‘Dads and Diapers Don’t Mix,’ sounds like a terrible rallying cry. One can hardly imagine anyone willing to wear a T-shirt with that mantra. Nonetheless, I’m going to give a shot at explaining why I think it might be a necessary one.

Like many slogans, the sentiment expressed is meant to be attention-getting rather than being a complete and erudite explanation of an issue. For the record, I think it perfectly fine for fathers to change their babies’ diapers. What I oppose is the thinking that often goes along with publicly promoting the idea that dads should be more involved in their infants’ lives.

As Fathers’ Day and the anniversary of D-Day both move into the rear-view mirror, I can’t help noticing the difference in what we expect and laud in men. Some men of the Greatest Generation were wonderful dads; some were lousy ones. The rest ran the gamut in between. As individuals, depending on their personalities, some shot baskets with their sons, taught their daughters to change a flat tire and offered wise counsel. Conversely, others were silent backdrops to their children’s lives, unskilled as they were in relationship building. As a group, they felt a responsibility to defend civilization, providing a safe world for their wives and children. As a group, they prided themselves on being providers, giving their families food on the table and a home in which to live.

Today, we seem to focus on husbands and dads morphing into wives and mothers. The most praised dads wear baby carriers and walk the floor at 2 A.M with crying babies. They pitch in equally with household chores and let five-year-old daughters paint their fathers’ toenails pink. I don’t necessarily object to all the items on that list, but I do think that it makes an unhealthy presumption. That is, that both sexes should be equally responsible for everything, whether we are speaking of financial or household responsibility.

Some of my daughters will probably tell me that this is the new reality. Since families cannot meet their basic obligations, let alone afford anything extra on one income alone, both spouses need to work. In that case, I can well understand why child-raising duties need to be equally shared as well. But, perhaps, instead of making paternity leave as ubiquitous as maternity leave and agitating to increase both those leaves as well as mandating government-sponsored day care, maybe, just maybe, we should think of changing policies so that devoting oneself to raising a family and running a home becomes, once again, a respected and doable option.

Let me give one example. I know that men are capable of feeding bottles to babies. Very often, that bottle is filled with milk that their wives expressed in the break room at work or in the car as they drove to their jobs. Of course, the job of feeding breast milk just became more time-consuming. Pumping takes time and feeding takes additional time. A naturally brilliantly efficient system has become cumbersome. However, that isn’t the worst aspect. While the nutritional value of breast milk is undeniable, that is only one of its benefits. The skin-to-skin contact, the gaze of pure adoration from a baby at one’s breast, the hormonally inspired bonding and the spiritual dimension of breast-feeding are sacrificed when mothers cannot stay home. As someone who believes that God created both male and female bodies, it isn’t incidental that mother’ bodies, not fathers’, are made for breast-feeding. When, for whatever reason, the best option isn’t available, the number two choice becomes the best choice. What we shouldn’t do is make the first choice less attainable.

I probably changed five hundred diapers for each one my husband changed.  I read 500 stories for each one he read and tied 500 shoelaces for each one he tied. For which I am grateful. His shouldering of the financial responsibility for our household allowed me to be a full-time mother. My being a full-time mother allowed him to focus on building a business. We each supported the other and our children, but we each did more by giving 90% of our attention to one area, rather than 50%. I think that benefitted each of us individually and our marriage and family as a whole.

It is wonderful for fathers to feel close to their children. It is less wonderful when we promote the fallacy that mothers and fathers should be identical. Cultivating a healthy family is more than an economic calculation. If, as a culture we truly thought it was important, we would be more concerned with making policies to further that aim rather than focusing specifically on policies that encourage women to flourish in the workplace.

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A friend of mine recently celebrated the long-awaited arrival of his first child and almost overnight he became a different man.  He drove his car a bit more cautiously.  His facial expression looked a little more mature.  His approach to work seemed more focused.  While lovingly cradling his infant, he said to me, “Rabbi, I can’t believe what I created!”

I pretended not to hear him and cupping a hand about my ear, I asked, “What was that I heard?”  He repeated what he had just told me. “No, no,” I said.  “I heard you all right but I had to listen a bit more carefully to hear your son.”

“My son?” he asked, looking baffled.  “Yes, your son just said exactly the same thing.  He moved a tiny finger to point at you and he murmured, ‘Rabbi, I can’t believe what I created.’ “

I continued, “Yes, I think it true that more than a man creates a child, it is the child who creates a father.”

There are many life transforming experiences. Many have the potential to transform us into our higher selves while, of course, there are those experiences which will transform us into lesser beings.  Then there are experiences, like watching cat videos on the Internet, which do nothing at all.

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