WESTERN SKIES - June 11, 2005

*** DADS' PLAYGROUP***

ERIC WHITNEY: Fathers' Day is just around the corner. Even though some people might see the holiday an homage to the stereotypical role of father as the primary bread-winner, times are changing. Jeannine Miller reports that more fathers are staying at home with their kids; and for some of these dads, playgroups are an important part of their routine.

JEANNINE MILLER: Rric Rasmussen is one of a growing number of dads who stays at home with his kids. According to the Census Bureau, there are over a hundred thousand stay-at-home dads in the U.S. Rasmussen stays home with his two daughters when he is not working.

ERIC RASMUSSEN: I'm a flight instructor for the Air Force, at the Air Force Academy. But it's not terribly well paid and it's kind of intermittent work.

MILLER: Rasmussen says that his schedule and his salary led him to stay at home on a part-time basis with his two kids, Emma and Maya, ages four-and-a-half and seven months. His wife's salary of over eighty thousand dollars allows him to spend more time at home. But he admits that the decision was not an easy one.

RASMUSSEN: It is different to get away from our traditional roles. And I feel pressured, within myself more than anything, that I should be the one providing. And I still feel that. I think there's something, some male thing going on there that I should be providing the primary income.

MILLER: Rasmussen found other stay-at-home dads when he joined a dads' playgroup in his Stapleton neighborhood in Denver, three months ago. Steve Stremsterfer is another member of the group, who started coming about nine months ago. He says the playgroup is pretty informal. The seven dads and twelve kids meet every two weeks.

STEVE STREMSTERFER: We rotate houses. And the hosting dad provides bagles and coffee, or a variation thereof. We come and hang out and chat about anything we want to until the kids get cranky. And then usually we leave.

MILLER: Five of the seven dads in the playgroup work part-time from home. There is an architect, consultant, and small business owner. Stremsterfer is a graphic artist who works from home while keeping an eye on his son Jack and daughter Tess, ages four-and-a-half and two-and-a-half.

STREMSTERFER: I do everything with them. We do breakfast, we go to the mall, and play, we take them to the grocery store, take them to Sam's Club, take them everywhere. I take them sometimes to meetings that I have with my clients because I still do freelance graphic design. All my clients know I have kids and that they're my first priority and everything else comes after that.

MILLER: The dads relish the adult male company. They talk about the things that moms have been talking about for years: their childrens' foods, health, development, and education. John Brask is member of the dads' playgroup. But he's also in a moms' group. He says there are some differences and the other dads agree.

JOHN BRASK: You know, we talk about PlayStation, and movies and beer.

UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Bars.

BRASK: Yeah.

MILLER: Lots of working families rely on day-care or a nanny. But Rasmussen says that day care was not a solution for his family.

RASMUSSEN: For two kids between eighty to a hundred dollars a day. So it just, it didn't make sense one, to have someone else watch our children; and two, to spend that kind of money.

MILLER: The benefits of the dads group are not just financial. There's enjoyment for the kids but also for the adults. Rasmussen likes hanging out with other dads.

RASMUSSEN: It's nice to kind of, step away from the kids just a little bit and interact with some adults and have some adult, guy banter, if you will. And we're all kind of at the same points in our lives, and it's nice. It's just a nice little break.

MILLER: The dads agree that they have come to enjoy the socialization and support.

STREMSTERFER: I look forward to this a lot. It's kind of a nice break in the normal routine, because it's every two weeks.

CHILD: Pink.

STREMSTERFER: So it's not the kind of frequency where you feel like you have to go to this thing all the time.

CHILD: Daddy, pink.

STREMSTERFER: [children screaming in background] It's very casual, very laid back, the kids just go bonkers. And it's nice to see that you're kids aren't the only ones throwing tantrums and being wild. It happens to everybody's kids.

CHILD: Pink!

STREMSTERFER: Yes, it's pink.

BRASK: IN fact, I like it so much that I've been thinking about doing it every week.

MILLER: For Western Skies, I'm Jeannine Miller in Denver.

ERIC WHITNEY: And that wraps up this edition of Western Skies, thanks for listening. Be sure to tune in next week, when we take a look at the drug culture in Colorado, and hear about some possible responses.

Our Associate Producer is Stephen Raher and Delaney Utterback makes sure the website is running. I'm Eric Whitney.