“It’s refreshing to see these guys take the public perception of parents into their own hands.”
The mommy blog is no longer the dominating online voice of parenting. We’ve been promoting the dad blog since our inception in 2009, and we’re pleased to see more recognition in the media on the contribution of dads, particularly from Babble.com, which released its second annual Top 50 Dad Blogs. Nice work, Babble.
…we praised dad bloggers for “changing the way we think about fatherhood.” Indeed, a number of our favorite bloggers on this, our second Top 50 list, insist our thinking needs to be changed. They describe themselves as advocates for fathers, taking to their keyboards in order to counter dominant cultural stereotypes of dad-as-incompetent-buffoon. (You don’t believe them? Tune in to most any family sitcom on most any night of the week.) Others on the list aspire simply to entertain us with funny, relatable tales from the trenches. A few write to work through the shattering grief of losing a child or spouse.
This list features straight dads, gay dads, working dads, stay-at-home dads, geek dads, single dads, and more. In a culture where the dominant conversations around fatherhood center simply on whether dads can deign to change their kid’s diaper, it’s refreshing to see these guys take the public perception of parents into their own hands. We are again struck by the variety of their voices and experiences, which itself puts the lie to the notion of any one “typical dad.” A lot of our favorites from last year are back, while many worthy entrants are making their debuts. We hope you’ll enjoy laughing, crying, nodding, and discovering along with them as much as we have. As dads’ online influence grows, this list will only become more and more difficult to curate — and that’s a good problem to have. If you think we missed any of your favorite dad bloggers, nominate them here. – Barbara Spindel and the dad blog panel
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The list is broken down into top 10 praise in seven categories: Groundbreaking; The Funniest; Most Useful; Most Confessional; Best Written; Best Design; Best Group Blog. They also give readers a chance to weigh in on their favorites, hopefully to keep on their radar for 2013.
Congrats to the individual dads and their sites, and some of our favorite contributors. As far as thankless life choices go, blogging might rank second only to parenting. Your work is valued and necessary.