Comments on: Daddy time

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:28:02 +0000

Of course you are a full time single parent. You might not be with your children 24 hours a day 7 days a week but who is? Hell, hids are in school 1/3 of their lives where neither parent is taking care of them. Does that make them 2/3rds time parents? Of course not. This illustrates the point perfectly.

By: Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

Jorge Fitz-Gibbon — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:52:14 +0000

Actually, I’m not a full time single parent. I have a 50-50 custody agreement with my ex, so I’m a half-time single parent. It’s more about equal billing when it’s valid.
My point was that divorced or separated dads are often portrayed as a secondary part of their child’s life.
As you pointed out, it is a bias, whether fair or unfair, that comes from statistical reality. So, perhaps more dads have to step up as well. It’s just not such a broad-stroke situation any more, and the literature is slow in catching up.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:29:07 +0000

You have to remember the person who wrote this article is a woman. There is a bias about single dads, not that they aren’t good dads just invisible. Single moms get the publicity. And most men I know with children don’t identify themselves as “single dad” like women who wear “single mom” as a badge of courage. Most men with children are just dads. My experience has been that more women do the majority of the caretaking and parenting time. I know that is changing but with younger children the child generally stays with the mom for more time. That doesn’t make it right but even in two parent homes the mother generally does most of the childrearing while the child is especially young. When divorce does come along a lot of men simply haven’t had the experience of taking care of the kids for long periods of time without assistance. In other words the roles have usually been established before the marriage falls apart and with all of the other chaos of a divorce happening its difficult to change ones position. I’m not saying this right. Kudos to you for being a full time single parent.