Media trashes breadwinning-dads with Parenting Magazine’s ‘Mad at Dad’ Survey

Article here. Excerpt:

'“Alarming percentages of moms are angry at dads on a regular basis.“ “Hell hath no fury like a mommy scorned.“ “Moms are angry about dad’s role.“

These are some of the headlines which greeted Parenting Magazine’s new “Mad at Dad” survey which found that 31% of mothers get “little or no help” with childcare and 46% of mothers “get irate with their husbands once a week or more.” The New York Times called the survey “disturbing,” while a Washington Post columnist announced that mothers are “literally killing themselves.”

Mothers who are dissatisfied might want to examine their own behavior as well as that of their husbands. Studies reported in the Journal of Family Psychology in June, 2008 and the Journal of Marriage and the Family in 1999 show that mothers are generally the gatekeepers of fathers’ involvement with their kids. If she criticizes or insists that any way that isn’t her way is wrong, dad will often withdraw. But if she stands aside and lets him parent, he usually does.

Another problem with Parenting’s survey is that they only queried mothers - a poor method to judge what fathers do or don’t do. For example, a 2002 Rand Graduate School study of father involvement found that “the failure to incorporate both parties’ (i.e. mothers’ and fathers’) perspectives may lead to inaccurate, inappropriate…conclusions.”'