Daddy Day Care (2003) is a movie about two men, Charlie and Phil, who are fired from their job when they fail to develop a vegetable cereal product that their target market (children) would like. Charlie and Phil search unsuccessfully for a new job, but are unable to find something they like. They start spending a lot of time with their children and realize that there is a lack of good quality daycares in town. The rest of the movie is about Charlie and Phil starting a new day care and developing it. They learn about managing a seemingly simple business like a daycare, improvise on the job, and succesfully compete with a major competitor who dominates the daycare business in their town. In short, the movie illustrates a lot of concepts that entrepreneurship courses and classes talk about. Just when their daycare has become successful, they are offered their old job back. Though Charlie and Phil are happy to get back their job, their return to their jobs does not last long. They miss their time managing their own business, and decide to quit their job to start their business again.
I do research in gender stereotypes in entrepreneurship and I simply love this movie- Two men starting a day care business. In an indication of the times we live in, the first few mothers who came to Charlie and Phil’s day care business think they are sick men and were not willing to leave their young children at the daycare. The two men are just new entrepreneurs trying to enter into an industry which has traditionally been feminine stereotyped. Usually, gender stereotypes are considered to be an obstacle for women interested in pursuing traditionally male-typed occupations. This movie does a nice job of presenting things from an opposite perspective- the perspective of normal men trying to succeed in a feminine-typed industry.
