What makes you say that?


The one that really used to get right up my nose was the Iceland advert (frozen food shop) with the slogan "Mum's gone to Iceland". Presumably we were supposed to think that even in a duo-parent family, *mum* does the shopping, not dad?

My ex brought our kids up and I sing his praises wherever I go. I am a staunch supporter of single dads, yes they get a bum deal usually in the judicial system Dads have to fight harder than mums - under normal circumstances.

I guess its a mixture of several things:
single dads are still in the minority
the people 'in charge' in the courts are still of an age where they were brought up themselves to believe the childs place should be with the mother
there is still a social stigma of embarrassment and awkwardness that a dad would choose to bring up his kids alone - I have a friend not much older than me who when she was a small child her mum died of cancer, she was automatically sent to an orphanage because her dad worked full-time.....no one I dont suppose even bothered back then to look at the alternatives.

"If anything if guy tells you he is a single parent bringing up his children on his own ....... he seems to get 'oh that's so great' 'it must be so hard for you' etc ........ they do exactly the same as millions of single mums ........ so why do they need extra credit".

Like I said before, people go the extra mile with praise for single dads because of the reasons I outlined above that it still isn't the 'expected social norm".
You are right AM in that context, single dads should *not* get 'extra credit' compared to single mums.
I got the feeling that the OP was meaning single dads are still relatively 'forgotten'.

I'm a single dad and was interviewed for the local paper for that reason.

I was asked about my role and how I deal with some situations (like how to answer intimate questions that my daughter might ask). My answers were well received in the first interview and now a National paper has followed up with another interview.

Although there seems to be some interest in the "single dad" area, I don't think I'm doing that much out of the ordinary. I've had it easy so far.

There are other single parents (esp the mothers) who have a tougher time and don't get the credit for it. Who has time for dating and meeting new people when you're stuck trying to keep 2 jobs down and spend time with the children. Those are today's real heroes!

Chatt3r, your comments there make me think (and no its not a dig at you, rather the papers).

Are these newspaper people interested in finding out what a single mother says to her son when he asks questions about intimate things?

When my sons were growing up, ok they lived with their dad but they saw me more or less daily....when one of them asked me an 'intimate' question, I suppose these newspaper people assume I replied "Go ask your father".
Or was it newsworthy if I used my nouse and handled it myself?

And a child in a 2 parent family, is the son directed to his father, and the daughter to her mother?

If you said this happened to you 20 yrs ago I would not be surprised, and even might have been vaguely interested in reading said paper myself.
But this is 2009, I am flummoxed.