Even with this blog being as new as it is, I sometimes feel like I write ad nauseum about how much tougher at-home dads have it compared to at-home moms.

Not difficulty with the job itself, necessarily –although I guess you could say women are still often “groomed” for it in a lot of ways from a young age, whereas men typically have a much steeper learning curve, initially — but rather in regards to what sorts of resources are available, and how much support and understanding one gets in choosing to stay home rather than put your kid(s) in daycare. We’ve come a long way, definitely, but we have much further to go.

But today I’d like to talk about another of the Great Untold Perks of daddy-hood (the first Perk being naps), which is this:

Dads get far more praise for doing far less than your average mom.

I’ve mentioned previously the difficulty most at-home dads experience in finding playgroups, support, or just other at-home parents with which to socialize.  It opened up a whole can of worms in my head on the issue of our relationship to at-home moms, and how they can be a huge blessing or an incredible frustration.

It’s no secret that when it comes to the world of parenting resources, 99% of them are geared towards women. There are certainly lots of books on fatherhood and how to be a good dad, but most of these are from the standpoint of how to be a good, involved father, when you’re out of the house at work 40+ hours a week and missing out on a lot of time with your kid. This is understandable, and I’m all for anything that helps equip a man to be a better dad, obviously.

I’m really excited about this upcoming documentary on modern fatherhood called The Evolution of Dad, from filmmaker Dana Glazer.

It’s not even so much that the film features some fellow at-home dads and spends some time talking about the phenomenon, so I can “relate” — it’s that this film really seems to be exploring the very issues of involved fatherhood that are close to my heart and I find myself more and more passionate about all the time.