More on Why I Hate Parenting Magazines

I have long held that parenting magazines have something against dads, working -- either explicitly or implicitly -- to favor a just-us-moms tone rather than cultivate a more expansive readership that considers men equal parents.

So thanks to Keith Tipton, I need to pass along this revealing NY Times piece from earlier this month covering Scholastic's decision to name a male editor in chief. I am happy enough with that as a symbolic move that I'm willing to overlook the stereotypical view of dads that the article takes. But the most enlighting passage comes from Susan Kane, the editor of Parenting (who long used the slogan "we get moms" to sell the mag):

“The fact that I’m a mom is a big asset because I’ve been there, and because there’s a certain kind of mom-to-mom connection that, frankly, moms want,” she said. “There’s a kind of intimacy and a kind of club that you’re in as a mom once you’ve given birth or once you’ve gone through the adoption process.

“My husband is, for all intents and purposes, the mom in our family. I’m really the breadwinner, he’s the cook, he does the grocery shopping, he’s home more often than I am. But I’m still the mommy,” she said.

So there you have it, from the horse's mouth. Whatever the initimacy created upon parenthood, dads are apparently not a part of it. Good luck with that kind of exclusionary attitude during the media-belt-tightening months of 2009.