My Reverse Traditional Husband In The Wild!

Welcome to the February Carnival of Natural Parenting: Love and partners!
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month we’re writing about how a co-parent has or has not supported us in our dedication to natural parenting. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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This month’s Carnival of Natural Parenting asked me how my co-parent supports my natural parenting choices.  What a great topic!  I can without hesitation say my husband is an essential part of our parenting team.  He doesn’t just support it he is the core of it.

My family is called “reverse traditional.”  Traditional meaning that we are a one income family and reverse meaning that Mommy is that one income.  I’ve talked before about my journey to this spot.  I don’t really like the term reverse traditional since I think it assumes there is anything traditional these days.  I don’t like Breadwinning Mom either.  I couldn’t do what I do without Pete’s “job” being done at home.  He is winning bread as much as I am.  Mr. Mom is offensive to most, although the fact that the movie by that name was even created is a step forward in my opinion.  Exposure equals normalizing.  The more reverse traditional dads we see the better!

So, what does a reverse traditional Dad look like?  Want to go on a safari?  Let’s travel into the wilds to view some of the most elusive fathers in the world!

The Emperor Penguin Dad spends up to two months without eating while keeping his unhatched babies warm.  Once hatched, this superstar dad feeds the babies with a milky white substance produced by a gland in his esophagus (also note the “takes a village” technique of all the males huddling together to help keep the babies warm).

Sea Horse Dads are the only males on earth that gestate and give birth to their children (200 hundred of them).  They even go through painful labor.

The Red Fox Dad could win the awards for father and mate of the year.  He lets mom have her babymoon for 3 months while he provides food and protection for her and her pups.  Once mom is on her feet again he continues to father his pups.  He even homeschools!  He teaches his pups how to forage for food by burying scraps in the ground, thus giving them skills necessary for their survival.  (In a telling coincidence when I searched for “red fox father and pup” in a google image search, Google said “did you mean red fox mother and pup?”)

The Midwife Toad Dad carries his incubating eggs around on his legs until they are ready to hatch.  The Darwin Frog carries them in his vocal sac through the tadpole stage.

Daddy Flamingo helps mom build the nest and shares in incubating the eggs.  Both mom and dad can feed the hatchlings a milk-like substance.

Ostrich Dads not only incubate the eggs but parent them with continued protection and homeschool them in survival skills.

The Dyak Fruit Bat Dad is the only male mammal known to lactate and nurse its young (although domesticated goats sometimes do too).

The Human Dad is known to serve as a locomotion device for pre-ambulatory young.

Human Dad forms strong nurturing bonds with their young.

Human Dad does what is called “sleep sharing” or “co-sleeping” with the young.

Human Dad is naturally a playful animal and often can be found playing with his young.

Human Dad feeds his young and teaches societal norms like “table manners.”

The human species often uses mechanical means of locomotion.  Here Human Dad can be seen teaching his young to operate a mechanical locomotion device.

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Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
(This list will be updated Feb. 9 with all the carnival links, and all links should be active by noon EST. Go to Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama for the most recently updated list.)

• A Thank You to my Husband — Lactating Girl at The Adventures of Lactating Girl thanks her husband for keeping her grounded and giving her unwavering support in the face of discouragement from within and without. (@lactatinggirl)
• My Reverse Traditional Husband In the Wild — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries gives us a lesson on how dads in the wild parent their young. Can you guess which male animal actually nurses its young? (@babydust)
• February Carnival of Natural Parenting — TopHat at The Bee in Your Bonnet tells us how the patience of a partner can make a difficult breastfeeding relationship succeed. (@TopHat8855)
• Parenting Together — For Alison at BluebirdMama and her husband, parenting is simply an extension of the way they live. (@childbearing)
• If We Had A MIllion Dollars — Melodie at Breastfeeding Moms Unite! and her husband would both agree to be crunchier parents if they had a million dollars to ease the way. (@bfmom)
• February Carnival of Natural Parenting: Co-Parents — Dionna at Code Name: Mama has written a letter to her husband, thanking him for his incredible support in every aspect of their natural parenting journey. (@CodeNameMama)
• Natural Parenting Fathers — Sarah at Natural Parenting is balancing being all there for her son with being present for her husband. (@considereden)
• Just Wonderful: Love and Partners and Natural Parenting — Zoey at Good Goog let her husband lead her to babywearing and cosleeping. (@zoeyspeak)
• All that stuff I don’t get comes so easy to him — The Grumbles is taking this opportunity to say thank you to her husband for his mad parenting skills. (@thegrumbles)
• The Power of Having a Supportive Co-Parent — Chrystal at Happy Mothering and her husband started with vaccinations and moved on from there. (@HappyMothering)
• February Carnival of Natural Parenting: Love and partners — Lauren at Hobo Mama makes do with babbling incoherently about how her husband practices natural parenting in such an effortless fashion, with bonus video. (@Hobo_Mama)
• Love and Partners — Mrs Green at Little Green Blog shares her husband’s moving account of her birth story, and his testament to the power of a woman. (@myzerowaste)
• labor support… — Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children is thankful that her partner has provided her immeasurable labor support through each of their last three unassisted homebirths (and will again for their upcoming fourth!).
• What co-parent? On prams, routines, ideals, sickness, and finding my way alone. — Ruth at Look Left of the Pleiades describes life without a present co-parent: making new choices and taking care of things herself. (@brightravenmum)
• Parenting With Support — How many people can say that their husband talked them into cloth diapering? Darcel at The Mahogany Way can! (@MahoganyWayMama)
• Co-Parenting Support — Summer at Mama2Mama Tips knows the importance of being supported in the face of criticism. (@mama2mamatips)
• Natural Parenting Carnival: Love and Partners — pchanner at A Mom’s Fresh Start has been blessed with an incredibly involved partner. Her husband loves to take part in every aspect of parenting! (@pchanner)
• Daddy’s Little Girls — Kate Wicker at Momopoly finds her husband right at home in a tangle of girls. (@Momopoly)
• How do I love my parenting partner? Let me count the ways. — Sybil at Musings of a Milk Maker is thankful that she and her partner co-parent fluidly and gracefully. (@mamamilkers)
• Interview with a Daddy — NavelgazingBajan brings us a highly amusing peek into her husband’s perspective.
• Being Supported in Natural Parenting — Sarah at OneStarryNight has witnessed both ends of the parenting spectrum, and is grateful she found a father who is comfortable with natural parenting. (@starrymom)
• Moments in time: a love letter — Arwyn at Raising My Boychick will make you cry with the beautiful way she describes the complete relationship between father and child. (@RaisingBoychick)
• Natural parenting converts — Jen at Recovering Procrastinator brought her reluctant husband around to cloth diapers, bed sharing, and time-ins as a discipline method. (@jenwestpfahl)
• Breastfeeding Father — Amber Strocel at Strocel.com describes how her husband helped her overcome the breastfeeding challenges she encountered with her premature daughter. (@AmberStrocel)
• A Natural Parenting Village — Acacia from Art, Body & Soul, in a guest post for Jamie at Suddenly Stay at Home, broadens the term “coparents” to embrace supportive extended family on both sides. (@SuddnlyStyAtHme)
• A Natural Dad — Shana at Tales of Minor Interest doesn’t have a husband who merely supports her — she has a husband just as dedicated to natural parenting as she is.
• Love and Support From My (sometimes pantsless) Man — Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma describes life with the sometimes bumbling but always lovable Pantsless Man. (@kitchenwitch)
• G-O-T-E-A-M! — Jessica at This Is Worthwhile made sure her future husband agreed with her parenting choices early in their dating. (@tisworthwhile)
• how we come to parenthood — Michelle at womanseekingmother dances with her husband around the subject of cosleeping. (@seekingmother)

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