Are Today's Dads Really Different?

By Rebeldad Brian Reid

Last week, in the discussion over the super-silly Forbes piece, I let loose with one of my favorite points: today's dads "are much more interested in getting family and work time in the right proportions" than previous generations.

But I was so busy scratching my head over the whole Forbes flap that I didn't get around to reading the study lying on my desk, "The Effect of Fatherhood on Men's Patterns of Employment." It's an interesting piece of work that pretty much contradicts my argument, coming to the conclusion that dads are working every bit as long as men without kids. There's only one problem: One of the two sources of data the researcher relies on is a survey of men born in 1958. And while guys born in '58 pioneered a lot of things -- disco, stagflation, the personal computer -- I don't think they're the ones out front in the dad revolution.

In fact, I worry that even I -- born into Gen X -- am behind the times when it comes to progressive fatherhood. I've long assumed my generation was really changing the game when it came to flexibility. But the whippersnappers behind me may be the real revolutionaries. A BabyCenter survey of young fathers found much more egalitarian leanings in the twentysomethings than the Xers (who, in turn, are much more family-centric than their boomer fathers).

It raises the question of whether academia can keep up -- the UK study is already a few years out of date, and I wonder if fatherhood hasn't shifted even since the beginning of the decade. The number of at-home dads -- by the shaky method used by the Census Bureau -- is up by more than 50 percent since the early '00s, and I suspect that the availability of cheap broadband, cheap cell phones and the growing plague of Blackberries is making it even easier for dads to blend work and home.

Even the author of the UK study acknowledged -- in a roundabout way -- the changing nature of modern fatherhood. The press release declared dads want flexibility, not shorter working hours. That's not at all what the study showed, but it's probably the truth.

I know the On Balance readership is pretty heterogeneous when it comes to age, so I'm sure there will be plenty of discussion (and, I have no doubt, a defense of the '58ers) on the question: Are new dads doing a better job of pushing balancing than those that started the dad gig a decade or two ago?

Brian Reid writes about parenting and work-family balance. You can read his blog at rebeldad.com.

By Brian Reid |  August 31, 2006; 7:00 AM ET  | Category:  Dads , Division of Labor , Flexibility
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