Once upon a time, you could count on dads — at least the ones on your favorite primetime television shows. They were reliable and predictable. You always knew they would arrive home in time for dinner and chime in with wise words of advice. But, times have changed and so have the dads on the small screen.

Just in time for Father’s Day, Forbes.com looks back at the evolution of the TV Dad from the 50s-today. In the TV Dinner decade, Jim Anderson and Ward Cleaver ruled the roost on “Father Knows Best” and “Leave it to Beaver,” respectively. After arriving home from their 9-5 jobs, they would take off their suit jackets, unbutton their ties and help solve family problems. Continue reading »

Tweet

0

Pin It

The last thing most dads needs is another tie. Like most men these days, my husband doesn’t even wear ties to work (or ever).

Why not come up with a truly original present that will impress Dad and help to make the world a better place at the same time?

In a compelling Op-Ed piece in The New York Times, Nicholas D. Kristof argues that Father’s Day is too wrapped up in consumerism. Instead of buying more crap your spouse likely doesn’t need, you’d be better off contributing to a worthy cause.

Here’s where the rats come in. Not just any rat, but a 30-inch long (including tail) African giant pouched rat trained to detect landmines in Africa. How cool is that? Continue reading »

Tweet

0

Pin It

There’s been a lot of discussion recently here at Strollerderby about the role men play in our lives.  In her piece on Hanna Rosin’s The End of Men, KJ says, “Male dominance, in areas from education to careers to family, is waning,” and in Who Needs Dads Anyway?, Sierra writes about another Atlantic article, by Pamela Paul, provocatively titled Are Fathers Necessary?

In it, Paul describes “fatherless” children, as we’ve come to understand them, as “unable to form secure bonds, lacking self-esteem, accident prone, asthmatic, and fat.”  I don’t know my biological father and was raised without a Dad for the first 7 years of my life.  The good news is, I don’t have asthma.

The bad news is, because I’m a child of divorce, I was gut-wrenchingly heartbroken when my marriage dissolved.  In the first few months after my divorce, I said over and over, “I never would have had a kid if I knew things were going to end up like this.”  Of course I love my daughter, and she has “made me live,” as my friend Bonnie recently reminded me that Elizabeth Gilbert wrote in Eat, Pray, Love.  (“I watched them, thinking that little girls who make their mothers live grow up to be such powerful women.”) 

Now, just over a year after my divorce, life seems almost normal again.  I no longer spend all day, every day waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I’m not as worried about whether or not I’ll be able to provide financially for my daughter.  But of course, my ex pays child support, on time and without any (outward) complaints.  We have joint custody, so he sees her regularly and has been flexible with scheduling when I’ve asked him to be.  We have a perfect parenting arrangement, as far as these things go.  But what about the traumatic events that lead us here?  How do they fit in?

Fortunately or unfortunately, they don’t.  A man does not have to be a “good husband” in order to be a “good father,” and I suppose conversely, women do not have to be good wives.  My ex did things while we were married that I can clearly point to as examples of why he’s a “bad guy,” but as anyone does who gets divorced, I see myself as the aggrieved party.  I sometimes wonder what my ex has told his much younger girlfriend about our split.  (When I say much younger, I don’t mean 10 years younger.  I mean that he’s enough years older than her to have earned a Masters degree, gotten married, purchased a home and then sired her.)  Perhaps he tells her, as he told me about his first marriage, he doesn’t really know why it ended.  After all, one must seem mysterious and a bit sad to remain alluring to naive co-eds.

One of the reasons my ex gets under my skin is because he (makes sure?) he’s just good enough to avoid being perceived as awful, which is, in a way, more incendiary and insidious than being an all-out villain.  Since he pays his child support on time and is a “good Dad,” there’s a nagging voice inside of me that says it’s not right for me to expose the ways in which he exploits young women, hides behind his degree and uses people.  I’m not trying to turn this piece into what (as Helaine reported) Amy Sohn has dubbed ”divorce porn,” but simply to illustrate that knowing your husband as a manipulator makes it difficult to want to shill out cash so your kid can buy him a “World’s Greatest Dad” mug. Continue reading »

Tweet

0

Pin It

A judge has come up with a creative way to solve the deadbeat parent situation: he sentences dads to Father’s Days in jail for not paying child support. Moms who don’t pay up get consecutive Mother’s Days in the slammer.

Judge James Flannery of Warren County, Ohio, says jail overcrowding makes it hard for him to enforce lengthy sentences, so he came up with this alternative. Continue reading »

Tweet

4

Pin It

Check out these lucky guys. Lucky to have such adorable (and adoring) children, and now even luckier because… Continue reading »

Tweet

0

Pin It

We hope you’re having as much fun as this dad and kid are today, your day of honor.

If you are (and you should be!) capture the moment on film and upload it here to win a Jeep Liberty Limited Urban Terrain Stroller. You know you want one.

Join The Babble Playground and enter the June Photo Contest: I Love Dad today! Contest ends June 30th.

Tweet

0

Pin It

Happy Father’s Day!

You know what I like about this holiday? I don’t need to buy anyone a present. Don’t get me wrong, I like buying things for the wife, the kids, the relatives, whatever. And I like getting gifts too. I actually enjoy giving more than getting, which I like to think is a sign of maturity. (It’s also a sign of having too much stuff and not enough space. Ahem.) Still, unlike most holidays, where the gift giving is reciprocal, this time it’s one way. THIS way. Hoo-ha! Continue reading »

Tweet

0

Pin It