"I Feel Like a Rock Star": Fatherhood for Stay-at-Home Fathers

Since the 1970s, fathers have experienced a new set of expectations for their role. Fathers are now expected to be more involved with the hands-on daily caregiving of their children. Perhaps because of these changing expectations, more men are choosing to be stay-at-home fathers than in previous generations. Very little sociological research exists about stay-at-home fathers’ ideas about fatherhood in the U.S. In particular, how do such men conceive of their status as stay-at-home fathers and of fatherhood? I explore these questions through in-depth interviews with men from locations across the United States. My study shows that stay-athome fathers enact fatherhood in ways that may be starting to transform traditional and new ideals of fatherhood.