Parenting.com‘s Shawn Bean wanted to know why as the only dad-blogger on the site, his blog was dead last on the list. His editor fixed it for him – bumped him up the list. Since then, another dad has started blogging for Parenting.com as well - Matt Villano - and he’s ceremoniously taken on the last place spot.

Bean wonders if this is an act of parentism – that is, in Bean’s words, “the societal belief that one type of parent (i.e. a mother or a father) possesses skills, characteristics and abilities that are superior to the other.”

With a whole crap-ton of dads that still feel as if there’s a bias against them (and of course, moms that then answer “you? YOU? What about me?!”), maybe Bean’s onto something.

With the world more competitive than ever, we’re always wondering if our kids will be able to take a bump and keep running toward the goal. Turns out that if you want to know how persistent, tenacious and determined a kid will be, you can check out how determined his dad is for a hint.

Researchers from Brigham Young University conducted a several-year survey of 325 (two-parent) families from BYU’s Flourishing Families Project. Adolescents and their parents were questioned during “Time 2, 3 and 4″, which if we extrapolate some math from their own description, would put participants between 11 and 16. “There are relatively few studies that highlight the unique role of fathers,” said lead researcher Laura M. Padilla-Walker. “This research also helps to establish that traits such as persistence – which can be taught – are key to a child’s life success.”