Days with Daddy

Resembling the 'traditional' nuclear family politicians are especially fond of waxing about these days, my own parents wanted myself and a younger brother to understand and feel comfortable with diversity. Although our mother did not work outside the home for paid employment, we needed to realize other mothers did---and their families were no worse off than ours simply because of that fact. The powerful prose made this book a childhood favorite of mine, and I often wondered what had happened to the book. Surely my brother and I could not have been the only people to have read this tittle? Sadly out of print, I strongly encourage anybody who finds a copy of this book to get it for the kids in your life. The story centers on a family's readjustment as the mother reenters the workforce following a homemaking period. Because the two children have been so used to mom handling all matters domestic, seeing dad pitch in (and expectation of their own help) is initially shocking, but the family becomes a stronger unit from the new learning experience. Unclear what the authors own personal politics are (invitations to join feminist organizations are NOT interspersed throughout the book) the storyline convincingly argues flexible gender roles benefit fathers allowing more bonding time with their children. Yes, Dad does get frustrated when disobeyed during chore time, but turns out to be a really cool person who makes awesome pancakes and otherwise knows how to entertain the kids (which, for some odd reason was not revealed before mom's new job). Today's self-evident lesson in family love and diversity was quite radical in 1977 when the baby boom generation, themselves having been raised on infamously rigid gender roles was just starting to have kids of their own, and early generation gen-xers were growing up alongside the feminist and divorce revolutions as they shaped the way a nation thought about marriage, the family, communication, and roles