Dads? At Home? Inconceivable!

You know Father’s Day is not far away (in the Northern Hemisphere at least) when the traditional media begins focusing on the fact that one half of the parenting team actually, well, does stuff. This year stay-at-home dads seem to be in the news quite a bit, and while there have been some truly ground-breaking stories on this rising trend — take Jeremy Adams Smith’s “The Daddy Shift” book for example — mostly the media take on the subject has offered just more of the same tired, wide-eyed, who’d-a-thunk-it-ness.

Dads? At home? Go figure!

Rebel Dad Brian Reid exposes a funny bit of lazy reporting by the Today Show — which ran pretty much the same segment on stay-at-home dads this week as it did just months before, even using some of the same dads — and the same title! In Smith’s book, he points out that there is a generational shift happening underfoot right now, pushing young fathers to be more involved than ever in their families — even dads who work the nine to five. There’s a movement to reject the sideline idea of fatherhood for something more meaningful, and yet if you take a look at the Today Show’s segments, it’s all one big running gag — complete with Mr. Mom references and B-roll of dads trying to feed their kids. Happy Fathers Day all you 1984 Michael Keaton look-alikes! Here’s to another 25 years of the same story.