Glad to Be Dad by Tim Myers
My Glad to Be Dad: A Call to Fatherhood (Familius) is a realistic look at parenting and marriage, so it’s filled with stories and humor; as crazy as family life can be, it’s often hilarious. Like the time my young sons snuck into the house, smeared chip dip all over the arm of the couch, then sat there blithely dipping fritos in it for a snack. (Well, okay--hilarious in retrospect). But the book has a deeper purpose too. The general circumstances of our family life have been just what, from many indications, most American families continue to face, and which the American family in general has been facing for decades now. The basic problem? There simply isn’t enough time and energy to go around. (Money, of course, also plays its customary role). The tug-of-war between work and family has many if not most parents worried, frustrated, and physically wiped out. Add to this the other, less publicized
The tug-of-war between work and family has many if not most parents worried, frustrated, and physically wiped out. conflict parents inevitably face in balancing their own needs and desires with those of their children. And measure in the ominous news, based on a University of Michigan study reported in the New York Times, that “the time squeeze felt by parents trying to juggle the demands of work and family is increasingly being transferred into their children’s lives.” Well, maybe the word “parents” is only partially accurate here. The truth is that in many cases it’s women who bear the full brunt of this. Many of us believe that some of the old ways just aren’t working any more. And the strain is showing in lots of marriages. The mainstream American family is, obviously, under stress. And the most logical resource to help deal with all of this remains largely untapped: men. We need more than time-worn images of fatherhood that focus only on taking kids fishing, or teaching them how to play catch, or baking the occasional casserole. We need more than humorous, self-deprecating admissions of non-involvement and domestic ignorance. We have to go to the depths of the thing—because that’s where we find purpose and a guiding vision as to the real breadth of what fatherhood can be. But there’s great good news here too! Because when fathers are more domestically committed, everyone gains--especially the men themselves. And that’s a huge part of my book too. It seems this is a timely message. The book made #5 on the Amazon “Hot New Releases in Fatherhood,” won the Ben Franklin Digital Award, and was featured in Publishers Weekly and on the Parents Magazine website. It’s also being quoted on Disney’s BabyZone website, and I’ve been asked to write for Parents Magazine.
Writing Award Winners and Honorees from 2012-2013 Kaitlyn Baker Winner of the Katherine Woodall Prize for her essay: “The Fracture of Friendship: Battle between Idealism and Deceit in William Earle’s Obi” William Usdin Winner of the Christiaan Lievestro Prize for his essay “Ethical Uncertainty and Humanist Faith Adaptive Outlooks in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden”, “On Commonwealth Literature”, and “Voicing the Subaltern: Leonora Sansay’s New Model of Creole Autonomy in Secret History” Navjot Grewal Honorable Mention of the Christiaan Lievestro Prize for the essays: “Weaponizing God in Beowulf: The Discovery of Odin through Arms,” Words of the Wise” Sarah McClammy Winner of the Shipsey Poetry Prize for her poem: “Helix of Nothingness” Sarah McClammy Winner of the McCann Short Story Contest for her short story: “Conversations with Henry” Victoria Isabel Yap Winner of the Academy of American Poets Tamara Verga Prize for her poem: “Deceptions” Alexander Nouaux Winner of the Multimodal Writing Prize: “Brick Lane iTour” Avery Unterreiner Honorable Mention of the Multimodal Writing Prize: “It’s Been One Year” Marissa Minnick, Amy Thomas and Michael Savignano Canterbury Scholars 2013-2014 Stephen Layton (2012-2013) Amy Thomas (2013-2014) Editors of the Santa Clara Review
So if you’ve got a couch and kids who might smear dip on it, you might want to give Glad to Be Dad a look-see. And if it isn’t already obvious, I should add that it’s for wives as well as husbands!
www.scu.edu/english
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