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Lessons from TV Dads
There have definitely been different parenting styles on display.
The evolution of TV dads is shocking. The quintessential TV dad at this point is Homer Simpson. Is it possible to learn parenting skills from Homer? Probably not. At least useful ones, but we’ll explore that later. To get some perspective, let’s take a look at TV dads from days gone by.
There was a time when TV fathers knew best.
Actually, there was a show called, “Father Knows Best.” The father, Jim Anderson, pretty much had all the answers to his kids’ problems. Admittedly, the problems of white kids in an idyllic family situation back in the 50s were simplistic by today’s standards.
The kids’ nicknames of Kitten, Princess, and Bud show how vanilla the times were back then. In a modern-day remake of this sitcom, the boy would probably be nicknamed Princess or Kitten and one of the girls would be called Bud. The times, they are a changin.
Is Ward Cleaver the gold standard of TV dads?
Whenever the Beaver or Wally got into a bind, they could count on some sage advice from their father, Ward Cleaver. As was the case with the Anderson family, the kids’ problems were pretty nondescript by today’s standards. Still, Ward did a nice job of giving sound parental…
