Darby Saxbe

My husband is much more likely to order.

Yeah, the kind of roughhousing parent, the play parent.

So dads do a lot of what's called proprioceptive touch, which is like moving babies around in space, right?

If we're moving a child around, like picking them up, throwing them up in the air, chasing them, tickling them.

And so there's a lot of evidence that dads just gravitate to that style of play.

And that that style of play is really rewarding for kids.

Kids seek it out.

They benefit from it.

It builds their confidence.

It builds their risk tolerance.

Yeah.

And I think the sports dad is kind of a continuation of that.

It's a domain that a lot of dads feel comfortable in.

kind of having mastery of.

Yeah.

And I think even with play, like I'm always careful to not be too gender essentialist, right?

Because there are totally moms that love to wrestle and are physical.

And there are totally dads that are the more cerebral parent or the more affectionate parent.

But I think what works best for kids is when each parent has their own relationship and the kid gets exposed to different styles.

Mm-hmm.