This is a hot topic because it demonstrates a new occurrence
in the modern day era, which is stay at home dads. This phenomenon goes against
standard gender roles, which infer that mothers, make better nurturers because
they are naturally more caring and better at things like cleaning which is
entirely untrue.In the traditional family myth moms stay at home and does
tasks such as cooking, cleaning and caring for the children, while husbands are
the breadwinners and work. The author writes, "Men today are now reporting higher
levels of work-family conflict than women are," Coontz says. They feel
"not just pressure, but the desire to be more involved in family life and
child care and housework and cooking. And at the same time, all of the polls
are showing that women are now just as likely as men to say that they want to
have challenging careers."
I don’t have any questions I’d ask the families
because I grew up in a similar situation. When I was a kid my dad lost his job
causing my mom to become the breadwinner and my dad to become my primary
caregiver. My father was generally always the one to do the cooking and
cleaning in my household. He also did things like style my hair and take me to
school. I personally think it doesn’t matter which parent is the primary care
giver as long as the children aren’t neglected.
Faith,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the personal touch you added to the end of this post about how you experienced this "hot topic" scenario growing up. I wrote about the same topic but never had the experience of a stay-at-home dad. People often say that the mom is a better caregiver and nurturer because she gave birth to the child or was the first one to hold it but clearly there is no such proof yielding this be 100% true. I would love to hear more about how growing up with a father as the primary caregiver challenged the gender norms "traditional" families try to abide by today.
It’s interesting that you quoted that part of the article. It reminded me of that idiom, the grass is greener on the other side. In the present day, I feel like both genders want what they don’t have. The fathers usually don’t have that quality time with their children like typical mothers do 24/7. Mothers want that professional achievement they can show for in the form of money. But I feel like both fathers and mothers can have it all because my parents did! Both my parents worked, but my mother would take me to school while my father worked early in the morning. My father would pick me up from school and make dinner while my mother worked the late night shifts.
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