A Stay-at-Home Dad Not Worth 50K, Internet Says

March 12, 2014— -- What's a stay-at-home dad worth? And what about a dad willing to share his musings of fatherhood and child-rearing wisdom with the public? Would he be worth $50,000?

That's the question dad-blogger Adam Dolgin of Toronto posed to his fans in what he called a "social experiment." Would it be worth $1 from each of the 50,000 fans of his blog Fodder4Fathers to devote more of his time to blogging? He put up a page on GoFundMe and pinned it to the top of his fan page to find out.

And that, he told ABCNews.com, was his "biggest mistake."

The story was picked up by several parenting blogs, including Babble. (Editor's note: The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of both Babble and ABC News.) Reaction to the crowd-funding request was mixed, but Babble pointed out "the majority felt Adam's request diminished the value of stay-at-home parents, pointing many 'do it for free."'

Dolgin insists his request was "really just a request to fans. I didn't think it would go anywhere."

But Dolgin's crowd-funding page states, "I'd like to leave the corporate world behind for a year to take on the role of stay-at-home parent with my kids and prove once and for all that anything moms can do DADS can do equally-one year to chronicle my life doing the hardest, most rewarding job in the world and doing it well. But I'm just not in a position to do this financially, so I could really use your support."

Since the backlash to his request began, Dolgin changed his funding goal from $50k to just $10. He has raised $30 so far.

Dolgin actually has two jobs, in addition to writing his blog. He's a college teacher and is involved with a family business. But he insists he doesn't want anyone's money.

There have been many studies on how much stay-at-home-parents should make. According to Salary.com's 2013 annual salary survey for moms, a stay-at-home mom should be paid $113,568 per year for their work in the home -- an average of 94 hours per week. Dads? About $67,000 per year. By that estimate, Dolgin's willingness to stay home and blog about it is a relative bargain.