As a Lead Dad, as a working parent, here’s what I’m most grateful for at the end of this week: a senior male leader who takes his job seriously but carries himself lightly.
I’d never heard of Tim Walz until he entered the vice-presidential chatter, and I couldn’t have told you what he sounded like until he stood on the stage in Philadelphia with Kamala Harris for President, 2024 on Tuesday.
But in a few short days – forget your politics – I’ve seen a model for modern masculinity and fatherhood that’s joyfully encouraging.
It comes down to this: Walz clearly takes his job seriously – from high school teacher/coach to Congressman to governor – but he can poke fun at himself. We need more of that.
We can all work hard and be human, too.
The videos circulating with his daughter Hope – at the state fair, debating whether turkey is a vegetable in Minnesota, filming a blooper-filled safe-driving video in her car – are endearing, for sure.
But they also show a man who isn’t caught up in some outdated notion of masculinity.
He’s a former high school football coach who stepped up to be a sponsor for that school’s LGBT student group. He was an aspirant politician who didn’t play down that role, even when one of the student’s grateful mothers suggested he not talk so much about it lest it keep him from getting elected to Congress. He talked about what he did – because it was the right thing to do – and he got elected.
Yet, it’s what I see of him being a father that’s given me so much hope. He’s not the stern or oblivious TV-version of a dad. He’s engaged, loving and quick witted.
Caveat of course: I’ve been a journalist long enough that I’m skeptical of all political images. Still, if Walz has chosen an image – and let’s hope that’s not the case and this is who he really is – he chose one of caring, empathetic masculinity.
There are plenty of national politicians – and business leaders to be fair – who lean into an image of them being either aggressively masculine warrior-saviors or erudite statesman above the fray of our national politics. Both are bad for men – let alone for the state of our nation.
Walz, at least in his first week on the national stage, is projecting something that I deeply admire: he’s serious and committed to his job as governor and now candidate for vice-president. He’s human, connecting with people as a man who loves his family. He presents himself as being there with his family and fully engaged despite all that is certainly swirling around in his head.
How often do we as Lead Dads and working parents in general do something silly in our cars or our living rooms to make our daughters or sons laugh? Maybe we’re trying to cheer them up, maybe we’re just being silly. We do it out of love.
But we do it privately.
Here’s a man who has been leading a state and is now on a national campaign being a model for 21st century fatherhood – high empathy, high engagement. Let’s all be more like that.
