It's a trend often fueled by economic downturns and one that some stay-at-home dads hope will stick around. A husband may lose his job or something like that and decide to be a stay-at-home dad, but then he chooses to remain a stay-at-home dad," Shannon Carpenter, a stay-at-home dad for 15 years and the author of "The Ultimate Stay-at-Home Dad," told Insider. And you can see the change starts with stay-at-home dads, that that is an option for us to go through." How stay-at-home dads are changingOver the past 30 years, the number of stay-at-home parents has been on the rise — but the number of stay-at-home moms has essentially stayed flat. But there seems to be some evidence that changing gender norms are contributing to the rise in stay-at-home dads."

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Persons: Andrew Ebright, he's, I'm, Ebright, I'd, Shannon Carpenter, St . Louis, Richard Reeves, hasn't, Carpenter, Richard Fry, Fry, Pew, Drew, Drew — Organizations: Service, Pew Research Center, Wall Street Journal, National Center for Education Statistics, Washington University, Boston Fed, Brookings Institution, Pew Locations: Wall, Silicon, St .