![\"DSC_0001\"](\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8540\/8650809316_d8760decc4_b.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
These snap judgements are just crazytown to me. When I went away for a three-day trip a little over a week ago, there was not one thought in my mind to, say, leave a list of how-to’s in regard to childcare, or even to stock the refrigerator with food before I left. Because Andrew is a more-than-capable parent; equal-to, if not greater than I. We are parenting equals, and to say that I\u00a0trust\u00a0<\/em>him would be to negate the fact that I\u00a0admire and learn from<\/em> him. He is a father. He is the other half of the equation.\u00a0 Have your views of fatherhood changed since you were a child? What is the greatest gift your partner brings to your<\/em> family?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is something so interesting happening in our society. At least within our social circle (and certainly in my male cousins’ and many of our extended families’ households), fathers are even more present and crucial in child-rearing roles than they were in the previous generation. I speak to my family and friends about the changing … Continue reading “On Fatherhood in These Times”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,187],"tags":[107,142,48],"class_list":["post-4807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","category-motherhood","tag-andrew","tag-fatherhood","tag-motherhood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4807"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12202,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4807\/revisions\/12202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crumbbums.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"DSC_0006\"](\"http:\/\/farm9.static.flickr.com\/8381\/8650809856_f55ea319f4.jpg\")
<\/a>There is something so interesting happening in our society. At least within our social circle (and certainly in my male cousins’ and many of our extended families’ households), fathers are even more present and crucial in child-rearing roles than they were in the previous generation. I speak to my family and friends about the changing culture often: people from my parents’ generation tend to assume that I worry when leaving my children alone with my husband (!) and\/or assume it is somehow a burden on him to do so. Really! I get comments constantly about leaving my children to go to the grocery store or coffee shop by myself. One gentleman who works in a coffee shop I frequent actually said, “And you left them alone?!!” when I told him my husband and kids were waiting in the car for me. Yes, I know it was a joke, but my response of “Oh, yeah. He’s much more patient than I am!” was met with a glazed look in the eyes.<\/p>\n<\/a>I know that I am lucky, but I am also critically aware of the change fathers in general have undergone in the past 20 years. In talking to my closest girlfriends who also have children, I know that I am not alone. Something has shifted, and it is such a beautiful change. Gone are the macho stereotypes of the father-as-sole-provider-but-emotionally-distant-male-role-model. A father is no longer a clueless, distant, financial and strict figure-head in the family. The father figure I have grown to know is strong in an even greater way: he is not hesitant to teach his children love and affection as well as discipline and integrity. He is capable and nurturing and fun and goofy and wonderful.<\/p>\n