Posted on 06/19/2012 1:54:32 PM PDT by posterchild
While Erica Howard-Potter manages her job as a high-powered tax attorney, her husband Jake Howard-Potter manages the house, the chores and the couple's very active 2-year-old daughter, Skyler.
Jake, who is a sculptor by trade, is the epitome of the so-called "trophy dad." The 37-year-old stays at home and stays fit, completing triathlons one day and expertly negotiating naptime and tea parties the next. And he is not alone.
"I had a dad say to me 'that skirt is really cute' and I thought who would have imagined that two dads would be sitting at swim class saying that a skirt is cute," he said.
According to the most recent Census, the number of stay-at-home fathers in the United States has tripled in the past 10 years up to 154,000. Yet, these at-home dads are still the exception to the traditional household and many treading in unchartered parenting waters.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Truer than you know. As for feminism, we all know it was pushed by a certain group. In his incisive '70s critiques of the movement, George Gilder concluded that feminism serves the class interests of upper-middle-class professionals with advanced degrees. In other words, it's a guild ideology.
But it caught on because the '60s turned into the '70s. A movement that made working women virtuous and progressive was latched onto because a one-paycheck household became less reachable. (Not to mention the zero-check households that resulted from higher unemployment in that decade.) Feminism became mainstreamed because it made a virtue out of a necessity for many American families.
And, of course, working wives pay taxes; stay-at-home moms don't. So there wasn't much objection in government circles ;)
The stay-at-home-dad movement is, again, making a virtue out of necessity.
While I'm on the subject, Gilder also pointed out that Soviet attempts to make fileds like medicine gender-equal resulted in the fields being dominated by women. The men left.
Even if that it is true, it is irrelevant to studies that compare single (or divorced or widowed) fathers with mothers of the same income level.
Thank you so much for your kindness. It means more than you know.
A mother with a hypenated name who passed it to her son.
I don’t have to worry, nor do I care about most women, i only have to worry about one. She seems to be fine with it, we just would like more money.
My son and his wife decided that he’d stay home with their twins for their first few years, and he did but she didn’t respect him either, and she cheated on him and left him for her boss.
Sorry to hear that. I have heard of other similar tales of wife cheating on him while he stays at home. I think some here are kidding themselves about this issue.
A woman will also say she doesn’t want anything for her birthday but woe on the man who actually believes it. My wife was the one who came up with the idea for me to stay at home. I worked a crappy job the first few years of marriage so she could move around and move up into something good.
It didn’t take much more than 30-45 days for her to change her mind and start commenting on me staying home. At 6 months, I went to a temporary agency to get back to work as soon as possible and I have never entertained the idea again. Even though I was watching out for her mom and sister, she was jealous of the fact that I did not have to go to work every day as she did.
Call it jealous, lack of respect or whatever but she did not like it. Like I mentioned in another post, she would bring it up in arguments for 5 years after. Women HATE the idea of you staying home while they work. They may tolerate it if they know you are looking actively for work but otherwise they will resent it even if they don’t tell you outright.
Glad it works out for you. Of course, not everyone is the same. I was commenting on most and I did my own unscientific surrey of 12 women at work and all said they would hate their boyfriends or husbands sit at the house while they work even it they watched the kids.
Some said they had tried it before and hated it. 0 of of 12 liked the idea.
If my man simply could not find work temporarily, that's one thing. But to voluntarily not be the provider, and be okay with it, would be an industrial strength turn off in my eyes.
Actually, though Im not good at it, I like to braid my daughters hair, and they like me doing it. Its a bonding thing.
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Nothing wrong with that. ;-) My kids are willing to brush my hair from time to time (aaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!) And my husband sometimes helps with with the washing and dishes.
Just my ‘gaydar’ went off for that commercial. Same as the ‘Poo in Blue’ ones.
The Tide commercial ‘guy’ is soooo emasculated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M28l-6LUp3w
And ANOTHER ‘gender bender’, here with a little girl. Yeah, they’re DEFINITELY going for the GAY thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=kUpZmXPYjZw
‘Poo In Blue’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hcDYsqS6-U
I have no idea... :)
over, under, over, under...
“so, how’d you bless your mommy & sisters today, honey?”
A good grandpa is better than a bad dad.
I know from experience, My first husband had nothing to do with his three sons, but my father helped me raise them into fine young men. They all considered “Grandpa” to be their father figure. So did their friends.
Ahhhh, hadn’t thought of that. Thanks.
Yep, similar situation here.
I got laid off November of last year, and the past seven months, while actively seeking a new job, I’ve also been doing the Stay-at-Home Dad thing, and I’ve enjoyed (almost) every minute of it.
We have three boys - the oldest just turned 4 and had been in all-day Pre-K until last week, and the younger two are 6 months old (he was born after I got laid off) and 19 months old.
Luckily, my wife is a high school teacher (Chemistry and General Sciences), and she’s done this coming Friday - so I’ll have a little more time to focus on finding employment.
I’ll admit that I may be a little bit sad when I do go back to work, because it’s really been a joy to be with the boys all day. In previous years, I was always a little jealous of my wife during the summer, because she could spend all day with the kids while I was at work.
I would never tell my man that I didn’t want anything for my birthday. It doesn’t have to be store bought, just memorialize it. My late husband was really good at giving presents, then always a reason to return them.
I got gypped out of many Christmas and birthday presents.
I do think most women would have a problem with a guy staying at home long term without any job...but I do see a ton of situations where the wife/gf makes double or triple of what the husband makes and the women don't have a problem with that at all as long as the guy is happy and successful with what he does.
My gf makes double what I do but she is in a very highly paid career and never looks down on me...we both have degrees. 90% of men don't make what my GF earns per year.
I know a ton of men who make less than their wives and that is a growing trend as more women graduate college.
There are other considerations besides the money,
considerations of eternal consequence,
and you have to ask how much those sacrifices are worth.
So are you saying there is some biblical decree the wife should not make more than the husband or the hubbie should not stay at home?
I'll bite. What eternal consequences are there going to be exactly for staying home with my children?
I have no idea how a greater income somehow makes a woman the head of a family.
Like no one ever heard of “management?”
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