The New Dad

Here's a nice article from the Boston Globe about the new generation of fathers who expect more out of life than just a career.

I picked out a few quotes from the article:

The Good:

Even at a time when men are working as hard as ever, much has been made of the emergence of the new nurturing father. Around the time that Dustin Hoffman asked in the 1979 movie Kramer vs. Kramer, "What law is it that says a woman is a better parent simply by virtue of her sex?" sociologists were hailing a new era. Study after study shows that today's men refuse to be stick figures in their children's lives.

The Bad:

A number of men I interviewed declined to have their full names used, fearful they would be perceived by their bosses as weak in their commitment to work if they were quoted about their devotion to family.

The Ugly:

In Britain, researchers interviewed dozens of fathers in 2002, finding the traditional role has been replaced by a collection of new father personalities. The Enforcer Dad, a dying breed, is the strict disciplinarian; the Entertainer Dad is the family clown who distracts his kids while the mother attends to household tasks; the Useful Dad pitches in, though rarely takes the initiative; and the Fully Involved Dad jumps into domestic matters equally with his wife. Beyond these labels, there is another: Exhausted Dad.

You can call me Everything Dad, because on any given day I'm all those things: Useful, Entertaining, Involved, Enforcing, and, at the end of the day, Exhausted. Why do you think my blog posts are so short?