. And though I hate the way the census folks count us, the giant leap suggests there's something big going on.
Thanks to everyone who has supported this site by reading it, listening to my over-ambitious early podcasts, listening to my erratic later podcasts, buying stuff from the rebeldad.com store, participating on the wiki, linking to rebeldad.com, subscribing to the RSS feed, putting up with some of the general geekery, commenting on posts and saying hello at the convention. I can only hope for another year like this one.
posted by Rebel Dad at
11:15 PM
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