Best-selling author and OG dad blogger Mike Adamick tells The Modern Dads Podcast he thinks fathers changing the conversation about boys and parenting is a good start to raising girls to be strong and independent. Raising Empowered Daughters: A Dad-to-Dad Guide, to be released in June 2019, is "a fists-up handbook for helping dads dismantle the patriarchy," Adamick's website. On the show, he and host Whit Honea talk about Adamick's efforts to meet dads where they are to discuss equality, representation and feminism. One way, he says, is to start by changing the way we talk about boys and … [Read more...]
Why My Daughter Has Her Mother’s Last Name Instead of Mine
My daughter is Isabella Gutierrez Marcelino. My last name is Gutierrez – but that’s actually my daughter’s middle name. We gave her my wife’s last name – Marcelino. I’m not ashamed of my family's name. I’m proud to be a Gutierrez. The name is always a reminder of my dad, my hero, who still works day and night to ensure the people he loves are always taken care of. As Stef and I started family planning, I was at a crossroads. Why is it that we value one last name over the other? When I knew we were having a girl, I began to think about why my daughter should automatically just come … [Read more...]
Sexual Misconduct: Dads, It’s Time to Finally Fix This
Men — especially dads — have to change what we frown upon. We have to accept that sexual misconduct hurts us all, much like secondhand smoke affects the air we all breathe. It has been said that when women discuss a problem with men, they are often looking for emotional support, not help with a solution. But when it comes to the sexual misconduct issue ricocheting through our culture, that notion is mistaken. Women are doing their share to fix the issue by courageously raising more awareness, reporting more abuses, and demanding more consequences. It is time for more men to join the fight and … [Read more...]
Women’s March Divides by Gender, Still Unites Family
Our mother-daughter and father-son split Saturday morning was one of necessity. We had to solve for multiple events happening at the same time. Mama and daughter were up early that day of the Women’s March, packing snacks and deciding what to wear. Mama had furiously knit three of the famous “pussyhats” out of pink yarn — for friends and for my daughter. She’s now making three more for friends as far away as England while my daughter continues proudly wearing hers to school all week. As they left the house for the train station that morning, my son was putting on his Cub Scout uniform … [Read more...]
How Does a Dad Raise a Girl?
Any day now, I will be the father of a baby girl and I’ll be honest, I’m terrified. As a stay-at-home dad, it has become soberingly clear that the responsibility of raising this little girl is resting on my overweight shoulders. I’m a boy. I have a boy. I’ve been raising my boy to be like a boy. But a girl is not a boy! Raising a boy is easy. My boy thinks that atomic elbow drops are hysterical. When either of us makes a fart noise, we’re the funniest two boys on the planet. Is this all going to change when a little girl comes into our daily routine? Can I give a girl an atomic elbow … [Read more...]