It's that time again, time to remember the man in our life, the father of our children, the emptier of the dishwasher, the quicker picker upper of the kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Happy Father's Day, working dad!
Our magazine is called Working Mother, but we love working fathers, too. Studies find that men are doing more hands-on parenting than ever before (9.6 hours per week versus 4.5 hours in 1995) and for the majority of married households with kids under the age of 18, both parents work. These days, the business of running a family plus two careers works best when carried by two sets of shoulders, side by side.
But even more than that, we love working dads of all stripes -- from the full-time corporate climber to the creative entrepreneur to the networking job seeker -- for the style, substance and patience for board games that they bring to parenting. In fact, we love them so much that for the first time ever, we made the bold move to change the name of our 34-year-old magazine to Working Father. I even handed my editor's note over to my own favorite working dad to get his dad's-eye view.
Working Mother also rounded up the top 10 lessons we can learn from the guys. Here's a quick rundown:
- A little "rough play" is A-OK. Many moms are a touch squeamish about this, but most dads instinctively realize that regular rough-and-tumble time is part of Parenting 101.
Some of these lessons may take a lifetime to learn for this working mom (especially No. 8), but honestly, I'm glad I have a working dad partner to help me see things from another point of view. I'm also glad he does the laundry!