Bodyguard.

That's one aspect of his job as father that Tim Booker, of Manheim Township, did not see reflected on the so-called Father's Day Index, prepared by the website, Insure.com.

Teaching his toddler to climb the stairs safely, ensuring she doesn't run into the street, doing all he can to keep her safe, is pretty much "a 24-hour-a-day job," Booker said.

For Mother's Day and Father's Day, Insure.com assessed the tasks performed by moms and dads in the home, and, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, assigned values to that work.

According to this year's indexes, fathers only do $20,248 worth of work, compared to mothers' $60,182. That would seem to make moms three times more valuable in the home than dads.

Moms were credited with, among other tasks, taking care of their children, tending to their wounds, planning their parties and summer activities, shopping for the family and "finding out what the kids are up to."

The 2012 Father's Day Index took a rather antiquated view of dads' chores, depicting fathers as glorified handymen, responsible for mowing the lawn, assembling toys and bookshelves, making home repairs, barbecuing, and killing the occasional spider.

The only child care-related tasks taken into account were coaching, chauffeuring, being scout leaders, and helping with homework.

It's like fathers are "all Homer Simpsons," laughed Jeffrey Hartenstine, a Mountville father of one.

Homer Simpsons, or perhaps, Ward Cleavers.

The reality of modern fatherhood is quite different. As research shows, "there really are substantial increases in fathers' involvement in pretty much all aspects of child care and childrearing," said Jay Fagan, professor of social work at Temple University, noting, "A lot of those traditional divisions of labor are starting to break down."

In 1965, fathers spent about 2.5 hours per week providing child care; now, it's 6.8 hours per week. In 1965, fathers spent 4.4 hours per week doing housework; today, it is about 9.5 hours per week.

According to the American Family Time Use Survey, "fathers engage in direct interaction with their children about 73 percent as much as mothers do today," Fagan said.

He noted that when he talks to young couples, they often find the discussion about gender roles in parenting to be "ridiculous." They take for granted the active engagement of fathers in parenting.

Alas, as the Father's Day Index suggests, popular culture may not have caught up with reality. On television, too, in commercials and sitcoms, dads continue to be depicted as clueless.

"There's always a disconnect between the culture and what happens in reality, in people's families," Fagan said. "Fathers are still often pictured as bumbling idiots, when they've taken on the challenge and they're doing work that needs to be done in the house."

They may not parent, or do housework, quite the same way as their wives, he said, "but they're doing a perfectly fine job."

The "old-school mentality" still exists, Tim Booker said, observing matter-of-factly, "Change is hard."

Booker is among the growing number of stay-at-home dads in the United States. He and his wife, Wendy, have a nearly 2-year-old daughter.

He said he viewed the Father's Day Index as akin to attempts to quantify the value of the gifts in the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." "I couldn't take it seriously," he said.

"How can you put a price on helping a child gain self-confidence?" Booker asked. "How can you put a price on leading by example? … How do you put a price on listening to your child?" (And, on the flip side, it would be impossible to put a dollar figure on his daughter's smiles and giggles, the "hilarious" things she says and does, he said.)

The index seems to be based on stereotypical, old-fashioned expectations of fathers, he said, noting that his own dad may have fit into this mold — "I don't know if he ever changed a diaper in his life" — but it does not reflect his own reality as a stay-at-home dad.

"Pretty much all of the dads I know" —including his friends who are in the workforce — "are more involved than that index suggests," Booker said.

One of those friends is Jeff Kurtz, a Manheim Township father of four children, ranging in age from 6 to 20.

Kurtz works in commercial real estate; his wife, Marie, is a speech pathologist who supervises speech therapy services at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Because his wife works in Hershey, he generally gets the kids ready for school, and tries to get some of the routine household tasks out of the way before she gets home from work, so that she has time with the kids. (He said his mother-in-law "helps us a lot.")

Doing laundry, helping to get dinner on the table, ferrying the kids to where they need to go — he sees all of those chores as part of his role. "It's not something I make a big deal of," he said. "It's part of your obligation as a parent."

He said "it's a great example for the kids" to see both parents using their educations, and working as a team.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Kurtz said.

Jeffrey Hartenstine takes a similar view. When his 1-year-old daughter wakes up, generally before 6 a.m., he gives her a snack, and spends some time looking at books with her, while his wife, Amy, gets ready for her workday as a marketing manager at a bank.

At the other end of the workday, his wife makes dinner, and looks after their daughter until Hartenstine returns home from his job in commercial truck sales. They'll both give the baby a bath, before settling down to watch "Sesame Street."

Hartenstine said his wife "does pull more weight around the house, but I help as much as I can."

When it comes to caring for a very young child, he said, it's a matter of "trying to do whatever needs to be done, whenever it needs to be done … On a day-to-day basis, nobody's keeping score."

He doesn't iron, but he knows how to handle a vacuum cleaner — "our daughter throws everything on the floor," he said — and he washes dishes. He and his wife do the grocery shopping together.

"Changing diapers, all of the stuff, who's ever closest to her when it happens" takes care of it, he said, laughing.

Hartenstine had been an only child, and he never baby-sat, so he was "a little intimidated" by the prospect of having to care for a baby, he said. So, before his daughter arrived, he enrolled in Lancaster General Health's "Father's Boot Camp," to familiarize himself with some of the nitty-gritty details of child care.

He said that parenting a young child required "100-percent focus. All of the selfish things you like to do, like watch a Phillies game, go out the window." (He acknowledged that being too busy to watch the Phillies this baseball season might be "a blessing in disguise.")

He said that "dealing with a young child is very exhausting," but "it's a labor of love. ... It's too rewarding to miss out on."

Brian Hock is a Lancaster city father of an 11-month-old boy. He and his wife also work in tandem to care for their son.

In the mornings, while his wife, Tamesa, is getting ready for her day as a teacher, he changes his son's diaper, gets him dressed and feeds him.

And in the evenings, when his wife is doing schoolwork, he entertains their son, and does dishes, laundry —"whatever needs to be done, I do it."

"I expected to be involved … and I wanted to be involved in my son's life," said Hock, who works in rigging at Sight & Sound Theatre.

Hock became a dad when he was 43. "It probably was one of the biggest things I was looking forward to. … It's something I've been waiting for, for a long time."

Ted Search, a pharmacist and Lancaster city resident, said he and his wife are expecting their first child, a daughter, in July. He sees the modern dad's role as that of co-parent, not merely supporting staff.

He said that both his mother and father were "such strong influences on me, things I want my daughter to have."

Contact Sunday News staff writer Suzanne Cassidy at scassidy@lnpnews.com.