A 26-year-old woman who is expecting her first child with her fiance turned to the AITA community on Reddit to ask if she is wrong to want to go back to work after the baby’s born.
“He works over an hour from where we live, makes around $800-$900 per week and works full-time. However, I make around $1800-$1900 a week working the same hours. We decided daycare wasn't an option due to price, location and not wanting to put a newborn into daycare,” the author explained.
The Redditor made a decision to go back to work while her fiance will quit his job to look after their son. While for many, this would sound like a rational decision, it’s not the case for the author’s in-laws, who see the plan as “unnatural” and even “cruel” to their son.
After upsetting her in-laws, this expecting mother wonders if she's wrong to want to go back to work while her fiance looks after their baby
Image credits: LightFieldStudios (not the actual photo)
Image credits: natalialebedinskaia (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Ok_Case_9067
More and more dads are staying at home and tending to childcare than ever before, the new data shows. According to the Pew Research Center, an estimated 2.1 million fathers were stay-at-home dads in 2021—up 8% since 1989. The increase is attributed, in large part, to women out-earning their male partners.
Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts and best-selling author of seven books, including a global bestseller Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters who explained that with the increasing amount of remote work available, we've seen shifts in gender roles.
“There is a shift in traditional gender roles and expectations, with fathers taking a more active role in childcare and household responsibilities. For example, in a survey of over 1000 dads conducted, 84% of dads believed that they had been more involved with their children during the pandemic,” Dr. Tsipursky said.
He continued: “They said they understand their children better, understand their spouse better, and have greater respect for their children’s teachers. Likewise, companies are increasingly offering paid parental leave and other benefits that make it easier for fathers to take time off work to care for their children.”
Meanwhile, Joanne Harris, a feminist writer, storyteller, and advocate for authors’ rights, who is currently the Chair of the Society of Authors (SOA) and a member of the Board of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), believes that gender stereotyping is on the rise.
“With it, there is a growing hostility to those who don't conform to the roles imposed by a patriarchal society. We really need to address this new lurch towards conservatism and intolerance, and to be more intersectional in our allyship - otherwise, the patriarchy wins every time,” Harris commented.
