Do Dads Have More of a Cultural Foothold Than We Think?

Last week on “Babble Voices”, Catherine Conners moderated an all-star ensemble of parent bloggers, writers, and TV personalities as they prophesized the apocalyptic 2012 end to fathers who will be wiped from the face of the earth by eight-foot tall Amazonian mothers, wielding blood-drenched swords while carrying slumbering infant offspring in the Baby Bjorn baby carriers strapped to their iron breastplate… hold on a second, let me recheck my notes. No, I’m sorry, that’s incorrect. The actual issue being debated was as to whether dads were losing their paternal relevance in age when cultural narratives indicate mothers can raise children free an independent from fathers whose only function in life is a proclivity for tripping over their own junk.

Conners’s thought-provoking question elicited a range of well-articulated opinions from the panel, which was fairly represented by the X and Y chromosomes. Most agreed a ... read more