Liz: The American family is under attack.
Announcer: According to the Pew Research Center, mothers are now the sole or primary provider
in 4 out of 10 households that include children under the age of 18
Liz: this trend reveals one of the most severe threats to the American family...
...men.
Announcer: You're seeing, I think, systemically, larger than the political stories that we follow every day
something going terribly wrong in american society
and it's hurting our children.
Liz: If moms are so busy with conference calls and meetings
and leaning in all the time, that leaves us with one daunting challenge
Who's gonna take care of the kids?
[music]
Liz: Anyone who's watched movies or television over the last forty years
knows that dads are all bumbling idiots when it comes to parenting.
Still, some dads are irresponsible enough to give it a try
One of these dangerous men: Christopher Persley.
Christopher runs a blog about being a stay at home dad
he writes things like "I love being a husband and father" and
"I am straight killin' this fatherhood thing."
But I was skeptical.
So I decided to get the inside scoop from the person most affected by this troubling trend,
Christopher's daughter, Camilla.
So, I want to ask you a few questions about your daddy.
Camilla: Mhmm
Liz: How many horror scary movies has your dad let you watch?
Camilla: No, none!
Liz: Has your dad ever told you that he would come to your ballet recital
but then he kept like answering the phone in the middle of your show?
Camilla: No, but he did come to one of my ballet shows.
Liz: Was he there on time?
Camilla: No, he was there BEFORE it even started!
Liz: Have you ever been like on the subway platform and then he like, forgot you on the subway platform?
Camilla: No, that never happens. We're always holding hands.
Liz: Has your dad ever like vacuumed the floor and then like vacuumed the drapes by accident?
Camilla: No, that's just so silly!
Liz: Has your dad ever... you know you spilled something on the floor and then he used a newspaper to clean it off?
Camilla: No! None!
He cleans it with napkins, like, paper towels!
Liz: Like, paper towels? And just cleans it up?
Camilla: Yeah, of course.
Liz: Clearly, Camilla was drinking the kool-aid
probably because her dad didn't know what else to feed her.
So I decided I needed to investigate for myself.
[music]
Liz: Using a hidden camera, I observed Christopher's parenting methods.
I was certain I'd catch him in an act of bad parenting,
so I watched anxiously ready to intervene at any moment.
[music]
Liz: But I have to say, Christopher seemed to be a pretty great dad.
He cooked for Camilla,
picked her up from school, played with her for hours,
and took every opportunity to teach her right from wrong.
Liz: He was nothing like those TV dads.
Christopher: Our family might look a little bit different but we're all about kind of busting up stereotypes.
Liz: What do you think are some of the biggest assumptions that are made about stay at home dads?
Christopher: There are so many people who offer unsolicited advice.
They just automatically make assumptions that I'm inept.
There was a diaper commercial a few years ago...
Liz: Yeah, huggies.
Christopher: Huggies.
Commercial: To prove Huggies diapers and wipes can handle anything,
we put them to the toughest test imaginable: dads.
Christopher: That was just not well received.
I feel, from that point on, the Super Bowl just had all of these, fantastic
commercials that showed dads being very capable, very good parents, and not the bumbling oafs
that we've seen for so long in the media.
The more people see this positive portrayal of fathers, the more people hear about
the competency and the fun and the beauty of being an at home parent,
I think more people are gonna make that decision.
It sends a really strong message to Camilla that she is going to
have a dad who is a part of her life.
My dad wasn't around so for me it's been so important
to have this connection with my daughter.
I know that she values that,
and in long run it's going to be beneficial to her.
Liz: Christopher's not alone in wanting to be more involved in his daughter's life
President Obama recently talked about the importance of paid parental leave
for both mothers and fathers and Sheryl Sandberg launched the lean in together
campaign saying that
children with involved fathers are happier, healthier, and more successful.
Maybe it's time to change our notion of what a father can be from this:
Announcer: When you look at biology, look at the natural world,
the roles of a male and a female in society in other animals,
the male typically is the dominant role.
Liz: To something like this.
Camilla: I have a song to sing to you on the train.
It's called: everybody's equal