Introducing Rebeldad

My name is Brian Reid, and Leslie has been nice enough to invite me on board to be a regular guest blogger. My official charge is to look at work-life balance questions from a dad point of view, and I'm thrilled at the prospect. The wonder of On Balance is the readers ... and the aggressive and thoughtful and passionate comments that flow after every post.

I've written on the subject of work-family balance in the past -- some of you may have visited my blog at rebeldad.com -- largely from the point of view of an at-home dad with a bad freelance journalism habit, a juggling act I performed, with varied success, for the better part of three years. I remain incredibly interested in guys who make the choice to stay home and the way that society shapes their choices (and the way, in return, those pioneers then shape society).

But both work and family have shifted radically for me in the past three months, and I'm suddenly coming at the challenges of balance as the primary breadwinner. I've jumped into a new career in public relations, and I hope to make a mark on that industry and remain close enough to my daughters -- one newborn, the other about to start kindergarten -- to see all of the tiny leaps that constitute growing up. I don't know yet if that's possible, but I'll keep you posted.

I'm excited about bringing fathers into the discussion on balance partly because I think that work-family balance for men is important on its own and partly because the obstacles to work-family that everyone faces can only be overcome if women and men are part of the solution. As Ann Crittenden has pointed out in her wonderful book "The Price of Motherhood," women suffer in the workplace from the assumption that they are always and forever caregivers first. And men suffer from the assumption that they are "ideal workers," who can and should put family concerns aside whenever work insists.

Those stereotypes subtly and powerfully reinforce gender roles and make balance that much harder to achieve. It's hard to chip away at one stereotype without attacking the other -- if women want a fuller set of work-family choices, guys have to be a part of the revolution as well.

By Brian Reid |  July 27, 2006; 7:00 AM ET  | Category:  Dads , Guest Blogs
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