More fathers are doing more around the house and view being a dad as an important part of their identity, whether they're blogging about being a parent or discussing baby food recipes with fellow fathers.
Fathers of today are helping out around the house more and consider being a hands-on dad a vital part of their identity.
Fazoli's/PR Newswire
EnlargeLaura Radocaj of Vero Beach, Fla., was warned when she was pregnant with twins that motherhood would be harder than she imagined ? especially because she planned to go back to work while the twins were still babies. "But this has been the easiest transition," said Radocaj, 28, who works from home in corporate communications.
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So what's her secret?
Her husband, Marco, also 28, puts in just as much time with child care and housework as she does, even though he works full-time for an air-conditioning company. "If your partner is splitting things 50-50, it's easy," said Laura. "Before, when everyone made motherhood seem like such a big deal, men weren't chipping in as much."
Something is changing with today's young fathers. By their own accounts, by their wives' testimony, and according to time-use studies and other statistics, more men are doing more around the house, from packing school lunches and doing laundry to getting up in the middle of the night with a screaming infant.
"If it's not my job, then it's her job, and that wouldn't be fair," said Marco.
But it's not just about sharing chores. For dads in their 20s and 30s, being an involved father is part of their identity. They blog about changing diapers, they chat nonchalantly with colleagues about breastfeeding, and they trade recipes for baby food while working out with guys at the gym.
Creed Anthony, 37, a teacher and father of two in Indianapolis, recalled standing in a hallway at work "talking about breastfeeding with three women. It was natural. They didn't bat an eye." Another conversation with colleagues, male and female, involved "poopy diapers, puke and eating cycles," he said. "And there are a number of guys at school who talk to each other about these things, whether it's 'my son's getting up at two in the morning, he's got this diaper rash, what did you do?' or running a vacuum cleaner to help a colicky baby. It's funny, but it's perfect."
His wife, Amal Anthony, 35, who works at a law firm, says Creed not only handles diapers and sick kids, but also does most of the shopping and laundry. But please don't call her husband Mr. Mom.
"The Mr. Mom thing gets thrown around a lot and a lot of us don't like that," said Anthony, who writes a blog called "Tales from the Poop Deck" and also contributes to the "Life of Dad" social networking site. "It's normal to us to be a dad. This is what we're supposed to do." He said he'd like to see more focus on all the "really good dads out there... rather than being portrayed as some doofus that only sits on the couch and watches sports."
Part of why dads are doing more around the house may be that women are doing more in the workplace. A study from the Pew Research Center this month found that mothers are the breadwinners in a record 40 percent of families. At the same time, the number of stay-at-home dads is twice what it was 10 years ago ? though still a relatively small number at 176,000. And in two-thirds of married couples with children under 18, both parents work, according to the U.S. Census.
As working moms increasingly become the norm, and as their financial contributions become more critical, they're doing less cleaning and cooking. A Pew study released in March shows that since 1965, fathers have increased the amount of time they spend on household chores from four hours to 10 hours a week. Women still do more, but as Dad's share goes up, Mom's goes down: In the same time period, mothers reduced their housework from 32 hours a week to 18. Dads have also tripled the amount of time they spend with children since 1965, even though moms still put in about six more hours a week with kids than dads overall, according to the Pew study.
"There's no question that guys are doing more, twice to three times as much, in fact ? for couples working two full-time jobs and caring for children 6 and under ? than in the 1970s," said Arlie Hochschild, whose groundbreaking book "The Second Shift," documented how an earlier generation of women did the lion's share of child care and housework even if they had jobs outside the home.
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