Worcester and Droitwich Branch
Most men can see the fundamental fairness of sharing
childcare and wage-earning work equally, but all the
stats show that something stops most of us from backing up our enlightened ideas with actions.
There are financial pressures prodding us in the direction of the workplace of course, but let‟s not pretend
there isn‟t a residual fear about losing the personal
status of the breadwinner at play here as well. When it
comes to it the values of our father‟s generation are still
quite strong: in Hanna Rosin‟s The End of Men, a father
talks about dads he sees in playgrounds on weekdays
as he travels between meetings: “I like it that that guy is
out there but I don’t want to be him.”
However, being with a fairly modern woman, I found that
once I parked my career, forgot about earning much
money and got knee-deep in nappies for a while I actually got more not less respect in my house (despite the
odd jibe about being a kept man from my male friends).
Spending 8-10 hours a day with a baby helped me in
ways I wasn‟t expecting too.
For a start, it forced me to slow down and gave me time
to think. I was quite fortunate to have a relaxed baby but
I also found that if you don‟t pack your schedule too
much (and I would strongly recommend that you don‟t)
you can involve your child in your routine in a way that
helps their development and reduces the stress that
rushing them from class to class can cause the anxious
parent.
Worcester and D