About three months ago or so, I was exploring my options for a future stay-at-home career that might facilitate both my employment and that of future wife when it comes time for us to have children. In doing so, I posted a discusssion column at TPMCafe.com looking for others with experience. I got more than a few interesting responses and a few pointless ones, but all in all, I was glad I posted.

Since then, I’ve kept the Stay At Home Dad (or SAHD, as it is so often abbreviated) thing in the back of my mind whilst I busied myself picking up certifications and such, but I was surprised just recently to learn that RebelDad.com linked to that same article. This is a blogger putting the whole concept of SAHD’s “under the microscope,” and it’s an awesome site. In this recent post, he takes Darla Shine of DarlaShine.com to task for “balkanization” of the traditional roles.

There is no question that this site carries with it an unmistakably traditional gyno-centric theme, right down to selecting your favourite color as part of the registration process. In fact, it’s not even traditional, it’s just a cynically low-balled concept of women, where the color you pick could mean that you are a “wild thing,” a “flirt,” or “good with animals.” Oh, boy.

But then, who am I to criticize? Cosmo has been selling off the stands for many more years than I have been alive, so there must be women who respond to this. Some people need to wrap themselves in exclusivity in order to feel comfortable, I supose. In the end, I suspect that most of the advice and counciling women recieve from this DarlaShine.com site is just silly in the first place, and to the extent that she does not help erase the lines of traditional roles, she probably doesn’t really move the goal posts in the other direction either.