I had a passing thought in the midst of a blog post a few weeks ago that I want to explore a little more on its own. While writing about my podcast listening, I wondered this:

As an aside: it’s curious to me that while you’d find this kind of parenting discussion going on in the Christian blogosphere on mom blogs, you have to go to the secular arena to hear the dad’s perspective. What’s up with that?

I was sort of hoping that readers (of which I have at least a few) would chime in to let me know that I was just missing the Christian dad podcasts and blogs, but no. The only thing I heard in that regard was a note from my friend Mike noting that he’d been considering starting up that sort of podcast himself.

I did a little bit of Googling today for Christian dad blogs, and didn’t find too many. I came across one post from six months ago where someone on DaddyBlogger.com made a “definitive guide of Christian Dad Bloggers”, but if you follow the links,(and there are only about 20 listed) the blogs are for the most part either very sports oriented or seem to be basic guy blogs rather than focusing on parenting in any substantive way.

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Sure, there are lots of podcasts and blogs out there targeted at men and fathers, but for the most part they’re focused around things like leadership, or legacy, or work/life balance.

Now yeah, it’s important for men to set a good example for their children, and to take responsibility for their spiritual development, and so on. Absolutely.

But why don’t we see blog posts for dads about other aspects of parenting? Is a dad’s realm of activity and advice limited to “make sure the kids develop a correct theology” and “make sure you’re around enough to go to their sports events” and “take your daughters on dates”?

Where are the Christian dad blogs talking about effective bedtime strategies for preschoolers, or how to handle discipline in public situations (or private ones!), or dealing with toddlers who don’t want to eat anything but hot dogs for weeks at a time, or how to not go insane when your four-year-old asks you to read the same My Little Pony book for bedtime for the seven-hundredth day in a row?

Or about encouraging healthy eating and physical activity, and about teaching kids how to enjoy entertainment in appropriate avenues and quantities? About how to make sure your kid doesn’t grow up with his nose glued to an electronic device for 25 hours a day even when your inclination is to jump for the iPhone in your pocket every time it beeps?

How about practical advice for using time-outs and other ways of defusing situations where kids have just lost it and need time to reset attitudes rather than just escalating a battle of wills forever?

OK, I don’t need to go on for another three paragraphs. And I’m sure that somewhere along the way somebody has written a dad-related blog post on most of these subjects. But what I’m asking today is why we don’t see posts focused that way on a more regular basis?

I’ve got three daughters and have been a dad for almost 10 years now, and I can say with assurance that there should be a lot more to being a dad than just family devotions and soccer games. Just because some of the more home-related topics tend to the focus of moms rather than dads doesn’t mean that they always should be.

So, my readers, any thoughts on why this disparity exists? Am I asking a question with such an obvious answer that I’m stupid for asking? Is the disparity simply a product of the fact that moms spend more time with the kids than dads do?

If you read this and know of good Christian dad blogs or podcasts, leave a comment and let me know. I’d love to find out that there are a bunch of them floating around that I just haven’t located.