The Stay-At-Home Dad: The Evolution of a New Work-From-Home Species
These days, we all tend to think of stay-at-home parents as mothers but there is a now evolution that is gaining ground in this ecosystem: the stay-at-home dad. In 2002, there were 189,000 children being taken care of by stay-at-home dads, up 18% in less than ten years.
Today, fathers are taking on increasing parenting responsibilities, and are accepting the role of an at-home parent in ways that have never been seen before. These include:
The Traditional Role Reversal - where fathers become the full-time caregiver while mothers earn the household income.
Work-From-Home Fathers - where fathers contribute to the household income by working from home.
Custodial Fathers - where fathers stay home out of necessity after a divorce or death of the mother. In some circumstances, working from home allows a father to receive child support, insurance or social security benefits.
Financially Independent Fathers - the rarest case, where the father has an independent financial income due to investments, inheritance or another lucrative source, allowing them to stay-home and work at their own pace.
No matter the reason, fathers are recognizing the possibilities of staying at home and caring for their children either while supplementing the family income or not. It is a welcome contribution to the new definitions of family and is an honest demonstration of the progress society has made in recognizing the value of fathering.
