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Home › Articles › Fatherhood › 21st Century Dads

21st Century Dads

Today's Fathers Are Taking on a Bigger Parenting Role

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If you're having a tough day trying to juggle the kids and housework, be thankful that you're living in the 21st century. "Fathers today are doing much more hands-on parenting and housework than they did five and 10 years ago," says parental-leave activist Julie Shields, who is the author of How to Avoid the Mommy Trap: A Roadmap for Sharing Parenting and Making It Work (Capital Books, August 2002).

According to the U.S. Census, the number of households with a primary-parent dad has increased by 70 percent in the last decade. The number of father-headed single households has risen by almost 50 percent in the past 30 years alone.

Win-Win Situation
Fathers are more likely to take formal paternity leave, to have that leave be paid and to take longer leave, says Shields. They are also changing diapers, waking up at night to feed babies, working flexibly, taking children to and from school and making daily involvement in their children's lives a reality rather than just a goal. "They still do not do as much as women, however, but they now do about 75 percent as much housework as women do, up from 30 percent in 1970," she says.

This increased involvement is good news for children, wives, marriages and the fathers themselves, says Shields, who likes to refer to these dads as "new millennium dads." Today's dad "has more varied responsibilities and carries more expectations of himself than his own father," says Shields. "These include partnering with Mom in childrearing and house care."


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