We really believe that the role of “Father” has taken on a new pro-activity in the current generation of dads. We see more dads becoming full and equal partners with their wives in the raising of children–changing diapers, driving carpools, telling bedtime stories, and giving the tender, nurturing kind of care that used to be thought of as the preview of moms.
We like to tell the story of a friend of ours whose daughter asked her one day “Mom, how hard is it to be a mom?” She said the question caught her off guard and while she was trying to think of how to answer it, the daughter went on to say “Mom, sometimes is it just so hare that you wish you were a dad?”
Funny as that story is, the fact is that today’s dads are more and more involved in the “hard” part of raising children and being equal partners in the home.
Years ago Richard Eyre (with a lot of help from Linda) wrote a book advocating this greater involvement from husbands, and suggested that men take a more proactive approach both to parenthood and to marriage.
In their podcast this week the Eyres expand and expound on the principles of this book which is directed at fathers and husbands and which attempts to give men four key concepts or words that can be programmed into their minds to form their attitudes and approaches as husbands (“Partner” “Protect” “Patriarch” and “Priority”); and four other principles or word-pegs that can form their approaches to fathering (“Confidence” “Calmness” “Consultant” and “Concentrate”) Each of these eight words is fleshed in with stories and illustrations of how they can make us into the type of dads and husbands we want to be. At the beginning of the show, the Eyres pay tribute to the dads and husbands of today and how much more involved and committed they are than those of previous generations.