ABSTRACT
"Fatherwork" is the term employed by Dollahite, Hawkins, and Brotherson (1997) to describe the challenges men take on as they engage in generative fathering. As men strive to rise to the challenges of fathering, they often find themselves faced with unfamiliar challenges and in need of some guidance—on-the-job training, if you will. The Fatherwork framework, however, does not explicitly address where fathers might turn for support or training in their efforts. Turning to one's own father may not be the best option for many men, both because of strained relationships and because of the significant changes in the social context of fathering that have occurred in a generation. The opportunity for peers to mentor and provide the advice or help that fathers may need will vary both in quantity and quality. Men can turn to traditional family life education programs for answers to these problems, but generally they do not; participants in traditional parenting education are overwhelmingly female (Palm, 1997). The Internet may provide an additional resource to assist fathers with the challenges of parenting by providing a unique arena for men to learn, share, and discuss the work they do as fathers.
