When it comes to stay-at-home parents, most people probably think of mom. But the traditional gender roles are changing and the number of stay-at-home dads has doubled over the last decade.
A photo shows a proud father with his two daughters. Cheyenne and Danielle graduated from high school earlier this month. Now they are ready to take on the world, thanks to their dad. William Drewery has spent the past 11 years raising his twins by himself. He says even though it's been demanding, he was up for the challenge. “Once you have kids, your life is-- the party should be over. You should take responsibility of raising your kids. You gotta be a parent,” he said.
Drewery is not alone. There were 81,000 stay-at-home dads in 2001. Fast forward to last year--the number more than doubled to 176,000 according to the US Census Data.
"It's very important to a family certainly the father role is crucial to the development certainly." Sarah Jane Lawrence is a teen outreach program manager at the Family Service of Roanoke Valley. She says when fathers take part in various program activities, kids transform. She put it in their words: "I want you to meet my dad or my dad came tonight and you can see how much more it means to them that their father was able to come or took off work to come," she said as she described the things kids tell her.
And William Drewery's dream is all any dad or mom can hope for. "Being stong--being independent--being where they won't have to depend on anybody else to do anything for them,” he said.
