Cartoons and Seriousness

A couple of things worth flagging. For starters, eagle-eyed Peter Baylies, the man behind the At-Home Dad Handbook made a rare post on AtHomeDad.com, noticing today's Stone Soup comic strip. I'm not entirely certain what it means -- that non-traditional gender roles make for lousy parents, as measured by school lunches? I'm too tired to gin up outrage, but I suspect that the strip probably deserves at least a small dose of it.

On a more serious note, Jeremy from Others magazine put up an interesting post about his at-home dadism. It's an interesting read, capturing the two-faced nature of parenting and underscoring the importance of ignoring social trends. Jeremy's take:

Dads-at-home will be a tiny minority for as long as parents have to scramble to keep their heads above water, trying to make enough money to survive and give their kids the best life possible, under the circumstances. If Americans -- we fat, rich, selfish, sadistic, TV-watching bastards --? really wanted to encourage stable families and more paternal responsibility in raising kids, we'd raise our boys to be caregivers, guarantee health care for everyone, build more affordable housing, and require and incentivize employers to give all new parents, poor and middle-class, a break. Until all that happens, don't talk to me about trends.

Tags: SAHD, dad, society, cartoon, stone+soup, stay+at+home+dad