Monday, June 12, 2006

Right Around the Corner

So Father's Day is Sunday, which will kick off weeks and weeks of flailing at RebelDad headquarters as I try to keep up with the deluge of at-home dad stories. Already this week, dads are increasingly on people's radar screens. But it kind of snuck up on me -- I didn't even get a chance to plug Rebel Dad gear as the ideal gift for the season (it's probably too late to get anything shipped in time).

Fortunately, the folks at the Census Bureau are on top of things, and they're determined to drive me mad with their annual dad's day fact sheet, which commits a number of sins against fathers, including use of "Mr. Mom" and use of their ridiculous 147,000 number (Correction 6/15: they actually use new a numbers for 2005: 143,000. But my gripes remain) without any meaningful context. The publication also feels it important to cite the number of sporting good stores and clothing stores in the United States more prominently than any stats on men who, you know, father. And for reasons that are way beyond me, they mention the percentage of child-support payers who are fathers. I know the federal budget is tight these days, but is that really the best collection of father facts that the nation's top demographers could come up with?

So as a service to the media types out there, who would otherwise have to rely on the Census folks for story ideas, let me point to my list of great potential Father's Day stories from last year. Most are just as juicy today. Also: for a more-or-less complete collection of SAHD stats, check out the RebelDad stats page. And for dads near you, check out the new group and playgroup map.

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