What is a Slacker Dad?
The “bones” for this post came from an email exchange with Rosemary Counter for her article for the Toronto Sun and affiliated Sun Media papers. The original article can be found on Rosemary’s site.
Adam Sandler’s new movie, That’s My Boy opens in theatres tomorrow. Like most comedies, and especially Adam Sandler comedies, it pushes the extremes on stereotypes for, hopefully, comedic effect. The stereotype pushed this time round is a slacker dad, played by Mr. Sandler.
So what is a slacker? It’s one of those words that I see an image in my mind’s eye, but when it comes to describing it, it feels just out of reach. The term slacker has been around for awhile. The usages have varied from Sudanese workers under British rule to draft dodgers during the World Wars. However, late 20th century meanings have been about aimless and apathetic Gen Xers (hey, that’s me – the Gen Xer, not the aimlessness and apathy) who didn’t rally behind causes or politics and who did as much as possible to avoid meaningful work.
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