It's sad for women, but it's like this- women still do the majority of the child care in this country, and they are the only ones with breasts, so they kind of have to do the nursing.
You can SAY it's not fair (and it isn't) but when mom slacks off, for whatever reason, the family will suffer. Kids won't be supervised, nutritious meals won't be made, etc.
I was up at 5am this morning making my kids healthy veggie sushi for lunch, and writing the checks they need for band, and washing clothes. And when my children get home- I'm there. I've got teens, but quite frankly considering the trouble teens can get in to, I consider that the most important age to supervise. As I've said many times, parents seem to slack off in the teen years, and it's a horrible choice- because you've made the investment in your child, and you should make sure it doesn't get blown up by hormones and your lack of attentiveness as a parent.
Schedule schedule schedule
Keep a teen busy, and supervised, and he or she will be much more likely to turn out just fine- but that means mom or dad needs to be there, and needs to be attentive to what's going on.
That's my experience, anyway.
It's not fair- but I'm not going to quibble about fairness when the health and safety of my children are at stake. Even if it's not fair that I do the work of child care and also work a job around my children, I'm doing it- because that is what needs to be done to be an affective parent. If you can make dad do it, I'm fine with that too. But I don't know a lot of men signing up for that. |
