Cooking, laundry, driving, dishes, and staying-at-home or working-at-home: what does mom do versus what does dad? And what do they both do? What would your children say? The traditional “mom and dad” roles have taken on new traditions as things between spouses and parents have shifted dramatically over the decades. And they continue to change.
In this installment of The Good Men Project‘s “Let’s Ask Dad” series, Ken Goldstein asks our panel about the house and work tasks they do and how they become (or don’t) “Mom” and “Dad” tasks.
Our panel of writers and dads Kyle Lawrence, Will Klein, Jared Mercier, Thomas Olona, and Admond Fong consider how their roles as co-caretakers and homemakers not only fit with their idea about family, gender, and masculinity, but why things are the way they are at home, from who likes laundry to who can cook better. These dads frame their answers in light of a new reality that isn’t so much steeped in “traditional” gender roles, but subjective only to task and not to title of mom or dad, necessarily.
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In this video series, The Good Men Project’s Ken Goldstein interviewed seven dads across a spectrum of different backgrounds. They were different ages, their children were different ages–some had one child, some had several. They came from different backgrounds, income levels, commitments to faith, and hopes for the future.
What these dads have in common is a profound love for their children, deep reflection on the impact of their own fathers on their lives, humble concern about wanting to make consistently good choices for their children, and hope that their children will grow up resilient and caring in a world with unnerving obstacles at every stage of life.
“Let’s Ask Dad” is the conversation about fatherhood in the 21st century on The Good Men Project.
Ken Goldstein, The Good Men Project Board Member speaks to the experience:
“I sat in the studio and got to know each of these fine men through their detailed answers to our deceptively simple questions, I was struck by the commonality in their integrity, candor, introspection, and keen insights into the forever moments of parenting. Any single moment of a child’s development might or might not become a memory, but the memories each of these individuals recalled with resonance were as different as they were as human beings.”
Join us below in the comments, answering how you take on the chores at home and how your children respond—and tell us in as many sentences as you want.
Together, let’s have the conversation no one else is having about dads in the 21st century.
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Watch these previous videos in the series:
What Do You Worry About In The Future When Your Children Are Adults?
Let’s Ask Dad Overview: The Series Begins
Are Your Children More Like You or More Like Their Mom?
What Advice Would You Give New Dads?
Describe Your Dad in a Sentence or Two
How Has the Word ‘Love’ Changed Now That You’re a Father?
What’s the Best Advice Your Father Ever Gave You?
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Reverse in gender roles … LOL, that’s cute. I like the guy where he and his wife both work 16 hours a day … Wow, where is the time for the kids? I think they call them “latch key” yes? Nonetheless very representative of many American families. I remember waking up in the morning and hearing the small kids crying as the parents put them in one of their luxury imports to trot them off to someone else while the two “professionals” went off to their career. But I have to say, they had an amazing new home they built… Read more »