With Father’s Day coming up in June it is time to crown the “World’s Greatest TV Dad”. My friends over at Man of the House are trying to determine who really is the top TV dad. Will it be Al Bundy or Jay Pritchet (both played by Ed O’Neil) or maybe your thinking that Bill Cosby’s Heathcliff Huxtable or Tom Bosely’s Arthur Cunningham should take top spot. There are even some animated dads as well like Homer Simpson.

I’ve always been a TV fan and so I am familiar with the parenting styles of most every TV Dad in the contest. In fact, Dads like Al Bundy are one of the main reasons that many of my fellow Dad Bloggers got into blogging. Not because they were inspired by the character but rather we are pretty sick of being portrayed as bumbling idiots who try to shirk our parenting duties. Most of the Dads what I know are not like that at all. Some are, but the majority are really attentive to their kids and help out around the house. So I am hoping that Al Bundy or Homer Simpson does not win. I encourage you to cast your vote in the “World’s Greatest TV Dad” Competition. It is a bracket style with new updates happening every Monday to show the outcome of the previous week’s voting.

I cast my votes and in this first round I picked Dads like Stephen Keaton from Family Ties and Tony Micelli from Who’s The Boss. I’d sort of like to see Tony Micelli from Who’s The Boss win the whole thing for a couple of reasons. Tony took a job as a housekeeper to get his daughter into a better school and into a better living environment. While he took that job he was able to be a not only parent his own daughter but be a father figure for Angela’s son, Jonathan. Here’s a dad willing to do whatever it took to give his daughter a better life.

When I think to my own Dad and I can see how he’s sacrificed and worked long hard hours to provide for our family growing up. He was also there for us with advice and did what he could to give us a better life including a place to spend our summers on Cape Cod. I know that as a kid growing up he was always someone that I could go to for advice and still can.

When I think about my own parenting style. I find that I am strongly influenced by Tony Micelli. Tony was a Dad who was there all the time. He worked at home, he helped not only his kid but Angela’s as well. I also find that I respect the parenting style of Richard Castle from Castle. He has a great relationship with his daughter Alexis. Steven Keaton could be the firm but sensitive and understanding Dad to three (eventually 4) very different children. And Heathcliff Huxtable was probably the ultimate TV Dad with his sage advice and humor and ability to parent five children while being a successful doctor.

Round one of the competition has already completed (happened as I was writing this) but there is still time to vote from some great dads who are still in the running (Sorry Tony). I’d love to see an understanding, hard working, smart dad win in this competition. I’m so glad to see that many of the buffoons have already been eliminated. as well. Let your own voice be heard and vote in Man of the House’s “World’s Greatest TV Dad” Competition. Mo, Charles Ingalls is still in the running.

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received promotional items to thank me for taking the time to participate.