Stay-at-Home Dads Rise in Ranks

Some interesting facts about stay-at-home dads have come out in Suite 101 articles this past month.

In The Facts Surrounding Stay-at-Home Dads, Suite 101 writer Stephen Richardson writes that there are more than 200,000 stay-at-home dads in the United Kingdom. At the same time, the number of stay-at-home moms is decreasing, with more women returning to work after giving birth, according to the article's statistics.

Suite 101 writer Anju Mootilal cites statistics about stay-at-home dads in her article Stay-at-Home Dads.

• There are over 160,000 stay-at-home-dads (SAHDs) in the United States.
• The main reason why men choose to stay at home was to avoid sending their children to daycare.
• The number one compliant of many stay-at-home dads is dealing with sudden isolation.

Stay-at-home dads have all the same issues as stay-at-home moms, but they don't have a large same-sex support group to help them. In a non-traditional role, SAHDs have all that to deal with, too.

I've known many stay-at-home dads, shared playgroups, served on PTA committees with them, and swapped recipes. There's nothing innately female about this job of being a full-time caregiver to your own children. It's not so much maternal as it is parental.

If the current trend continues, being a stay-at-home dad will no longer be a non-traditional role and will be just another choice men get to make when children come along.