Father's Day 2007

On this eve of Father's Day weekend (why not extend the holiday?), I've come across a few polls that say a little something about today's new crop of dads and how they like to spend time with their kids.

• More dads are gamers, and they play video games with their kids. Dads (and moms, of course,) who grew up playing Pong and Pac Man and now have lots more options to play. And they play with their children. An Entertainment Software Association, a video game industry group, found that 35 percent of parents play video games, and 80 percent of them play with their kids.

• Gamer dads are not necessarily couch potatoes. When dads who say they are gamers exercise or do physical activities, they do it for longer (by an average of about 10 minutes), according to a Gamer Dad survey by Porter Novelli.

• Dads would love to spend more time with their kids if family economics allowed. A CareerBuilder.com survey found that 37 percent of dads would leave their jobs if their spouse got a job that would support the family, and 38 percent would take a pay cut to be able to spend more time with their kids. One in four dads said work negatively affects their relationship with their children, and nearly half have missed a significant event in their child's life due to work at least once in the last year; one in five have missed four or more.

Of course, none of this may seem remarkable to most dads today. But when I first started writing about work-life balance, it was not widely acceptable for a man to admit he'd want to spend more time at home if it meant spending less time at work.

That's changed, but it doesn't mean every workplace has changed along with it. The survey also found that while dads know some companies promote programs and options to improve work-life balance—all made possible by technology—more than one third said their companies did not.

So to dads who are home this weekend with their families, enjoy every minute. Here's to the day these surveys don't need to break down the differences between mom and dads in our views toward work-life balance.

Happy Father's Day.