Seeing a mother taking good care of her her kids and keeping them from crying or whining at a market is considered very normal, since it is known that a mother's "duty" is "generally" to take care of the children. However, for a father to be in place of the mother, he will most likely be characterized based on his skill of nurturing them.
There are stereotypes where mothers are sometimes seen as a stay-at-home mother, and fathers are seen as a work-in-office father. According to an article written by a father, a stranger at a grocery stare called him "a hero" for taking care of his kids, while the mother went out to work and make money. Some people were even impressed at the sight of a father "baby-sitting" of his kids without the help of a mother. They might have been saying, "Oh, the child really adores him. What a great father he must be to her!"
Although that it is a nice sight to see a father interact and have a close relationship with their kids, is it really that impressive or even heroic? A parent - regardless of gender - should take a lot of time to childcare and be able to balance it out with their work., or spend more time with their kids. Therefore, seeing a father playing around with or nurse his child should me a normal sight since it is his duty as a parent. A father should not be mostly perceived as a hard-working employer or laborer. If the stereotypes (mentioned in the second paragraph) were to be true, shouldn't the mother be considered a a far better hero than fathers for spending more time with their kids than fathers do? Why should one scene of a father caring for his children be the only requirement for a father to be considered "a hero"?
No matter what, it is always the parents' choice to decide on how much of their time should be spent with work or childcare. "[Both of the] decision(s) [aren't] heroic or cowardly. It isn't even a decision. No, this here - this is economics."
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2013/07/life_as_a_stay_at_home_dad_everyone_i_meet_calls_me_a_hero_for_taking_care.single.html
This was very interesting article! You did a good job at analyzing point of view. I feel like you could have elaborated a little more on comparing the stay-home-mother vs. stay-home-father. Although, I agree with your stance that it is the parents choice and responsibility to take care of their children. Also, I agree that women that should not be seen as less hard-working than men. Some of the summary was a bit redundant, but your commentary was relevant. Overall, nice job!
ReplyDeleteI really like the article you chose, and this was definitely interesting. However, I feel like it's more of a summary than an analysis. I feel like because you agree with what the author is saying, you're having trouble thinking of your own things to say. That's the impression I was getting. Maybe you can talk about your own personal experiences, or how you would feel about this if you were a mother. You could also ask yourself if there are other topics similar to this going on. (Gender bias is still common in other areas.) Hope this helped.
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