AmazonFamilytweetsThe death of a popular dad blogger has re-ignited a campaign calling on Amazon to rename its “Amazon Mom” program to “Amazon Family” in the United States.

The Twitter campaign, using the hashtag #AmazonFamilyUS, has been restarted by people including well-known dad blogger Charlie Capen, co-author of the blog How to Be a Dad. He was succinct in his appeal to the company: “Hey @Amazon, it’s time to change Amazon Moms to #AmazonFamilyUS. Every other country has it. #Dads4Oren”

Oren Miller via BloggerFather.com
Oren Miller via BloggerFather.com

The #Dads4Oren hashtag was a nod to Oren Miller, a dad blogger who passed away over the weekend and helped popularize the name change campaign more than two years ago. While acknowledging that the Amazon Mom discount program is open to anyone “expecting a baby or caring for a baby or young child,” Miller asked Amazon to call the program what it’s dubbed in the U.K.: Amazon Family.

“It’s not about a name and it’s not about me personally being offended and it’s not about stupid emails about yoga classes,” Miller wrote. “It’s about a company that looks at the US, then looks at England, and then decides that over there, parent equals mom or dad, while here, well, we’re not ready for that yet.”

Capen, who with his blog co-author Andy Herald has 176,000 Twitter followers for @HowToBeADad, decided to pick up the baton along with others on Twitter after Miller died Saturday from cancer. In Capen’s tribute to Miller, he explained, “there’s a little battle he started that I’d like to help finish for him.”

Amazon apparently uses the Amazon Family label for its program in many countries outside the U.S. A Change.org petition urging Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to make the name change has been posted for three years, but has fewer than four thousand signatures.

Portland-based Daddy Doctrines blogger Chris Routly, who along with Capen is spearheading the Twitter effort, emphasized in a blog post this isn’t a dads vs. moms issue: “Continuing to treat ‘mom’ as a synonym for ‘caregiving parent’ ignores the blood-sweat-and-tears in the day-to-day hands-on work of parenting being done by non-moms. And more importantly, it props up the notion that this work properly belongs on a mom’s shoulders, not to be shared with a partner.”

Routly tells GeekWire that he and Capen are happy with the response so far. As to the result, “Ultimately it’s going to be up to Amazon if this leads to change, but we’re hoping that they are noticing and taking seriously what we’re saying.”

Amazon’s official @Amazon_Mom Twitter account hasn’t responded to the renewed effort, which has led to at least 2,000 tweets using the #AmazonFamilyUS hashtag since the campaign began this morning.

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