Blogger behind 'Honest Toddler' slams the response to Chris Hemsworth's cake.

Well known Canadian Blogger, Bunmi Laditan, has taken aim at the gushing response some people have offered to Chris Hemsworth’s birthday cake baking efforts.

If you missed the story, Chris Hemsworth tried to order a birthday cake for his daughter with about four day’s notice. Not surprisingly, the busy bakers of Byron Bay were unable to fit him in.

We know now that in ordering his cake Chris didn’t identify himself, which is a pretty class act. Read our exclusive story from the baker who realised she unwittingly turned down the job of a lifetime here.

Hemsworth then did what any parent would do in that situation. He rolled up his sleeves and baked the cake himself.

It was a fine effort, no better or worse than my own attempts at a Women’s Weekly swimming pool cake.

But, the response to Chris’ efforts was, well, overwhelming.

Mashable suggested that Chris had “saved the day.”

Buzzfeed called his efforts a “masterpiece.”

E! News referred to him as a “real life superhero.”

I’m sure Chris Hemsworth is a cool dude, but baking a birthday cake for his daughter makes him a real life dad and that’s about it.

A point eloquently made by Bunmi Laditan on her Facebook page.

Bunmi writes;

I debated whether or not to post this here, but maybe I’ll have an ongoing series called Petty Mondays where once a week I write about something that annoys me unnecessarily.

So, the celebrity Chris Hemsworth, AKA Thor, baked his daughter a birthday cake and it’s trending. Every celeb rag and women’s magazine is gushing over what a GREAT daddy he is!

I’m going to preface my rant by saying it’s good that he made his kid a cake…but what the hell?

Why is it that when a dad does the bare minimum required to parent that’s he’s given a trophy and a parade? All a dad has to do to be hailed as an incredible parent is stick around and take just a smidgen above the mildest of interest in their kid, post about it online, and they’re #DadGoals for the entire universe.

Last year a dad did his daughter’s hair in the morning and the world exploded in tear-streaked praise. But my question is: why are we impressed? If a mom shared a video of herself doing her kid’s hair or baking them a birthday cake, no one would care, and do you know why? We’re expected to.

In fact, when a mom does something normal for her kid and shares it, there always more than a few comments about how she could have done it better.

“Oh she didn’t plan ahead and get a nice one ordered?”

“Way to half-ass it.”

“I wish mothers would stop giving their kids so much sugar.”

“That’s a lot of artificial color…#KnowBetterDoBetter”

I’m all for celebrating good parents but I’d like to see fewer standing ovations for dads doing what dads are supposed to. Not only must it be patronizing for fathers who man up daily, but it just adds to the stereotype that men aren’t expected to be involved in the day-to-day or raising children.

/rant

Ain’t that the truth.

One commenter makes the point that it’s important to praise new dads. “We need to show young men to be strong fathers. What better way than a strong man’s example. Let’s make Dads fixing hair and baking cakes the ‘new norm'”.

But Bunmi responds perfectly, further highlighting the double standard and the mythology about women that it perpetuates.

“I hear what you’re saying but this kind of exaggerated praise just reinforces the idea that full participation isn’t expected of fathers so when it happens it’s very special.”

In other words, it’s as damaging to both mums and dads as the image of a dumb dad, the one who is ‘babysitting’ his kids, the one that doesn’t know how to dress his children properly, the one we like to laugh at for his parenting efforts.

If we want to live in a world of equals, where both parents, all parents, play as much of a role in their children’s lives as each other then both parents deserve the same response and respect to and of their parenting, be it baking of a birthday cake or the sustained presence and influence in a child’s life.

Feeling cakey now? You could make a cake in a mug: