Belkin's response to the criticism was that she wasn't being momcentric, but simply reporting on the current (and future) issues that made news, and that motherhood made news. Fatherhood, on the other hand, was just there. Men observed, helped, and sometimes complained about diaper commercials, but ultimately, parenting was a women's issue.
Which is why I think I need to jump in and deliver the first great parenting story of 2013, which surprisingly stands in direct contrast to Belkin's predictions: Dads search for balance too.
I know, who would have thought.
The story of moms searching for a family-career balance made Belkin's list. It's a very interesting story, don't get me wrong. It's a story about changing identities, and about society, and about types of jobs lost and gained in a service-based economy, and it's a story of shifting priorities. But it's not only a motherhood story, and that's where Belkin got it wrong.
For every mother who is no longer content in being "just" a mother, there's a father who now sees his life as a failure if he doesn't spend enough time with his kids. For every mother tipping her personal balance toward career and self-fulfillment, there's a father who realizes self-fulfillment can also be found in a game of Candyland.
Being a man, and more specifically, being a stay-at-home-dad, I am naturally more drawn to stories about fatherhood. I assume the same is true for Belkin with stories about motherhood. The reason she didn't write about fatherhood in her article wasn't that there weren't valuable stories to be told, but that she didn't look for them.
But every story about a mom looking for balance has a male equivalent.
Every story about a mom who was asked to leave a restaurant because she was breastfeeding can be followed by a story about a dad dragging his infant twins around an airport, searching for a changing table in a men's room.
Every story about the way mothers were sought after by both political parties at the conventions can be told alongside a story about the way fatherhood was ignored by both parties.
Men search for balance, and men search for their true identities in a changing world that will define them and relegate them to #12 in a list of 13 if they don't define themselves. The world is changing, and we are changing with it. And our stories are worth telling.
