Fathers spending more time with kids

A recent Newsweek article points out that fathers are now spending more time with their children than their predecessors did twenty years ago.

Dads are spending more time in child care, and it’s not just the fun playing-with-kids stuff, it’s across the board. They do all the basic caregiver kinds of things: the feeding, the diaper-changing, taking them to the doctor.

The article attributes the shift towards more involved fathers to several factors including a change in overall social values and an increase in higher-earning female workers giving rise to stay at home dads. It’s been the plight of the father to be stuck in the “breadwinner” role for so long in a financially driven world that the majority of men have been unable to be active parents due to the necessity to stay afloat financially. Regardless of the reasons for the change, many dads are playing a larger role in the lives of their children.

While this is the overall estimate of the state of fatherhood, I do want to state that there have always been involved dads, although possibly a quiet minority. My father is one of those men. He’s always been involved and plays a major, positive role in my life. I think the difference is that he is a positive role model in my determination to be a great dad, where many fathers have historically illustrated how not to be a loving father. But regardless of which role model todays younger fathers had, they’re learning from previous generations and applying it to improving themselves as dads today.