The nuclear family is what was thought to be "ideal." It involved two heterosexual parents. The father, a male, who worked all day to bring in money for the family. And a mother, a female, who stayed at home and raised the children. The mother was supposed to have dinner ready for her husband when he came home.
This is a lot different from how things are today. While these kinds of families still exist, like mine, many other families handle life differently. In many families I know, the mother brings home the larger part of the household salary. For example, with my one neighbor, the mother is a doctor and the father is a local handy man. The mother never cooks dinner. The father does it every night and it is perfectly fine.
The part of the article form Working Mother that stood out the most to me was that 31% of working moms earned as much as or more than their husbands. This is compared to just 11% in 1967. This shows how more women are becoming primary breadwinners. And while fathers do not necessarily want to be known as stay at home dads, they can know that more men than ever before are not the primary breadwinners. Stay at home dads will soon be as normal as stay at home moms.
The article was funny when it brought up situations like where the dad put the wrong clothes on the daughter. However, this is serious because it must be hard for fathers to adapt to being stay at home dads. The emotional pain of realizing you are no longer able to provide for your family is very serious. My hat goes off to the dads that are able to adjust and take care of their kids so well.
You speak well about how it's difficult for men to transition into the stay-at-home dad role. My family generally follows that standard "man work, women stays at home" policy. However, even though he works during the day, my dad almost always start helping prepare dinner when he gets home. On the weekends, my mother works instead, and my father will run errands as needed. I think my parents have managed to strike a good balance between working and taking care of housework. My dad is not a stay-at-home dad, but he refuses to leave the house chores completely to my mother. Similarly, my mother refuses to allow my father to be the only one making money for the family.
ReplyDelete