Bumbling Dads? Really? That’s Your Worst Problem? Dude, I Want Your Life
by Richard
There’s first-world problems, like complaining that the airport in which you’re about to catch a cheap flight to the islands doesn’t have enough plugs to charge your iPod for the flight. And then there’s these dudes.
There’s a movement under way among dads in America that’s changing what you see on TV.
Across the country, more and more are fed up — and rising up against the stereotype of the inept, clueless father.
“We’re not the Peter Griffin or the Homer Simpson that we’re often portrayed as,” said Kevin Metzger, who runs the Dadvocate blog.
In an article on CNN.com, Josh Levs talks about how seeing dumb dads on television or in ads or whatever kind of media is often the chief complaint most dads have. Really? The chief complaint? Nothing about lack of support for paternal rights in custody cases? Nothing about horrendous health care support by the government? Nothing about the appallingly high infant mortality rate in this country?
It’s dumb dads in the media? Wow. Just. . . wow.
David Holland, father of three, rails against “doofus dads” in ads. In his blog Blather. Wince. Repeat., he calls them “Madison Avenue’s go-to guy.”
During every commercial break, he says, he and his wife “try to see who can be the first one to spot the idiot husband or father.”
In a sign of their growing power, dads out to end the stereotype recently scored a knockout blow against a pair of TV ads.
A Huggies ad earlier this year said the company put its diapers “to the toughest test imaginable: dads, alone with their babies, in one house, for five days.”
Another Huggies add shows a bunch of dads with their young dudes watching a ball game. The dads ignore the babies for a long while and let the Huggies sop up all the problems.
These horribly offensive commercials were so horribly offensive that the dads had to protest and eventually got Huggies to take them off the air.
Dudes, really. Get a grip on reality.
This is gentle ribbing. This is not discrimination. What it is, really, is just sad.
I’ll admit, I’m probably the first one to say something snarky when the school administrator talks about how she loves “all you moms for coming out to volunteer.” Of course, I do it because it gets a laugh. Not because I feel offended.
I like that some people have a reduced amount of expectations for what dads can do. It makes the looks on their faces when I show up all the more priceless. These idiots on television? They’ve got nothing to do with me.
Bleating about this sort of thing is a waste of time and energy. There are far more important things we can get worked up about. Like the NBA playoff format and officiating. Now that needs to see some protests.
Grow a thicker skin. Get on with your lives. You’re already living life on the lowest difficulty setting. Take the ribbing and stop making the rest of us look like ungrateful whiners.
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