Over close to my neighborhood, the Prospect Park Y.M.C.A. is changing the name of a class to make fathers more welcome. It used to be “Mommy and Baby.” Now it’s “Parent and Baby.” Maybe not quite the same ring, but the teacher said more and more dads are coming — from just a couple uncomfortable dads at the end of last year to about a third of the class.

The change appears to be the result of several factors: the economic downturn, a generational attitude shift concerning fathering, and a neighborhood where many residents have jobs with flexible schedules, some of which allow work from home.

It reminded me of another column I read a couple weeks ago, in which a young father argued that we need to start changing the language of parenthood. He actually describes going to a “Mommy and Me” class as the only dad, the “Daddy Day Care” jokes, and the realization that, “As a society, we often talk about fathers as less than full partners in the parental relationship.”

The roles that a mother plays in the lives of her children are so integral that to refer to her using language that suggests an occasional, casual participant in the child’s rearing would be, at best, dismissive, and, at worst, offensive. So why isn’t the same true for fathers? Our lexicon for describing what fathers actually do is limited at best: “mothering” is the standard description of what we need when we want to be comforted; “fathering” is a word, just not one I’ve ever heard anyone actually use. …

Despite its obviousness, it bears mention: language matters. Language not only reflects our attitudes and our cultural mores, but it also shapes them. All too often, the language we use to describe fathers and the roles they play suggests bit players in our children’s lives. From we way that we talk about them, it’s clear that fathers aren’t yet entirely welcome in the spaces and communities where we congregate as parents, whether in the real world or online.

Have you seen the recession prompting dads to take a more active role in childcare? And what do you make of this parenting language that seems to diminish a dad’s role?