Our baby was due yesterday… bun no signs yet!
I’ll keep you all posted (as much as I can). I’ve been hesitating if I should write about the following issue: Fatherhood.
I have decided to take parental leave from September to May. This is quite uncommon for men. In all of my entourage I don’t know one person who has actually taken time off from work to spend it with his family. I am not criticising anyone. I am just making an observation.
It seems to me that fathers get away with too much. In most cases it’s the mother who ends up deciding about the education, basic needs and security of the child (children). I am talking mostly about men in North America (I don’t know the situation in other places). It seems like all that is expected from fathers is to be a good provider. With all that has changed in our society, I think OUR roles have changed as well. If we want to have a balanced family where the roles aren’t divided upon gender, then fathers have to start living up to their share of responsibility. We too can change diapers, feed the baby, play with them and take them out for a haircut or to the doctor. This is only fair when you think that for centuries mothers were bound to do this for 24 hours a day when most men worked about 8 hours and did a couple of chores at home. Lara and I have decided that I will take time off and take care of the 2 kids while she finishes writing her thesis and working in her field. There is another solution here but we opted not to take it. It’s called Day Care. Most of you readers who don’t have children yet may not know what I am talking about. Finding the right one is a parent’s nightmare (at least here in Montreal). Day care in Canada is subsidised by the government. Because of the lack of funding, the safety of the kids seems to me to be compromised. There is a 1/10 ratio for kids between 1-3 years old with a minimum of 2 adults… that’s 20 kids for 2 adults! Have you ever been in a room with 20 kids of that age group? Anyhow, we want to be the ones to raise our own kids, why else do you think we had them in the first place?
I apologies if my thoughts were kind of everywhere.
PS: I have one more month to finish my graduate diploma at university. I am studying the field of Community Economic Development. I’ll leave that for another log.
Montreal: weather is nice and the Jazz fest was excellent!
I’ll keep you all posted (as much as I can). I’ve been hesitating if I should write about the following issue: Fatherhood.
I have decided to take parental leave from September to May. This is quite uncommon for men. In all of my entourage I don’t know one person who has actually taken time off from work to spend it with his family. I am not criticising anyone. I am just making an observation.
It seems to me that fathers get away with too much. In most cases it’s the mother who ends up deciding about the education, basic needs and security of the child (children). I am talking mostly about men in North America (I don’t know the situation in other places). It seems like all that is expected from fathers is to be a good provider. With all that has changed in our society, I think OUR roles have changed as well. If we want to have a balanced family where the roles aren’t divided upon gender, then fathers have to start living up to their share of responsibility. We too can change diapers, feed the baby, play with them and take them out for a haircut or to the doctor. This is only fair when you think that for centuries mothers were bound to do this for 24 hours a day when most men worked about 8 hours and did a couple of chores at home. Lara and I have decided that I will take time off and take care of the 2 kids while she finishes writing her thesis and working in her field. There is another solution here but we opted not to take it. It’s called Day Care. Most of you readers who don’t have children yet may not know what I am talking about. Finding the right one is a parent’s nightmare (at least here in Montreal). Day care in Canada is subsidised by the government. Because of the lack of funding, the safety of the kids seems to me to be compromised. There is a 1/10 ratio for kids between 1-3 years old with a minimum of 2 adults… that’s 20 kids for 2 adults! Have you ever been in a room with 20 kids of that age group? Anyhow, we want to be the ones to raise our own kids, why else do you think we had them in the first place?
I apologies if my thoughts were kind of everywhere.
PS: I have one more month to finish my graduate diploma at university. I am studying the field of Community Economic Development. I’ll leave that for another log.
Montreal: weather is nice and the Jazz fest was excellent!
posted by Raffi N at 4:11 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home