Category archive: work

November 18, 2009

Working Mother Fans Sexist Hysteria Over Child Custody

Wow. I am just blown away by the incredibly sexist premise and alarming tone of Sally Abrahms' article in Working Mother magazine about supposed changes in divorce and family law. The magazine considers dads' increased involvement in parenting to be...
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November 3, 2009

NYT On The Pruetts: 'Fathers Do Not Mother, They Father.'

The NY Times has a great article discussing some recent research on the involvement of fathers in raising kids, including the work of Dr. Kyle Pruett a child psychiatrist at Yale, who is one of the leading researchers on fatherhood,...
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October 2, 2009

DT Friday Freakout: Unfit Mothers Edition

Sometimes it can be really hard to sit on some of these newly released studies all week and not freak out about them. But this way, it only ruins the weekend: The BBC's headline which took a new Institute of...
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September 11, 2009

Feminism? You're Immersed In It!

While I was immersed in the imaginary dialectics of crayonmaking, Backpacking Dad was tackling more substantial matters, namely the state of feminism in the era of supposedly equal parenting. You win this round, Backpacking Dad! It's pretty great stuff:Fish out...
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August 7, 2009

John Hughes, Writing Dad

John Hughes, I can't quit you. In last summer's issue of Zoetrope All Story, Hughes recounted the creation of "Vacation '58," the short story that became National Lampoon's Vacation, which wrote on the sly while he was working at Leo...
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August 3, 2009

Welcoming Your Little Bundle Of Joy And Hospital Bills, Holy CRAP!

Wow, last time we heard from Sarah Wildman, she was writing an incredibly insightful article for the New York Times stuffed with the wisdom of hard-found parenting experts on how parents in these New Depressionary times really might not need...
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July 31, 2009

Mombody Puts Daddy In A Corner

Were you actually the one doing the knocking up? Has Baby helped you learn the kind of person you want to be? Do circumstances have you looking for something to do?We're Looking For Dads, Guest Bloggers! We'd love Do you...
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July 23, 2009

Daddy Talks--With The New CEO Of The New The Right Start

I admit, I was caught off guard by Liberty Media's purchase of the assets of The Right Start and babystyle at a court-supervised bankruptcy auction a couple of months ago. What interest could John Malone, aka the Infobahn Warrior, have...
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July 16, 2009

Mama Bear

O forgive me, for I am a weak and imperfect man who is unable to resist temptation--especially when it is placed right before me on AKGovSarahPalin's Quitter Twitter:Great day w/bear management wildlife biologists; much to see in wild territory incl...
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June 20, 2009

The DT Token Father's Day Story Contest!

Alright, this one will be quick. DT's minivan correspondent JJ Daddy-O has challenged us to a contest, and I think we can't back down. So get out there and find the most ridiculously patronizing Father's Day story you can find,...
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June 19, 2009

DT Friday Freakout Jersey Girl Edition

Father's Day notwithstanding, here are some news reports from the worlds of science, government, and parenting to ruin your weekend: In two separate incidents this week, Continental Airlines sent two unaccompanied minors to the wrong cities, and USA Today says...
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April 22, 2009

GTWDs Are The New Hotness In Australia

The Sydney Morning Herald has the scoop: seems that the business culture is starting to change in Australia, and more and more dads are demanding flexible work schedules so that they can be more involved with raising their kids. So...
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March 27, 2009

Robert Stern Explains Why There Are So Many Male Architects

It's because architecture as a profession is very demanding and involves much international travel. Also, because men don't have to worry about having a family or taking care of them or spending much time with them. Thank you, Dean...
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March 15, 2009

Shapely Science-Distorting Lactivists Annoy Pump-Hating, Stressed-Out, Guilt-Ridden, Haranguing Shrew

The specific arguments Hanna Rosin makes in her new Atlantic Magazine piece, "The Case Against Breast-feeding," are as follows: The increasingly strident culture of breastfeeding activism culture misuses science to induce guilt among upscale, "overachieving" mothers. The claims of scientifically...
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March 12, 2009

Grover, Can You Spare A Dime? Sesame Workshop Lays Off 20% Of Employees

Sesame Workshop announced layoffs of 67 employees today, roughly 20 percent of the non-profit company's workforce. In a statement to the Financial Times, the Workshop said it was "not immune to the unprecedented challenges of today's economic environment," and that...
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February 20, 2009

Ska At Home Dad

Ho. Ly. Smokes. Talk about burying the lede. The Guardian has a story about The Specials reuniting, that just casually mentions, Lynval Golding, the guitarist "had stopped playing guitar altogether and was living quietly in Seattle as a stay-at-home father...
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January 29, 2009

Survey Says....Moms Are Pretty Pissed

Yow. Parenting.com has the results of a survey of 10,000 MomConnection moms, and they are pissed. And it's not about the impending demise of Wondertime, either. It's the self-centered bums who knocked them up and then don't remember when...
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January 12, 2009

The New Yorker: An Unhelpful History Of Elitist Breastfeeding Hangups

In modern history, breastfeeding has been fetishized and demonized, considered a woman's ultimate patriotic duty, and a savage, animalistic practice unworthy of mothers of the civilized, fair races. In 18th century Paris, an estimated 90% of women used wet...
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January 1, 2009

Russian Auto Factory Nursery, By Margaret Bourke-White

For all the enlightening fun the archive is providing, I haven't found many images from LIFE Magazine I'd actually want to buy. But Margaret Bourke-White's incredible 1931 photograph of the nursery [sic] in a Moscow auto plant makes the...
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December 23, 2008

Day Care Joins List Of Things No One Can Afford Anymore

We interrupt this stream of over-elaborate, handmade doll house posts to bring you this important breaking news: half the parents in the Washington DC area are pulling their kids out of daycare and dropping them at grandma's or the neighbor's...
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November 29, 2008

Private Jets Are For The Children, Part XVI

If blogs didn't exist, sociologists would invent them. Or more likely, they'd just complain to each other about the unjust slowness of traditional publishing. As it is, they are able to publish eleven--count'em, eleven--fun-to-read blogs at Contexts, a [the?] magazine...
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October 21, 2008

Palin Comparison

A couple of news stories about Sarah Palin and her family get me thinking a bit about how differently our culture--or at least the media and the people who parrot it--treat men and women in the same job. Politico reports...
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October 16, 2008

Consider The Lobster. For Dinner

With apologies to the memory of the great David Foster Wallace, I gotta say, this video of a kid meeting his first box of mail-order lobster is SO FREAKING CUTE. [via radar]...
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August 26, 2008

DTQ: What's A Dad To Do [When He Gets Home From Work]?

I got an email from a reader the other day asking for advice. At first, I felt like I knew the "right" answer, but then I caught myself. I realized I was trying to parse the email for clues, identifying...
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August 1, 2008

Greg Learns About Didactic Children's Book Publishing

In the 1960's, at the height of the Cold War, and just as their country needed them to fight the Communists in Southeast Asia, America's Youth were abandoning the ideals their parents had fought so hard for, turning into...
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July 14, 2008

Hold That Self-Righteous Mob, Chicago, This Cage-Dad Coverage Sucks

"Nothing about the outside of Ricardo Gonzalez's deep blue Land Rover tells there's a homemade jail inside, where his two young daughters were completely immobilized in tight seats covered with straps, just like an electric chair." Can you ever imagine...
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July 5, 2008

Google Day Care: Situation Normal, All F*(@#-Upgraded

The NY Times' Joe Nocera writes about Google's first foray into the employee child care business. And by "writes about," I mean, "gives an 800-word, barely-credited recap of a whole cluster of reports, leaks, and firsthand accounts that Valleywag ran...
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June 13, 2008

NYT On Navigating The AHD-to-GTWD Transition

Well, it's taken her a few years, but NY Times writer Lisa Belkin is apparently getting on board with the reality that men are somehow involved in many work-family balance situations. She has a short [for her, 1400 words] but...
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June 12, 2008

Sheesh, How About We Share Reading This Insanely Long NYT Article On Shared Parenting?

I think any parent who's juggling kid, work, and family responsibilities will say the same thing when they see this weekend's NY Times Magazine cover story, When Mom and Dad Share It All: Day-um, when am I going to read...
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A Hard Manny Is Good To Find

Sexism has been much in the news of late, at least on this side of the pond [damn, but I hate that phrase.] So when you read Judith Woods' account in the UK Telegraph [I know, I know] about her...
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April 21, 2008

Wired Spots Startup Baby At Startup School

From the sound of things, the real takeaway for startup baby and his/her startup dad from Saturday's Startup School '08 at Stanford should be David Heinemeier Hansson's talk. Hansson's a partner at 37signals.com and the creator of the Ruby...
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April 11, 2008

Parisian Baby Photographer Sks Free NYC Pool For Fun, Mostly Profit

Let me get this straight. You're an underwater maternity photographer who charges $1,000 for a 30-minute shoot with each pregnant woman and/or newborn baby. Your currency has never been stronger, and now you want to come to New York...
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March 29, 2008

Hey, Now Turn Parentblogging Into A Lucrative Career! Until You Quit In Frustration

Check it out, Parenting.com is looking for an editor! If you can "generate lively, crisply written, accurate parenting stories...on tight deadlines," and want to "Work with Parenting and Babytalk editors to generate and showcase collaborative features and campaings that exploit...
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March 25, 2008

DT Link Roundup: PC, ABC, APC, RR, HR Edition

Some headlines and links from the DT browser tabs: One WSJ dad knows he's ruining his 5-yo son's future by not teaching him more about computers. but dammit, we didn't need Webkinz when we were that age; we blew our...
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March 10, 2008

DTQ: Mister Rogers Merchandise?

Posting may be a little light today. Not pointing any fingers, not playing the blame game, but someone scheduled the kid's hearing test for the first day his wife went back to work. Hopefully, my mom can check out the...
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March 1, 2008

Gravitation, The Work-Family Video Game, By Jason Rohrer

I am so glad stuff like this exists; it's really spectacular, in a quiet, off guard way that I never would have imagined. Jason Rohrer created Gravitation, his latest autobiographical video game [?!] out of the sudden, overwhelming response...
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February 21, 2008

Offecct Playhouse: Toys For The Office

Kidsmodern has a report from the Stockholm Furniture Fair that's worth checking out. It includes some new pieces from the Danish folks at Collect Furniture, but the idea that caught my attention is the Playhouse set by Andres Breitholtz...
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What Does Daddy Do With All His Playmobil?

Finally, Mr. Stinkhead has figured out what to do with his massive Playmobil collection while his son is still in the Serious Choke Hazard Stage. he set up little dioramas, took some pictures, and made a little book called,...
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February 5, 2008

Transnational Migration & Parenting Style

A bit random, sourcewise, but interesting. It's from a project by a neighbor of ours in DC, an online journal called Migration Information Source, which just got a glowing writeup in the NY Times yesterday. Wellesley sociology professor Peggy Levitt...
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January 30, 2008

The Economist Looks At The Life Of 'An Alpha Woman's Beta Half'

The Economist's lifestyle magazine, More Intelligent Life, takes a long, slightly incredulous look at at-home dads in England. [Turns out they're everywhere! And they look just like us, except they wear the same clothes every day.] At-Home Dad godfather Peter...
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January 22, 2008

Acting Didn't Work Out? LA SAHD Amuses Self, No One Else With Phony Classified Ads

You know you're pathetic when even the bloggers look down at you. A Los Angeles at-home dad [who would be a go-to-work dad if his chosen profession was something besides acting] apparently passes the time by placing totally random classified...
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November 23, 2007

H Is For Holy Crap, By Marc Johns

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Post-it note drawing: H is for holycrap, originally uploaded by Marc Johns. After he made...
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November 16, 2007

DT Headline Roundup: Do Unto Others Edition

Clearing the browser tabs before a weekend with the grandparents: Chick-Fil-A manages to bum out yet another family with their freebie toys. I didn't call a company spokesman, but I expect they'd point out that, for us sinners, no meal...
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October 25, 2007

Can You Talk About Paying The Nanny Off The Books Without Sounding Like A Total Ass?

Because if I had to go by Mijka Samora's blog post, "The Nanny Arbitrage," I'd have to say no. Samora makes the argument--what used to be called "self-serving rationalization"--that paying a nanny off the books is not only awesome, the...
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October 21, 2007

Cough Medicine, The New Opiates Of The Masses' Children, Ain't Got Nothin' On The Old Opiates

It's funny what three years of parenting will do to your attitudes on drugging children. Last week, I was plotting to promote an underground band of renegade dads, calculating their own doses of contraband decongestants, but in August 2004, when...
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October 19, 2007

NYT: Presidential Candidates Don't Give Damn About Child Care, Whatever That Means

In her NY Times column yesterday, Gail Collins points out that except for a content-free photo-op by Hillary Clinton, exactly none of the presidential candidates of either party will talk about child care in the US. Instead, they talk around...
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October 18, 2007

WTD: Parent Blog Sks Design Blogger 4 Publicist 3-Way

Babble's looking for a design blogger:...The writer (ideally a parent) should be obsessed with new and beautiful design, and be able to keep readers up to date on the latest design breakthroughs in everything from European strollers to organic baby...
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October 10, 2007

DT Headline Roundup: Einstein, Pumpkins, Chico Edition

News from around the browser tabs: The Washington Post has a nice takedown of the "educational" baby TV racket. Frankly, after soloing for most of last week, I have a newfound sympathy for any parent who decides to use a...
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October 8, 2007

Time's Manly Masculine Mating Men Of The Year

Time has a long article on the new generation of fathers. In addition to looking at the changes happening in workplaces and corporate family leave policies, the piece spends an unusual amount of time dwelling on the masculinity of men...
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October 2, 2007

Upstate NY Mom Juggles Blow, Job, And Breastfeeding

Today's episode of Saratoga Street is brought to you by the letters, W, T, and F:Schenectady Police have arrested a Saratoga woman in a prostitution bust and they say that woman, Linda Cook, performed sex acts on two men in...
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August 28, 2007

Freshman Dad Has 17-mo Roommate, Not A Lot Of Free Time

Mike Schieding's girlfriend got pregnant during junior year [of high school]. If he hadn't found out about Endicott College's campus residential program for single parents, he figures he never would've been able to manage a job, an education and full...
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August 22, 2007

Liveblogging The CBS Early Show Segment On 'Hip, Hands-On Dads'

A little while back, CBS's Early Show called, looking for one of the "new breed of dads" they could put on TV. He had to be: hip hands-on in the NY Metro area, and willing to let CBS show his...
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April 9, 2007

Stealth Parenting: What GTWD's Do

Jugglezine is an online magazine about work-life balance by the folks who made your office chair: Herman Miller. It's from all the way back in 2005, but this article on how dads don't get quite the same license from the...
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March 30, 2007

So What Makes/Breaks An Infant/Toddler Day Care Setup?

Whatryagonnado? Here's a quote from Emily Bazelon's article about what the results of the latest NICHD day care study really do and don't mean[study author Margaret] Burchinal points out that on average, day care for infants and toddlers is worse...
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March 16, 2007

Opt-Out Myth-Information

That tiny sound you hear, finally, is a tree falling, chopped down and turned into paper that carries news of the longstanding shortcomings in how the media--and hence, policymakers and corporations--completely misframe the issues of moms and the workplace. The...
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January 26, 2007

Ford: Employee Child-Care Centers Definitely Not Job One

Just luxuriate in this description of Ford Motor Company's day care and pre-school centers from Working Mother's 100 Best Companies list:CHILD-CARE KUDOS An impressive 17 full-year on- or near-site child-care centers give moms something to cheer about, with ten accredited...
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