According to his wife Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt is a great father. She said because he takes care of the kids then she can continue to have a career and be a mom. Now, in the looks department, there is a little difference between Brad and I. My wife is better looking than Angelina, but she is not a movie star. However, what Brad and I do have in common is that we both love our children, we love our wives, and we want to be good fathers. See, I am just like Brad Pitt. I am not working to save New Orleans with housing projects but I have been down to NO to work with Head Start programs and we are committed to building better homes while Brad is building houses. See, just alike.

But here is the kicker. Over the past eight years we have been able to work with over 75,000 fathers. What we find almost everyday is that most fathers are like Brad Pitt. They love their kids, they love their wives, and they want to be good fathers. Most dads want to support their wives as moms and workers as well even if they are not movie star wives. Now, if you have ever been to a Bring Your Dad to School Day where we gather 200 or 300 dads at one school, it can look like a Neanderthal parade, especially first thing in the morning. Most of us are committed dads but pretty we ain’t. As men around the world are celebrated as “great fathers” just for doing what most of us do, we need to remember a couple of things. First, showing up and doing your job is no reason for a medal. Taking your kids to the store with you does not make you father of the year. Being a Little League coach does not and should not get you an Espy. Too many times people act like a dad that cares is so rare. That is because they are paying attention to the media and not the world around them. I see dads every day doing great things with their kids. All those guys that get in my way during my commute are just trying to get to work or home like I am so that they can continue to do their job and be great fathers. So while doing our job does not make us heroes, evidently by doing our job it makes most of us hairy dads just like Brad Pitt.

J. Michael Hall, M.Ed. is the Founder and President of Strong Fathers-Strong Families, LLC. He has facilitated father-child events in schools and Head Starts for over 75,000 fathers, trained thousands of professionals in education and child care and has written numerous magazine articles and book chapters. He is the father to two teenage boys and husband to a beautiful middle school teacher.

J. Michael Hall, M.Ed.

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