On the occasion of Father's Day, it's an appropriate moment to look back and reflect on how the institution of fatherhood has fared in the past year. At DadLabs.com, we keep close tabs on the psycho-social developments surrounding modern paternity, and the news is generally pretty good. Thankfully, the statute of limitations has run out on paternal paragons David Hasselhoff and Alec Baldwin, so let us move on to better role models like Tom Cruise and Kevin Federline.

Some highlights in the year of daddying:

Government stimulates fatherhood

The IRS stimulus checks that went out this spring had a surprising feature: unlimited baby bonuses! How many guys thought to themselves, "I could have scored that new MacBook if I'd just had three more kids!" This means that the Brady Bunch would have raked a clean $1,800 in kid cash alone. The $300-per-head baby bounty did make a nice 0.1 percent dent in the overall cost of raising a child. My Stimulus Splurge: tires and brake pads for the minivan. Whoopee.

UT gets SAHD

University of Texas professor Aaron Rochlen released a groundbreaking study of stay-at-home-dads, drawing attention to the changing role that dads are playing in our society. "The good news is that these guys are doing great," Rochlen said of the more than 200 primary caretaker fathers who participated in the study. With the number of dads staying home to care for the kids up 60 percent between 2004 and 2007, it's not surprising that this trend is attracting the attention of academics (and marketers). But what does society think about all this? Happily, Rochlen's dads don't really seem to care.

Dad/doofus in decline

By our very informal observation, dads in the media have been depicted as just slightly less goofy and incompetent in the most recent 12-month period. Commercial spots from VW and Amazon featured dads capably discharging their parenting duties without mom looking on derisively. Seth Rogen's pop turn in the smash hit "Knocked Up" would seem to be a step back, but his transformation to decent dad made the laughs at his expense worthwhile.

Social networks grow

The online parenting world is dominated by moms. iVillage, CafeMom and Dooce are titans of the digital parenting space, but a few dad-centric resources have begun to emerge. The new social networking site Dadosphere.com joins www.DadDaily.com on the social networking front. GreatDad.com is chock-full of helpful articles, and, if you don't mind a few moms in the mix, Parentricity.com is a good online hangout for pops. Most dad sites are still in their infancy. So to speak.

Father's Day recession

Finally, in a troubling development, spending on Father's Day is expected to level off or decline in 2008 — with average anticipated spending dipping from $98.34 to $94.54 according to the National Retail Federation. This decline bucks a long upward trend that we at DadLabs heartily applaud. (Although, $94.54? Some of you dudes are getting nicer stuff than we are.) Another encouraging sign: Almost half of all Americans buy a gift for a father or stepfather.

Clay Nichols is a chief creative officer, blogger and video host at DadLabs.com, an Internet TV and social network for fathers. Four new dad-themed videos post each week at DadLabs.com.Vote for this story!Advertise Online or in Print | Subscribe to the Newspaper | Make us your Homepage

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