Single Laughs, If That

For the new year, Fox International promises a second season of webisodes for Single Dads. The series, ostensibly being internet workshopped for an eventual sit-com, features two fathers, two babies and no moms. It is supposed to take viewers through the hardships of going it alone. Instead, it feels like set pieces that weren't good enough even for Adam Sandler movies.

There is the being thought gay by hot chicks scenario.



There is the "tee-hee" inspiring discussion about having the procreation talk sometime in the future.



And, of course, the minds behind SD found their own two minutes of hilarity going through the well-worn motions of changing a disgusting diaper.



One new year's wish: that at least a few real parents have worked on SD for its second season and that a smidge of respect for the audience works its way into the scripts so it doesn't continue to get the four poop-filled diaper rating.

Child (Non) Support

In the silly season of a scorching summer, the "news" media can often reach for what seems novel. Man bites dog; daughter mad at dad. In this case, reporters have turned their attention to a daughter-dad spat showcasing the family and campaign of John [great name] Mantooth, lawyer, judge and father of three in Nothingtown, Oklahoma.

His second daughter, Jan, took out an ad and started the website donotvoteformydad.com that is fairly self-explanatory in its mission, inasmuch as father Mantooth is running for Okla. District 21 judge. She says he's not what he seems. His supporters say she is still upset from the long-ago divorce from her mother and is also influenced by her husband being a law partner of Mantooth's opponent. All explanations might be true, but none completely explains why Jan's siblings aren't standing up for pops or what she is really upset about.

An interesting take on the situation was offered by Washington Post blogger Alexandra Petri on other dads who probably didn't have the support of their young ones.

Laughing with (or at) Fathers?

Consumer products monolith Procter & Gamble decided in its behemoth wisdom that the world needs a SAHD site — specifically, its own. Thus, the creation of ManOfTheHouse.com,

The site — apparently envisioned to give un(der)employed fathers something to do when the kids are asleep and they are tired of cruising their home computers looking for jobs and viewing porn — offers parenting hints, blogs, subtle and more obvious pitches for P&G products and features wisdom from among others, the pops of DadLabs. [Earlier: Qs&As with DoDads - Dad Labs].

MotH also showcases the fine line between parody and condescension in pop culture regarding fathers who give care and that P&G may not be the most agile firm at tiptoeing that fine line. As part of its launch, the site features a "lost script" to  Mad Men, the cable television fantasy of the 60s advertising world that coincidentally begins Season 4 in a few weeks. The script imagines manly man character Don Draper as a whingeing, unemployed father who lives without a clue of how to take care of his kids. His haplessness might be funny to some, but it does beg the question of what the site sponsor actually believes about its audience.

From a Father's Loss

The fathers' loss category appears to be an odd, but growing, international marketing niche. The good news — for now, at least — is that the fathers who suffered and their future like are the ones to benefit.

Out of Indiana comes Tuesday Mornings with Dads, tales of fathers who have lost a son or a daughter. With obvious reference to Mitch Albom's Tuesdays and the Chicken Soup series of personal growth essays, the book hopes to reap profits for charities important to these fathers of tragedy.

Via Paris (although focused on American service) comes a calendar raising funds to support goldstarfathers.com, a site for the grief and support of men who have lost children to war. There is martial art and for every man who contacted producer Blackwell (whose son was blown up by mortar in 2007) about his own loss there is a star noting the day when the child died.

Honoring grieving fathers and helping them honor their children is a noble idea. Unfortunately, it is one thing to hope that only those personally affected guide these products and another to truly believe it will be a long time before random and unconnected folks and businesses start making money off the "father's loss" hook.

What Do They Really Want?

Perhaps the news of the launch of a site for new fathers — do we really need one more fountain of wisdom collected from the same sources? — really is good news?

Not that a site for dads can be bad in any case, but perhaps the Bounty parenting "club" announcement that that fathers of newborns can have all their questions answered and fears conquered by traveling to http://www.newdadssurvivalguide.com will change the world.

After all, do we really know what dads want? And, no, that they want sex and when they don't get it from mom they want it with someone else does not count as an answer. It is also unlikely that donuts for dads, while a nice way to attract the attention (i.e., bribe) fathers to show up in the early school hours to hang out with their kids and their children's teachers solves too many problems either ... and those donuts might actually be creating a few others.

Since Sigmund (father of shrink Anna) Freud famously wasted time pondering of what women want, maybe it would have been a better use of his brain to work out the problems to dads' desires. Or maybe dads need their own Christine Aguilera, who somehow worked out "What a Girl Wants," which reads like she needs her dad.

In any case, so far it remains a mystery. You certainly can't trust fathers to discover it on their own. Consider the case of Leonard Nimoy. He chased fame and financial stability and, at least according to the new "anti-memoir" by son Adam, My Incredibly Wonderful Miserable Life, things were okay for father (and son), but ultimately what he thought he wanted was not enough.

In short (and, yes, it is too late for that) when it comes to what a dad wants, your guess is as good as mine.

Less Fearsome

It's hard to make the case that fathers are completely powerless. But New Yorker writer Ian Frazier makes an interesting point about how times have changed when talking with Downtown (Manhattan) Express:

“Fathers are a joke now, and they didn’t used to be,” said Mr. Frazier. “There aren’t very many grown-ups in the United States. Most people in authority are just grown kids. Look at Bush.” In reference to the Bible, he noted, “Look at God. Back in the day, there were stern fathers who were afraid of God. Now fathers are powerless, and people aren’t afraid of God anymore.”

It's also hard — at least at first glance — to make the case that Senator Obama is a DODO, but Wisconsin Badger dad Greg Gerber killed some pixels with a press release looking for some publicity for his Dads of Daughters Only site so in the interest of dodo solidarity it may be worth noting that Obama is.

Although, he is certainly a dodo (as in "dumb obviously, dumb obviously") like the Reverend Jesse Jackson,who seems upset that his son, Chicago Congressman Jesse Jackson is more relevant to everyone except Fox News. The father is not a part of Senator Obama's inner circle and clearly is hurt by it and occasionally — as in his I'd-like-to-cut-his-nuts-off comment — lashes out for the attention he is missing.

No father is powerless, but, over time, as the younger suggests, they do lose a bit of their fearsomeness. Regarding the reverend's mouth, the congressman said, "Reverend Jackson is my dad, and I'll always love him . . . [but] I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric. He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself."

Times do change.