I did not notice this before. But Mick pointed out ages ago before we had children that ads are always portraying the Father as the 'stupid' one. The one that forgets what to buy in the supermarket. The one that cannot clean up the house and the Mother walks in and starts shaking her head. The one that cannot even work out how to use a air freshener. After he told me that, I started noticing that it was true. Have you ever noticed this?
There was a day that Mick took the two boys into the city to see my GP. We just cannot find a decent on near us and was willing to take both of them into the city during business hours. So they parked at my office building in the morning and we saw the folks in my team. I love having the boys visit and looking around all cute in the office. D will look out the window and stare at the cars and people walking downstairs from the 18th floor. My colleague, a mother herself asked if Mick could handle both children. He looked upset for a second and said of course I can. I said yeah erm... You should ask me that question as I know that I cannot.
A few of us in my old team had children around the same time. One was saying how she is working part time and could not take additional time off during the week as it was already hard to catch up on work. So her husband took the day off this time and stayed home. Mind you the child is now about 11months. She said out loud, I wonder if he is able to cope without me. Why? There is one child and he is the Father? I am pretty much vocal about this as I do not think that it is healthy to be a martyr about childcare duties. She said it is because she has always been with the daughter and he had never been alone with her. The other lady started about her situation that at almost 2 years old or probably more than 2 years old she is just starting to leave the house without her child and leaving him with his Father. I also said out loud, just leave the house! He is 2 years old! You are not leaving him with a teenage stranger!
What is going on? Martyrdom? I also cannot stand this next phrase and I keep reading it on FB. Thanks to her/his Dad for BABYSITTING. Dad is not babysitting, Dad is taking care of his child. Annoyed.
Ok get off soap box and waits for others to abuse me.
2 years ago
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The ads with the dumb husbands are targeted at us, because somehow we're supposed to resonate with the message that our husbands are idots.
ReplyDeleteAs for the "babysitting" dad I agree 100%. I talked to a friend who said she has to settle the baby when she wakes up at night because "DH can't do it". Well you can do it because you're forced to do it again and again when you're the only one at home, not because your husband is incapable of doing so. I always encourage my girlfriends with newborns to share caring responsibilities evenly with their husbands.
That annoys me so much too! We will never get closer to equality if we don't trust that a father can look after his own child.
ReplyDeleteI know! Heck i don't know what I was doing either! It used to take 5 minutes to change a nappy including getting peed on!
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