TV and Hallmark need to rethink their tired sitcom dad trope

TV and Hallmark need to rethink their tired dad tropes. Try to find a Father’s Day card that doesn’t link dads to beer, power tools or stupidity. Similarly, try to find a sitcom without a dufus dad. Sitcoms satirize family life because they appeal to themes most viewers understand: weird uncles and neighbors, dad jokes and mothers calming the chaos.

Since 1947, family sitcoms have had three themes: Dads, moms and kids who are savvy beyond reality or absurd beyond belief.

Early TV dads, like Ben Cartwright, were intelligent and industrious. Moms were senseless, uninformed and barely self-sufficient. Carol Burnett made the stereotype into a 50-year comedic career. Jackie Gleason’s loud fool next door took the TV dad arc to one extreme. It has alternated between extremes for decades, from loving, funny, successful Uncle Phil of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and Richard Cunningham of “Happy Days” to chauvinist, racist, nitwits like Archie Bunker and Homer Simpson.

Am I weary of the dad tropes and stereotypes? Who isn’t, but I also know that half of a sit-com is comedy, and nothing gets a laugh, a teen eye-roll or a mom sigh like a one-liner from a daft dad. While we wait for Hollywood and Hallmark to rediscover dads who work for NASA and love their wives, here are 10 steps to be the dad you, your family and society yearn for:

Get Our Latest News for FREE

Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.

Ten ways to break the sitcom dad mold

1. Pray together. Welcome God into your family. Sundays, yes, but also into your home, dinner table and habits.
2. Shelter your family. Limit exposure to caustic social media and influences that defy or mock values and morals. Protecting their minds is more important and lasting than protecting their health.
3. Demonstrate manhood. More is caught than taught. The man you are far overshadows the image you project or the authority you wield. Be the person you want your kids to become.
4. Value your wife. Try not to argue in front of the kids, but if you do, forgive each other in front of them, too. Build her up. Talk about her successes, not her weaknesses.
5. Schedule family fun. Take turns letting the kids choose the activity or place. Enjoy each other’s company beyond recitals and soccer games.
6. Communicate goals and dreams to your family and solicit their input. Nothing shows you value a person more than asking their opinion and doing what they suggest.
7. Praise your children, especially in front of others. Catch them doing right. Give them a reputation to live up to. Speak over them what you want them to become. Tell them how God can use their skills, passions and dreams.
8. Praise and respect your spouse publicly. Tell the stories of why you married and love her more now. Instill the dream that marriage is hard work, but worth the effort.
9. Bring good, vetted, godly men into their worlds as role models. That behooves you to have those kinds of friends. In your absence, your family may depend on those men one day.
10. Consecrate your family to God. Acknowledge your limitations as a man, husband and father. Do all you can, but understand God loves them even more than you do and will care for them when you cannot.

Heroes of the Christian faith were mountain climbers, sword fighters, shepherds, missionaries and rock-throwers. They rescued damsels in distress, built cities and gave their lives to spread the Gospel, translate the Bible and secure future generations.

Men accomplished these feats beside godly women. Jesus’ followers and closest friends included women. They supported His ministry (Luke 8:2,3) and went everyplace the men went, including the foot of the Cross, the empty tomb and the upper room at Pentecost. Mary Magdalene told the disciples Jesus had risen (John 20:11-18). Lydia was the first European believer (Acts 16). Abigail saved her family (1 Samuel 25). Esther saved a nation (Esther 4:16).

A godly father provides (Ephesians 5:2), leads (Ephesians 5:25-32), reflects Christ (Romans 8:29) and blesses his wife (Proverbs 31:28; Ephesians 5:28). While the world struggles to understand manhood, God’s standard has never changed:

“God has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God…” (Micah 6:8).

I celebrate America’s amazing dads. I was blessed to be raised by one. He wasn’t perfect (believe me — neither was his arrogant, punk adolescent teen son, who by God’s grace, has matured somewhat). 

But we thank God for our unsung fathers who quietly work the jobs, pay the bills and (often) thanklessly keep food in the fridge. Against all odds, they hold up their heads, deflect the insults and shoulder the responsibility of dad-ing. 

Heavenly Father, make us grateful and mindful.