Recently I saw a MasterCard commercial in which a pre-teen son arrogantly "teaches" the father environmental lessons while grocery shopping. Right after the son shows dad the silly Earth-preserving "importance" of buying a reusable grocery bag, the tagline appears: "Helping dad become a better man? Priceless."

Such subtle messages about the supremacy of children over their dads are now common. Turn on the television and watch just about any channel for one evening and a particularly disgusting pattern begins to emerge: the "dad" is often portrayed as wimpy, ignorant and doltish. Everyone is smarter and more mature. Nearly everyone else is also more attractive and physically fit. You would think that all fathers have actually become Homer Simpson.