As I moved into the role of being a working dad myself, the term workadaddy started to mean something slightly different to me than the sixties use of the term. I am no longer in my twenties or teens for that matter, though the counter culture still exists in its own forms for these age groups and probably always will; However, I am now part of the culture to which they are rebelling. I am the establishment. I have become the man. I work; I go home; and I enjoy my simple life with my family.
At one time, this would have seemed like a sell-out, but once I crossed the threshold into parenthood I discovered a whole new perspective on the world. Being a dad is significant. It is important and can make a difference. It may not have been what I thought would matter to me when I was younger, I had grand ideas about how I would change the world, but it isn’t the end of living either. Life takes a different form, but it is still incredibly rewarding.
As I have settled into being a daddy, and as my friends have started to enter this same world with me, I find myself referring to being a workadaddy more often. The difference is that the connotation is of struggling to balance being a good dad (not necessarily the model my own dad gave me) being a good husband, and having a career. This balancing act is something I see all working dads face in one form or another. It takes many forms, but the underlying experience seems to be that of trying to be as good as possible in at least the three areas I just referred to, and probably not being perfect in any of them. Finding a balance often means compromising on achieving the highest levels in one area in order to be good across all of them.
What I see in the workadaddy of today is not a man who has missed out on what the counter-culture is all about, instead I see a man who has learned important lessons about how being a good dad is just as important as other things. We are not the workadaddys of Tom Wolfe’s stories, just as we are not the dads that raised us. This is probably a good thing for a whole new generation of kids.
