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Monday, June 18, 2007
The Burlington Free Press Dad Ghetto
Did anybody see the big cover story the Free Press ran on Sunday about stay-at-home dads?
Mariana Lamaison Sears profiles two stay-at-home dads. She writes that the US Census estimates there were about 159,000 stay-at-home dads nationwide in 2006. There are no numbers for Vermont, but Sears says their numbers are increasing:
With dad as orchestra director, the Barrons of Burlington are one of what seems to be a growing number of families who choose a nontraditional arrangement when it comes to raising the children and providing for the family. While Barron, 33, stays at home with Milo and Linus, 2, his wife, Carrie, works full time as a lab technician at the University of Vermont.
I saw this story when I walked into the office this morning. I also happened to see an item in this morning's paper touting the Freep's new GreenMountainMoms site, and its blog, Moms Blog Best.
"If you're a mom, you need to be a part of www.greenmountainmoms.com," reads the little advertorial on the front of today's Living section. "It's a social networking site for local moms — a place for them to connect, share information and news. It's informal, and the Free Press is simply facilitating the discussion by providing the forum — the content is the mothers themselves."
What do the moms talk about on the site? Says the Freep: "Best playgrounds, preschool recommendations, where to pick strawberries, using cloth diapers, Mom's funny secrets."
So let's review: the Free Press ran a big, front-page story about how more fathers are staying at home with their kids, but when it comes to their parenting website, they think only moms will be interested in preschool recommendations. Does anybody else see a disconnect here?
Apparently someone does — I was just reading the reader comments on the site, and came across this one, from tickedoffdad, who titles his message, "This website is insulting to modern parents."
Tickedoffdad also saw the cover story on Sunday. He writes,
For such a progressive state/country, the Free Press has insulted dads and reinforced the typical gender stereotypes that plague modern America.
This is even more ironic since the Free Press had an article on Fathers day about stay at home dads? Where is the forum for them?
I am the proud parent of a 1 year old girl. I have done everything for my daughter that her Mom has, with the exception of breastfeeding and childbirth and even those two topics I contributed to the decision making process.
I change diapers, have opinions on her childcare and feeding, etc, etc, etc. Where is my website?
The Free Press has been going down the toilet for years and this conservative traditional motherhood nonsense that they are reinforcing is insulting to many woman and many men.
Tickedoffdad didn't bother to change the generic avatar that GreenMountainMoms gives to all of its commentors. Which means that, ironically, the avatar displayed on his post shows a woman cradling a baby!
One of the site administrators responded with a message entitled, "Dad, you can join the conversation, too." She explains that she's created a "special spot" on the site for dads to comment, though I couldn't find it to add a link here.
I told that to one of my co-workers, who called it "The Dad Ghetto."
Here's an observation about how I suspect this site came into being: a few months ago, I attended a seminar sponsored by Newspaper Next: The Transformation Project. It was an interesting day of presentations about how newspapers can create systems within their companies that encourage innovation.
At one point during the day, the consultant who spoke to us offered us a couple of case studies of people who are not currently using newspapers. One of those case studies featured a generic, 36-year-old mom with two kids who doesn't have time to read the paper. The consultant basically recommended that newspapers create social networking sites where mothers can reach out to each other.
There is not a shred of doubt in my mind that this website is a product of the Newspaper Next process.
Which is not to say that the idea behind it is necessarily bad. I like the concept.
I just find it puzzling that the Free Press is choosing to frame the conversation in this old-fashioned, outmoded way, especially in this particular market. Do the people at Gannett know who lives in Burlington?
I guess their market studies told them this was a good idea, but it's definitely not pitched at the parents I know.
June 18, 2007 at 04:35 PM in VT Blogs | Permalink
Comments
I've been pondering this story off-and-on all week... I agree that it seems weird that they would frame it in this way in this particular market. I know a bunch of "dads" in the area that have either stayed home to do the child-rearing or else have made arrangements through work to have flex-time or work-from-home opportunities etc. Indeed -- to frame it this way suggests of a national view (in light of the stats) rather than a local approach.
That said, even in the progressive here of VT it seems that the stay-at-home dad phenomenon is the minority. My partner and I discuss this from time-to-time, pondering what choice we would make should the need ever arise. I think it's a tough call for many parents to make and sometimes folks wind up making the more traditional decision because it seems like it will be easier to have support networks in place. (E.g., what did that default avatar graphic look like again?)
There's no doubt a disconnect in the story's tone and its ancillary (er...) equipment -- but (sexist or not) the norm still leans on the Mom crutch. At least we're talking about it, eh?
Posted by: F_D | Jun 19, 2007 12:10:12 PM
If Gannett really wanted to provide a PARENTING resource, they would pitch the site at PARENTS, to be inclusive.
They could still have sections for moms, and for dads, and for Aimos (what my son calls me, because my partner is "mom"). But they chose to deliberately branded this as a "moms" site, which personally, I find off-putting, even though most people would consider me a mom, because I'm a woman, and I have a child.
What's wrong with having a parenting site?
I can tell you what the bean counters at Gannett would say — it's simply not as useful, from a marketing perspective. They think they can make more money off a moms site.
Posted by: cresmer | Jun 19, 2007 1:02:22 PM
Come on! Give it a rest. I'm a stay at home Dad and I am not in the least bit offended. If you don't like the way Gannett runs their business don't buy their products. Looking for a Dad/generic parenting oriented resource? Go create one.
Posted by: Dave | Jun 20, 2007 7:02:41 PM
Come on folks,
are people really so offended by the article and the web site for moms? I do not see either as "promoting a traditional conservative role" for mothers, as previously noted (and even so, is a stay at home mom so bad?). In fact just the opposite - the article paid tribute to fathers who take care of their children, and what is wrong with having a website that serves as a resource for mothers?
People cannot be so sensitive and insecure. How about for fear of offending people we abolish the terms mother and father and we all just call ourselves non-gender-specific-care-giver-partners-who-equally-love-our-children. Is anyone offended by that one? OK, good we can use it.
Posted by: dsmith | Jun 26, 2007 4:26:37 PM
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