Parenting during lockdown must be hard. I’ve tried to help out some friends where I can to try to share the load.
Last week I was told about a resource to help mums cope with having kids at home. That is mums – not parents. Obviously it is the job of the mum to take care of the children. But maybe think of the poor dad – his normal place is out there being the breadwinner – he isn’t used to having children near him during the day.
It struck me that our world has become a bit lop sided. It is odd how we find fewer and fewer young maids living at home awaiting a gent to choose them.
Remember – blue text is for humour.
But there have been some interesting programmes recently, some period films or older TV series and even some up to date fly on the wall series. And they have all hinted at what looks like a strengthening of gender roles.
The woman’s place seems to be alive and thriving. I’ve been surprised at how many boys are taught “man stuff” and girls are taught “woman stuff”, not deliberately, but just that is how it is assumed to be.
Today on a zoom call I was asked what I was knitting – as if it would be strange for a man to knit. I learned to knit, crochet, sew and bake when I was young (I wasn’t an expert, but I still can do better than many). I had good examples in my family (both men and women).
I also learned to do things like fix cars (and other engineering that might not be considered too safe these days).
I was partly serious about men parenting during a pandemic – there are a lot more men picking up parenting responsibilities these days than this time last year. For some this will be a really tough change (I would say for the better). But we probably need support for dads more than mums at this point in time. Or maybe we can just support parents.
But more than that maybe we can support kids to become whole people.