One recent morning, after several nights spent staggering from my 2-year-old's crib to our bed as my husband, unfazed, snored on, I opened my e-mail to find a forwarded message from my best friend. The first line of the article she'd sent: "According to a new study, only a quarter of fathers wake up to tend to their crying baby." But it was the next sentence that really killed me: "The study also suggests mothers start to resent their husbands for not getting up through the night."
No kidding.
My husband, Greg, works full-time, cooks and cleans as much as I do, and is unfailingly patient and loving with our two sons (Zander, 9, and our bad sleeper, Thad). And I have many friends who count their blessings every day when they consider how committed and devoted their husbands are to their children. So why do we inevitably end up carping about our mates' child-rearing idiosyncrasies when we get together? Are male and female parenting tactics inherently different -- and, if so, must we overlook these differences?
Nope. We can try to change them (and we might even succeed). Here's how to handle some of the most annoying things dads do.
Contributing editor Fernanda Moore has written for New York magazine and other publications.
