I sit in my hotel room on a break from my first Dad 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. The air of
positivity about modern fatherhood and the electric atmosphere has me excited
beyond words. I am surrounded by some of
the most accomplished, influential and thought-provoking Dads (and a few
Moms). For someone at the beginning of a
journey into blogging, it is intimidating but also very energizing to meet people
who were at the forefront of blogging and “fatherhood culture,” long before it
became so popular. Just this morning I
met the co-founder of Pandora, a writer for Esquire magazine and numerous
best-selling authors. All of them had
extremely interesting views on the current state of fatherhood and where we are
going in the future.
Where are we going?
Well the future is extremely bright in my opinion. Long gone (hopefully forever) are the days of
split responsibility households with mom exclusively doing the child/house care and dad always staying late at work. Apparently millennials,
and the couple years around us, have realized that life is better for everyone
when dad is involved in the day-to-day “messiness” of home life. According to the experts who spoke today,
children do better in school, have fewer discipline problems, are less medicated
and have healthier relationships in their own life if dad is involved with them
in a truly quantifiable way.
This may seem like a “duh” moment to many people, but the
truth is that a father’s role in a child’s life isn’t truly appreciated by most
of society. Not only do the benefits
extend to children, but also parental partnerships are healthier and more
satisfying for mom and dad when dad is more involved with the kids. My wife would appreciate the comment from one
of the speakers today who said that men who do their fair share of the childcare
and housework report having a lot more sex.
Men, listen up, if you want to get down, do the laundry and help change
the diapers!
This doesn’t mean that modern fatherhood is easy or we don’t
have challenges to meet. On the
contrary, we now have an environment where work/life balance, child care, legal
aspects of parenthood and a slew of other potential problems exist. One harsh reality I realized, that maybe I
already knew but was reinforced today, is that the USA is 1 of only 4 countries
that does not have some form of paid paternity leave… The other 3 countries are
Lesotho, Swaziland and Papua New Guinea.
Now I realize that our maternity leave isn’t great right now, but I
think the data support a need for some quality time for dad too when a baby
joins the family. Some companies are
getting the message and joining the change, but there is a long way to go.
This is but a taste of the topics of discussion today. In addition to the awesome speakers, we had a
chance to interact with some amazing sponsors of the conference who are
committed to getting the message out that dads matter. Some of them include: Lee Jeans, Dove
Mens+Care, Kia, Hotwheels and Nerf. I
can honestly say that they are not just trying to sell more stuff, they are
committed in real ways to help parents and kids lead better lives through
initiatives, products and ways of thinking that are making a difference in our
lives and our future.
Before the Kick-off Keynote
Sponsor displays
Hotel Lobby
Paternity leave breakout session
Dove Men+Care Lounge during wine tasting event!
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