Metro

Disrespected diaper dads mum no more

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Pass the Similac. Adam Nowak of Astoria, Queens, knows what it’s like to suffer discrimina tion. Not because of his religion or the color of his skin. Because he’s a dude.

Last year, Nowak, 40, was drummed out of a mommy’s group. The rejection hit Nowak in the face like the stench of a toxic diaper.

“It was upsetting. It was awful,” said Nowak, a stay-at-home-dad to Ruby, who turns 2 next month.

“I felt like it would feel to be a black person not allowed to go to school in the ’40s or ’50s.”

Rather than file a lawsuit, or sulk, Nowak did an Internet search. He was surprised to find that, as primary-care giver to a wee one, and a man, he was not alone.

Far from it.

Last Father’s Day, we looked in on stay-at-home dads, then a tiny minority that got no respect. They still don’t. But the numbers of career daddies is growing so fast, the testosterone army is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the nursery and on the playground.

Laughed at, ridiculed as “Mr. Moms,” these guys, whose most famous fellow is former Alaska First Hubby Todd Palin, are underemployed or out of work, sensitive, patient and nurturing. Some call them losers. It isn’t fair.

No one gets a medal for chasing two tots and carrying a third in a sling, and home-schooling the entire brood, as Gregory Jobson Larkin of Queens does, day after day. But he should. As these stay-at-home dads spend waking hours planning menus and scheduling naps, they’re known by a pitiful acronym, “SAHDS.”

As Father’s Day approaches again Sunday, it’s time to give the professional dad in your life a grateful hug.

A year ago, I sat in Central Park with three SAHDS. Last week, I tried to keep up with a dozen dads and their kids, who frolicked openly in an East Side playground — avoiding harsh stares from disapproving nannies and traditional moms.

“You can look at us as a dad-ternity, a fraternity of dads,” said Lance Somerfeld, 37, who founded New York City’s Dads Group in 2008 — nycdadsgroup.com. He organizes dads-only Gymboree classes and lectures by child-care experts, just like a mom’s group.

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” said Josh Kross, 34, nurturer-in-chief to 2½-year-old Stella, Violet, 17 months, and 6-year-old Miles. “I think we’re a lot better at this than women,” he said, tentatively looking around to make sure no mommy was listening.

“If you see three kids in a playground run into each other and fall down, there’s more chance for commotion in a mom’s group than a dad’s. There’s less societal pressure to overreact. People think we’re morons.”

The most recent census data, from 2006, counted 159,000 American full-time dads. That’s a gross undercount. Dads are too embarrassed or in denial to put their job description as “Mommy.” One Texas researcher estimated 2 million men stay home with the kids.

The biggest indicator of growth in the daddysphere might be right here in New York. A year ago, the New York City Dads Group had 220 members. It’s skyrocketed to 409 — with new men joining every day, from all five boroughs, New Jersey and Long Island.

“I can’t compete with my wife’s degree,” admitted Mike D’Anna, 36, a former chef who’s married to an actuary.

Said Kross, “When I lost my job, we did the math. Even with the MBA, with three kids I’m breaking even if I’m working.” Now, if his investment-banker wife “has to work until midnight or go on a business trip, she doesn’t have to worry about who’s picking them up or what they’re eating.”

One dad said he’d welcome Anthony Weiner into the group once his wife gives birth. He might need the job.

This Father’s Day, make a SAHD happy.

Show appreciation to the little man. He does a great job.

A RACE WE ALL LOSE

It seems anyone can run for mayor these days.

With Anthony Weiner and his pecker damaged goods, bloviating lefty actor Alec Baldwin is teasing that he may audition for City Hall.

“I wouldn’t rule it out,” he told “Access Hollywood.”

Candidates also are lining up to replace Weiner in Congress, should his realm escape being redistricted out of existence.

Republican construction worker Andy Sullivan, a vocal foe of the mosque near Ground Zero, told me he’s thinking about giving it a shot. I say, go for it!

But I don’t know what’s scarier — Mayor Weiner or Mayor Hollywood. Thanks for that, Anthony.


A bail-out for the rich

Me, too! Megarich alleged child slayer Gigi Jordan wants to be sprung from Rikers with the same bail package granted to accused maid groper Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Jordan was arrested in a posh Peninsula Hotel suite in February 2010, charged with feeding a fatal overdose of pills to her autistic 8-year-old son. She has claimed she killed the child to save him from sexual abuse by his dad and stepdad. (They deny it.)

Jordan’s lawyer wants her released to house arrest on $1 million cash bail and a $5 million bond. Just like DSK.

The size of a bank account may determine the state of one’s liberty. Appalling.

Bad old days are here again

What is happening in this city?

A sweltering Thursday at Brighton Beach was horrifically pierced when gunfire erupted at the boardwalk. A 16-year-old girl enjoying a romp in the surf lost her life. Four men were wounded. A friend whose 13-year-old son begged to visit the shore with pals panicked until the boy returned home, scared but unscathed.

It started, said witnesses, when a pair of young men walked past members of the Crips, looking at them in a way they didn’t like.

“It was over a glance,” said an incredulous onlooker. “It was a bad combination of guns, heat, beer and angry young men,” a police source told The Post.

Crime has spiked of late in Union Square Park.

Wilding youths have fired guns in Times Square at Easter. This has got to stop.

New York has come too far to return to the dark days of the 1980s.

ESB is acting high & mighty

The Empire State Building hates icons — genuine or fictitious.

Building owner Andrew Malkin last year refused to light up the skyscraper blue to honor Mother Teresa. Too religious.

Now building execs won’t light the tower red and blue to commemorate the Broadway opening of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” They’re miffed that scenery depicting the Chrysler Building appears in the show.

But when producers offered to advertise the Empire State on two huge LCD screens opening night — and send Bono and the Edge to the building’s lighting — they told them to get stuck in a web.

The building has shilled for blue M&Ms and the Chinese regime, but not the great Mother Teresa or a local comic-book hero. Petty.