Watch a few hours of television and you will be convinced: the father who is involved and dedicated to his children is no longer a marginal figure or a lofty ideal beyond the reach of common mortals. The advertising industry-always the first to catch the waves of social trends and ride their crests-no longer hesitates to use the image of the involved and committed father. In doing so, advertisers not only promote this new notion of fatherhood along with their products, they also demonstrate that the image of the dedicated father no longer even needs to be "sold" to most men. If advertising-that supreme arbiter of society's values and a key influence on its ideology-uses the "dedicated father" to sell its products, it is because this has become a positive image with which men like to be associated, a social standard to which they are willing to conform and a behaviour that they want to adopt.

Indeed, increasing numbers of men are adopting this behaviour. From Monday to Friday, on average, fathers devote 67 percent as much time as mothers do in caring for their children; on weekends, this number climbs to 87 percent. Some say these figures are still low, but thirty years ago, these proportions were a mere 30 and 45 percent respectively. These statistics alone illustrate the change that has taken place not only in the advertising industry but also in the reality of paternal commitment. Overall, today's fathers play more dynamic and active roles in the daily lives of their children than previously. Part of the explanation for this phenomenon is probably due to the fact that mothers, increasingly employed outside the home, have less time to spend with their children, resulting necessarily in the greater involvement of fathers. However, another entirely plausible explanation is that the increased participation of fathers in household tasks and parenting reflects a real desire to be more involved with their children. It is even possible that the increase in mothers' employment outside the home has made more "parenting room" available for fathers, providing an opportunity for which some have waited many years. One thing is certain: the involvement of fathers in the daily care of their children is no longer viewed as a rare and abnormal phenomenon brought on by hormonal imbalances.

Article sourced from a publication from the Public Health Agency of Canada

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