A reality show is looking for at-home dads who are funny, burn their child’s high chair and forget their kids at the park.
At-home dads are still a novelty in our culture. This makes them a natural fit for today’s “reality TV” programming. In fact, at least twice a month a casting or production company contacts me for help finding at-home dads for a reality show they are developing.
Most of them seem to understand at-home dads fairly well. Some are even willing to listen to my suggestions on how they could accurately frame a show.
And then there is the casting company who sent me this email the other day:
ARE YOU A STAY AT HOME DAD?
Do you go to a stay at home dad support group?
Do you have a dad blog talking about being a dad and the hilarities of raising babies and toddlers?
Have you caught your child’s high chair on fire?
Have you walked in and watched your toddler creating art with their own poop?
Have you left your playground without your child?
Does your stomach ache at the sight of a sonogram?
We are looking for dynamic “Mr. Moms.” If you are single, widowed or mom is MIA and you are therein daycare we are searching for you. You must have at least one newborn, toddler, or up to kindergarten kid.
Would be excellent if we found a group of friends, interconnected, going through the development of at-home fatherhood together. Send us your stories of visiting the parks, setting play dates, organizing birthday parties, and handling any of the other challenges and mishaps of being MR MOM.
Uh, I man. I turned on stove! Why smell like burned plastic? What pretty brown wall painting! OOOO… do not like squishy picture of small human. I run way from scary child!
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!
I would really like to ask them how their sick and twisted minds conjured up this load of diaper fill. Sadly, I don’t have to. I know there are people who still believe this is how bad men are when they take care of children. Sure, there are some men who are not great at parenting.
But only a demented child abuser would fit the character profile they are looking for!
Despite my reservations of this company’s ability to accurately portray at-home dads, I decided to send in my application anyway:
YES, I AM A STAY-AT-HOME DAD.
Yes, I go to a stay-at-home dad support group. Our group is called LinOma Dads and they are an awesome group of guys I and our kids get together with each week. I also will be attending the 17th Annual At-Home Dads Convention which this year is in Washington D.C. on October 6.
I don’t have a personal blog but write for several. I’d like to think some of what I write about is hilarious.
I’ve never caught a high chair on fire. Normally I only cook food, not my children.
I’ve always changed our babies’ diapers regularly so they never sat in their filth long enough to use it as paint.
I have never left my children at the playground because I can remember what they look like and I can count to four.
The sonograms I have seen of our children gave me a giant lump in my throat and caused my eyes to water; they never made me want to hurl.
I am not a dynamic “Mr. Mom.” I am not a man doing a mom’s job at all. I am a dad who happens to be home everyday parenting our four children, ages 10, 7, 5 and 4, and I’m pretty good at it. Their mother is not MIA. She is a very involved and loving mother who works hard to make sure we have what we need as a family.
I have a lot of interesting challenges being an at-home dad of four, but the most difficult is dealing with uninformed people like you who think dads are idiots.
Wonder if I’ll get a call back?
Al Watts is an at-home dad of 4 children and the President of The National At-Home Dad Network. He writes regularly for Momaha.com and Role/Reboot and is co-editing a book project titled “Dads Behaving Dadly: Chronicles of the Fatherhood Revolution”.