Five minutes with Dana Glazer

Dana Glazer has filmed a documentary, The Evolution of Dad.

He talks about his experiences.

What is the one thing you think parents should know about your work?

I think they should know that, while it’s certainly focused on fatherhood, it does so with great respect to all different types of dads and to moms as well.

What are your feelings about the role of the father in child development?

Research points to how the involvement of a dad in a child’s development is extremely important and I feel that it’s important to express this as much as I can in the film.

What is the best thing dads can do in the raising of their children?

Be present, be patient and be loving.

What is the biggest error dads can make in raising their children?

Thinking that their only value as a father is based on one’s wallet size and falling into the mentality that this will compensate for working very long hours.

It’s been said that the greatest regret aging men have is that they didn’t spend more time with their kids. How do you feel about that statement?

It’s such a tragic truth for so many men that it’s become a tragic cliché. I really hope that my film will serve as a wake up call for this.

Every generation worries that their kids aren’t strong enough to handle the real world. Do you feel kids need to be “toughened up” by experiencing rough times?

No. I feel that they need to be shown as much love as I can give them. However, there is a difference between love and coddling. Kids need to be allowed to get a little scraped up, to experience disappointment, to understand that one of the great rules of life is – you win some, you lose some. If kids are kept from experiencing this then, yes, later on they’ll have trouble adjusting.

Or conversely, do you think kids need to be smothered with love to give them storehouse of good feelings with which to deal with the inevitable challenges of life in the real world?

I’m with the camp that believes that showing love and affection as much as possible is a good thing because, frankly, because at the end of the day there’s just not enough of it in the world.