Shouldn’t a “dad bod” be the buff one rather than the soft paunchy one? After all, men who do more screen time than kid time are more likely to have that dad bod.
It’s just plain weird that when a man’s body is described as lacking muscle tone, looking out of shape, appearing untrained and deconditioned, it has been associated with a man who’s more involved with his kids’ lives.
Prior to the “dad bod” becoming popular in mainstream media, this same kind of body has been traditionally associated with a man who’s lazy around the house, spends too much time watching TV and doesn’t spend much time with his children.
My oh my, how times have changed!
It’s strange indeed. So, there was once a point in time – and for decades – that the dad bod physique was associated with a man who was never physically active with his kids: playing sports and riding bikes with them, taking them on hikes or runs, etc.
And during that same decades-long time period, men who did a lot of activities with their kids were visualized as having a buff or fit looking body.
As a matter of fact, there was a time when men were, for the first time, being brought into ads relating to parenting in very early childhood.
Typically, the model was buff, especially when he was shown holding a baby.
This was to dispel the myth that caring for babies was women’s work, or that men who spent time with babies were less-than masculine.
So models who looked fit with some muscle (not bulky, but trained in appearance) were hired for these gigs.
Eventually, this trend loosened up, so that now, it’s easy to find men with average bodies in stock photos depicting fatherhood.
But imagine you want to produce a TV commercial about the importance of father-son bonding.
A segment involves a man teaching his young son how to swing a bat or throw a ball.
Would you hire a man with a dad bod or a fit bod? Think about this. You doggone know whom you’d hire.
Even if the father was teaching his daughter how to ride a bike, chase down a soccer ball or climb a tree, you’d probably seek a model who looked like he worked out (again, not bulky muscles, but fit “in shape” muscles).
Why the Dad Bod Shouldn’t Be Associated with Attentive Parenting
Promoting the dad bod as a signature of involved parenting creates the idea that men with fit strong bodies tend to neglect their children.
It creates the myth that in order to be physically in shape, a man must trade time with his kids for the gym or basement fitness room.
Neither is true. So many men, who pay little attention to their kids, have flabby soft bodies with paunches.
And plenty of men, who train hard at the gym, make a point of spending not just quality time with their kids, but quantity time.
And because they’re fit, fast and strong, this enables them to do so many more things with their kids.
Plus, due to their fitness, they won’t be telling their children, “Time to go home now; I’m getting tired,” or, “Let’s call it a day; I’m bushed.”
That man with the great physique is the one you’ll be seeing running along the beach with his two hyper-energetic kids.
Meanwhile, Mr. Dad Bod will be sitting for extended periods under the beach umbrella playing a video game or reading a car magazine.
