kikigirl
Well-Known Member
Yes, people would rather discuss how we shouldn’t make these kinds of parents feel guilty. If we won’t even acknowledge that it is bad parenting then we can’t come up with any solutions. We are one of the only countries in the world without paid maternity leave, but people are too busy trying not to feel guilty about dropping a newborn off at daycare to insist that it is needed.
A lot of the kids raised by mothers like the ones in the OP are insisting on the exact opposite for their own children. The millennials raised by Gen X and Boomer parents are more likely to want to have a parent in the home and flexible work schedules. They are also more likely to insist on very involved fathers that share the parenting load. I think that we will get to that work life balance in the near future.
Yes to all of this!!!! Especially the bolded.
At my workplace paternity leave just jumped from 6 weeks to 5 months!!!! I have at least 3 male colleagues who are taking it now (and imagine the relief it’ll provide to their families). These are attorneys who are as busy as the OP.
We have to acknowledge the problems and collectively (men and women) find solutions that foster healthy families rather than find out more original ways to farm out all childcare/rearing to others.
I’ve stopped taking our mothers’ lunches seriously because it’s just a lot of “You go girl! Your kid will be fine!” vs. constructive solutions.