The Internet has changed a myriad of things, from how we communicate, to how we absorb news, and now apparently to how we judge fathers who take care of their kids. The latest victim of the Internet’s wrath? The man behind the blog “Daddy Doin’ Work,” who owned the ‘net after posting a photo of him combing his eldest daughter’s hair with his youngest snapped on him in a baby carrier.
Doyin Richards, 39, is currently taking a paternity leave of absence from his job in learning development to care for his daughters, ages 6 months and 2 years, and chronicles daddyhood on his blog. Normal business, but the photo shattered the internet after he, unbeknownst to the attention it would attract, posted it across his social platforms.
He describes the photo in a blog that reads:
One morning last week, MDW was running late for work and was worried that she wouldn’t be able to get DDW1′s hair done before I had to take her to school. I told her that she could leave and I’d handle it. She countered by saying that doing her hair requires attention and the baby would get upset if I left her alone while I played the role of stylist. Again, I told her that I’d handle it. On the way out she said, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
That’s when I put DDW2 in the Ergo, stood DDW1 on a stool and worked my hair magic. During the process, I thought, “There’s no way my wife will believe me if I don’t take a picture of this.” That’s when I set my camera up, put it on a 10-second timer, and took the photo you’re looking at right now. After 15 minutes of multitasking, the final result was a nice, tight ponytail for big sister and a happily sleeping baby in the carrier. Mission accomplished. I emailed the photo to her with the caption “Boom.” and we both got a good laugh out of it.
But nothing on these nets is all good. Doyin was flooded with a bevy of private messages and comments from the photo, some of them race related, and others just plain full of hate. He posted a sampling of some of the private messages and comments he received after posting the photo:
– “He probably rented those kids. They don’t even look like him.”
– “I would bet anything that you’re a deadbeat.”
– “OK buddy, cute picture. Now why don’t you hand the children back to their mom so you can go back to selling drugs or your bootleg rap CDs?”
– “So do you do this for all of your illegitimate kids?”
-“This would be so much better if those kids were BLACK!”
– “Look at this Uncle Tom. No chance he would be doing this if his kids were black.”
– “I’m sorry, but I can’t support a brotha who didn’t marry a black woman.”
– “Your MOM is black and you dishonored her by marrying outside of your race? You probably can’t handle a strong black woman.”
That’s a lot of hated for a man simply taking care of his kids. And for the record, Doyin sees the image as most of us do “no big deal.” If a woman was doing such thing nobody would even bat an eye at it, he says in his blog.
“Until we can get to the point where men and women can complete the same parenting tasks and the reactions are the same, we will have problems.”
That’s right Doyin! Check out more from the blogging Daddy on his blog here, and while you’re in the “awww, babies” spirit, take a look at Doyin in action with his in the gallery below.
