Dad’s in Charge!

In this week’s video, I talk about the importance of moms letting dads be in charge—complete charge—of the kids as a regular occurrence. We need to support and encourage fathers to be every bit as essential to our children’s well-being and upbringing as we are as moms.

My go-to bit of advice at baby showers has nothing to do with how to diaper or feed a baby, or how to coax a baby to sleep, or any of the general pieces of advice we moms give. Instead, I gently encourage soon-to-be moms to let the dads have complete charge over the baby as soon as possible. In other words, as soon as a new mom’s home from the hospital, she should be letting the new dad change diapers, sooth a crying infant, and, within a few weeks, have total charge of the baby while she’s not on the premises.

I wrote a blog for the Washington Post’s On Parenting on that topic a few years ago, “Come on, moms! Let dad be in charge of the kids too.”

For more reasons why this is a good thing—and how to implement it into your household—watch the following video blog.