Today more and more men are being challenged with something more “manly”
than the Trojan Warriors. Because of the down economy and the
demand for more women in the work force, men
have been re-directed into a new role… “the stay at home Dad” or as I like to call it “Men Mothering”.
I now see men in laundry and diaper commercials, strolling the streets with their babies in the middle of the day and actually changing diapers in the family bathrooms at the mall. Men are definitely taking on a much greater share of the home life than 30 years ago or maybe even 10 years ago.
Different circumstances have led men to their new nurturing role. For me it was losing my wife to breast cancer and leaving me to care for my 5-year old son and my 2-year old daughter.
My journey is to explore the challenge men are facing in this ever-changing world. Requiring men to be more nurturing,
more understanding, more aware and of course more in touch with their feelings.
I am a professional photographer and a Professor
of Photography at Bergen Community College, currently engaged
in a photographic project focused on men raising their children
on their own, independent of any female or mother figure. These
men are a rare breed, nurturing and guiding their children,
not by choice, but from a result of losing a spouse to illness, abandonment, or other circumstance (not divorced fathers with an involved mother figure). I am searching for subjects that are willing to share their story for an upcoming
book entitled “Men Mothering”. This book will be a compilation of stories and photographs from several men including myself reflecting on the trials and rewards of mothering from a male perspective.
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