Mar 04 2009
The New Age of Stay at Home Dads?
I love being so hands-on in raising my child. But I can’t help but notice on trips through the neighborhood, to the grocery store or Target, or the health clinic that I, being a male, am in the minority in childraising. An immense minority.
I found this article at the NYTimes (you may need to register) to be a bit fascinating. It’s about how the number dads who are at home rather than at work (and the glut that is happening now because of the economic downturn) is primed to make a cultural shift in how we view stay-at-home dads.
The consensus is that although stay-at-home fathers are now rising because of the massive lay-offs, downsizing, and ‘right-sizing’ of the economy, it really will, at best, lead the way for another generation where SAHF’s are commonly accepted. The comparison is to Rosie the Riveteer, who went to work in the shops, warehouses and steel mills during WWII only to go back to the domestic life for the next twenty years.
However, the argument goes, it was because women were seen doing the traditional “man’s” job - even if for just a brief, emergency period - that some years later, they were able to find a way back into the “man’s world.” The idea is that there will be a short but pronounced spike in daddies staying home only to return to the workforce as soon as the market is ‘corrected’ (whatever that may mean), but that a generation from now, definitions and lifestyles may change.
What do you think? So much crackpipe? Are laid-off men staying home to watch their kids or just regrouping and working on their resumes in the meantime? Should these gender roles stay fixed?
* “Rosie Redux 0” by Malenkov in Exile via Flickr.
