Dear MGM,

Recently, a small part of the small corner of the internet that is occupied by stay-at-home dads (like myself) was abuzz about the news that you are working on a remake of your 1983 movie “Mr. Mom.”

I know, this is actually old news (Variety reported it almost a year ago now), and I’m sure the remake has actually been in the works for some time before that. But, seeing as I’ve been unable to find any more up-to-date information on the state of the project, I’m hoping it’s not too late to chime in.

By no means do I speak for every stay-at-home dad, I just hope someone out there is listening to a few simple requests.

SEE BELOW FOR AN UPDATE!
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Get comfy kids, this will be a long one . . .

A couple of days ago, a video was posted on an at-home dad Facebook group page, of yet another incident where Seattle’s Mars Hill Church pastor Mark Driscoll makes statements that malign stay-at-home dads.

This one wasn’t the ridiculous “stay-at-home dads are worse than unbelievers” thing from a few years ago, but rather a sermon segment from last year about one “cowardly” kind of man he called “Little Boy Larry,” who stood as a representative of men who are really just boys that never grew up. Nice guys, but guys who don’t really want a wife, they want a new mommy to take care of them. The important part comes when he included in his description of this man-boy the line: “He’ll come up with dumb ideas, like ‘I’ll be the stay-at-home dad.’”

Naturally, this led to a handful of comments from at-home dads in the Facebook group, myself included, talking about how silly such a statement is, and lamenting that Driscoll’s wrongheaded, machismo-filled ideal of manhood and fatherhood is influencing so many. One of the comments included the statement that, in their opinion, the work of an at-home parent in “raising the next generation” is the “most difficult and manly job imaginable.”  Somewhat hyperbolic, sure, but I don’t think the importance of involved fatherhood can ever really be overstated.

Anyhow, the video itself aside, fast forward a couple of days, and a new comment appeared that, well, I just couldn’t let go.

This week my wife is out of town in exotic Minneapolis for some business meetings, so it’s just Tucker and I for a few days.

It’s always a strange time, with her gone.

There is a guaranteed extra level of exhaustion, obviously, but time with just Tuck and I alone isn’t really anything new for me. Essentially, it amounts to 2-3 hours each evening where I don’t have my usual “tag team” reprieve, and some slight adjustments to the bedtime routine. No biggie.

The worst part is us both just missing her, frankly.

So this isn’t the situation you see often where a dad is frantic about having to go it alone with the kid(s) for a time while mom is out of town for a few days or even just out for the evening. But what it did do was make me reflect on how often you do see that: friends on Facebook or Twitter, posting about how they’ve “survived Day 1″ or what-have-you.

I want to make clear I’m not saying I’m any better than those dads because this isn’t a big deal for me. I totally recognize that any change to your regular routine can be stressful, particularly if it means having to do things that are out of your comfort zone. But on the contrary what I really want to stress it that this frantic worrying is, in most cases, completely unneeded, because most dads are way more competent than they think…

…and sometimes way more they’d have you think, too.

Last week, Brian over at Dad at the Chalkboard started what is to be the first of a (hopefully) weekly Father Friday – Best of the Week “blog hop”, featuring the bests posts of the week by the ever growing community of dad bloggers.

There are so many exceptionally talented guys out there writing about being a dad that it can be really hard to keep up with them, so this is a great way to catch up with some wonderful stuff that you miss.

If you enjoy my blog I’d greatly encourage you to check these guys out too!

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Best of the Week from Blogging Dads

If you’re a dad blogger and are interested in joining in, you can read all about how to do so here.

It’s Saturday.

9:36AM.

Tucker and Mama hang out while Dada… wait, where IS Dada, anyhow?