But this: “What is almost universally assumed in these discussions is that stay-at-home dads are new”

Do you have any empirical evidence that this is true? I have never seen anyone claim that involved dads are a totally new phenomenon. In fact, I have always assumed that over the course of history and throughout different cultures male and female roles in childrearing have consistently fluctuated and changed. I guess there’s the gut feeling that the true pleasure I take in caring for my children is not such an anomaly and that other men throughout history have felt the same way. I think journalists talking about it with the silly SAHD terminology might lead to the idea that this is a new thing, when the true trend these days isn’t just SAH-fatherhood, but fathers who are much more involved than their fathers were regardless of whether they are “staying at home.”