The Changing Face Of Fatherhood

Across the world, the face of fatherhood is changing.

CBS Sunday Morning takes a look at how dads in the United States, Italy and Japan are transforming the traditional roles of fatherhood.

Full-time Fatherhood in America

Forty-one-year-old Mitch Shuckman is an accountant just like his dad.

He looks like his dad.

He's married and lives on Long Island, New York, just like his dad. And Mitch is also a father, but there is one way in which Mitch is nothing like his dad, 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty learns.

"Thirty years ago, we were primarily concerned with working. And let the wife take care of the kids," Jeff Shuckman, Mitch's father, says.

Mitch says that "it was work to be a dad," adding "that's the best part of my day. It's so much fun."

Remembering when he was a young father, Jeff says, "In those days, I'd take the 7:06 train in the morning. I'd take the 10:24 at night. So I'd get home at 11, 11:30 at night. And I'd be up at six o'clock the next morning and on my way to work."

Those brutal hours are a long way from what Mitch experiences.

"I'm a lot more involved as a dad than my dad was as a dad. I spend more time with the kids during their waking hours," Mitch says.

Case in point: Jeff was not in the delivery room when Mitch was born. Mitch, however, witnessed the birth of all three of his children. "I remember it vividly, three of the best days of my life," he says.

And Mitch claims to know all of his son's friends. Jeff, however, says with a laugh of Mitch's friends, "I still don't know them."

Jeff explains, "Me as a dad, I would consider it an occupation. Him, as a dad, it's considered a hobby. He loves his hobby. He loves being with his boys."

What a difference 40 years make. In 1966, Jeff Shuckman was the archetypal American father.

"We were all working -- being out of the house between 12, 15, 16 hours a day," Jeff says.

"When he was around he was stressed out," Mitch adds. "He, you know, was tired.

Jeff says he left fathering to weekends, vacations or when extra discipline was needed.

In 2006, his son, Mitch, may be just as typical, living a very different life. Although his wife Barbara is home with their three sons, Mitch rushes from work to be there for dinner. He is often the one to help with homework and attends nearly all their sports and school events.

"I take my career seriously and it is a career," Mitch says. "But I want all that so I can have a good family life."

Parenting in Mitch Shuckman's household is a team effort, though, as Mitch admits, he has the fun side of parenting.

"He's not working any less hard than I worked," Jeff says of his son. "He's got the work ethic, the same ethic that I had and that my father had. But yet, he fits everything in. There's no way that I could fit things in the way he did.

"I look at what he does and I can't conceive of how he can do it. I enjoyed being a dad, yes. But did I enjoy it as much as he does? He appears to enjoy it a heck of a lot more than I do," Jeff says.

Of course, Mitch has certain advantages his father never had. Gadgets such as the cell phone and blackberry Mitch keeps on hand, in addition to employers who are more understanding and flexible, allow Mitch to be two places at once.

"I may make a conference call en route and I may write a memo from my computer after the kids are in bed. And I've probably worked as much if not more than I would if I just did it in the office. I've also got to enjoy time with my kids," Mitch says.

All of this adds up to a deeper relationship with his three boys.

"Like if you're upset with a kid in school and you don't wanna talk to your mom about it. It'd be easier to talk to your dad 'cause he's the one who can help people feel better. He can help me feel better," 9-year-old Aaron Shuckman says.

Aaron, 13-year old Jake and 15-year-old Max, the next generation of Shuckmans, make it pretty clear which kind of father they prefer.

"He's like a kid slash dad," Aaron says of Mitch.

Of his grandfather, Jake says that he's "more like a working person so it's harder to relate to him."

But like father, like grandfather, Mitch says his dad is now enjoying what he once missed, attending ballgames and concerts to see his grandchildren.

Jeff does clearly enjoy spending time with the boys, but does he wish he was a 21st century American dad?

"When I look at him today, I'm not really envious because I see that he has no time for himself," Jeff says. "He's totally involved with his work. He's totally involved with his family. There's no down time for him."

To which Mitch responds, "Well, time with my kids is time to myself, I find. I believe that I'm having my cake and eating it, too. I've got the best of both worlds."

Untraditional Roles In Italy

The archetypal image of an Italian father is a character from Vittorio Gassman's classic film "The Family," a role Italians call "padre e padrone": father and master of the house.

But that image and role is, well, changing, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey.

Federico Pucci and a growing number of young Italian fathers are playing this new role with the same kind of enthusiasm that their fathers had for the traditional one.

"Every time that I can do something, I am happy," Pucci says.

Normally, Federico lifts a microphone -- he works as a freelance soundman for CBS among others.

It's a lot easier than his fatherhood gig.

To a certain extent this new arrangement is the result of economic pressure.

Like many young Italian couples, Federico and his wife, Piera, both work. She's a producer for one of the main TV channels, which means neither of them is free to look after both Sofia and her 3-year-old sister, Sara, all the time.

In the "old days" there would have been an extended family close to hand to help out that allowed traditional fathers to be as they were, according to Italy's leading sociologist, professor Franco Ferrarotti.

"Fathers were very macho, you know, very strong. I would say very proud of being men and not being concerned with the chores of every day life," Ferrarotti says. "Of course, they wouldn't even take the garbage out. No, no, nothing."

It was a mere six years ago that Italy caught up with the rest of Europe by offering paternity leave: six months to be taken over the child's first eight years.

Federico say he takes "paternity leave" every time he comes home.

"When I come back in my house, I forget everything about the job. That's the very good thing," he says.

But even in that, he's a minority. A recent survey found that barely 2 percent of Italian men have taken advantage of the new law and there may be a reason other than machismo.

"Well, women in Italy, I can tell you, I am doing research on that, become very, very scary, they are afraid, they are afraid to lose their turf, to lose the kingdom," Ferrarotti explains, adding that men have become quite efficient as caretakers.

You can see evidence of that efficiency every Sunday in any park in Rome and turf wars don't trouble the Pucci family anyway.

"Federico does plenty of work in the house," Piera says. "He cooks 90 percent of the time. He looks after the children. He changes the baby. He puts them to sleep."

And as for being wary of "surrendering the kingdom," Piera says through a translator, "It was clear to me he was that sort of man. It was not a surprise. I married him on purpose," she quips.

Which just goes to show that even in Italy under the old ways or the new, "padre e padrone" is more an image than a reality.

Focusing On The Family In Japan

In Japan, work has always been the center of a man's life. With brutal commutes and workdays that often become work nights.

A man's worth used to be measured almost entirely by how well he
brought home the sashimi.

And an absentee dad, was a successful dad, explains CBS News correspondent Lucy Craft.

But advertising executive Tomo Sueda measures his value by how fast he can race home to his wife and 4-year-old son.

Nowadays, instead of burning the midnight oil at the office, a growing number of younger Japanese dads like Sueda are scheduling soak time with their kids

To the bath-crazy Japanese, family bathing is an almost sacred custom here, yet generations of workaholic fathers rarely had time for such
indulgences. But Sueda makes a point of it.

"I will pick up my son at the kindergarten and come back to the home before my wife come back to the home," Sueda says.

Cooking, cleaning and childcare are split right down the middle with Sueda's wife, Takayo, a market analyst.

"It used to be that the father was strict and to be respected. But now, instead of being master of the house, husband and wife are partners," Takayo says in Japanese. "It's a radical break with the past."

The traditional Japanese father -- stern and puritanical -- used to be a feared force of nature. There's an old Japanese saying: "Earthquakes, thunder, fire and fathers."

But in recent years, as Japanese women have gained careers and confidence, hands-on dads have become a common sight.

Temple University Professor Jeff Kingston, who has chronicled the
changing role of Japanese fathers in a recent book, says dads like Tomo
Sueda are the vanguard of a new breed of Japanese father.

"If you look at opinion surveys, men want to become hands-on fathers, but most of them don't really have the opportunity," Kingston says.

Tomo Sueda happens to have a sympathetic employer. But eventually, says Kingston, corporate policies will catch up with family-friendly attitudes.

"Young men are saying they want to be much more involved in raising their kids and maybe the thing is they looked at their own lives growing up, and not having a dad at home, an absentee dad, really was a burden for them.

"So," Kingston says, "I think that many young dads want to give their kids a different brand of parenting."