Dad
Top 50 Dad Blogs of 2012
Last year, when we inaugurated our Top 50 Dad Blogs list, we praised dad bloggers for “changing the way we think about fatherhood.” Indeed, a number of our favorite bloggers on this, our second Top 50 list, insist our thinking needs to be changed. They describe themselves as advocates for fathers, taking to their keyboards in order to counter dominant cultural stereotypes of dad-as-incompetent-buffoon. (You don’t believe them? Tune in to most any family sitcom on most any night of the week.) Others on the list aspire simply to entertain us with funny, relatable tales from the trenches. A few write to work through the shattering grief of losing a child or spouse.
This list features straight dads, gay dads, working dads, stay-at-home dads, geek dads, single dads, and more. In a culture where the dominant conversations around fatherhood center simply on whether dads can deign to change their kid's diaper, it's refreshing to see these guys take the public perception of parents into their own hands. We are again struck by the variety of their voices and experiences, which itself puts the lie to the notion of any one “typical dad.” A lot of our favorites from last year are back, while many worthy entrants are making their debuts. We hope you’ll enjoy laughing, crying, nodding, and discovering along with them as much as we have. As dads' online influence grows, this list will only become more and more difficult to curate — and that's a good problem to have. If you think we missed any of your favorite dad bloggers, nominate them here. – Barbara Spindel and the dad blog panel
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Buzz Bishop, DadCAMP
Buzz Bishop kicked up quite a controversy when, in a recent post on Babble, he casually admitted, “If I were to be absolutely honest, my older son is my favorite of the two.” He was savaged by the commenters, but rather than back down, in a follow-up post that appeared on Babble and on his DadCAMP blog, he dug in his heels: “Yes, I have a favorite son and I’m not ashamed to admit it.”
Bishop, a radio host and writer from Calgary, delights in bucking conventional wisdom. We’ve all been told about the benefits of sitting down together for a nightly meal; why not hear out Buzz as he makes “the case against family dinners”? (They’re more Quentin Tarantino than Norman Rockwell over at his place, he explains.) But it’s not just Bishop’s provocative candor that keeps us coming back to DadCAMP. It’s the practical tips, too, like “How to Be an Extreme Cheapskate at Halloween.” And unfortunately, most of us raising children will at some point need to consult “How to Get the Smell of Vomit Out of Your Car.”
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I am humbled to be included.
Many thanks.
Mitch