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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Single Dad Laughing
Single Dad Laughing began as a place for Dan Pearce, a.k.a. Single Dad, to vent, wisecrack, and let off steam. Here’s a guy who was twice divorced by age 30; what else could he do but laugh? His specialty has always been in entertaining us with his adventures in single dad-dom raising son Noah (which he’s also shared here on Babble Voices), but the blog, #7 on last year’s list, long ago ceased to be about humor alone. In 2010, Pearce wrote a serious piece titled “The Disease Called ‘Perfection,’” in which he observed that “some of the most ‘perfect’ people around you will break down in tears as they tell you how difficult life is for them.” Dan thought that post would destroy his emerging fan base; instead, it’s been shared more than 100,000 times on Facebook.
Then there’s the recent post titled “Anything Other Than Straight,” in which Pearce came out to his readers as bisexual. Acknowledging that pretending for years to be straight had pushed him “into life-threatening depression,” Pearce revealed himself like never before and was overwhelmed by the online outpouring of support. We know Single Dad is going through a lot right now and we commend his bravery. We’re wishing him the best and looking forward to his return to laughter.
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I am humbled to be included.
Many thanks.
Mitch