Good News About the 'Gateway Drug' for Involved Fatherhood

I have gone on and on over the years about the fact that the best way to create an involved father is to give 'em as much paternity leave as you possibly can; patterns set in those first weeks and months have a way of pulling through long after the workaday life resumes.

So the good news, according to Working Mother magazine (via Working Dad), is that 42 percent of the magazine's "100 Best" employers offer paid paternity leave. The bad news is that the "100 Best" are, indeed, the 100 best. Only about 13 percent of everyone else offers paid leave to dads.

I'm hoping that number continues to inch up as employers realize that time off is every bit as important for dads as it is for moms. And -- heck -- I hope that the number of employers offering paid leave for moms rises, too. Why the U.S. is virtually alone in refusing to make paid leave a right continues to confound me ...