I know we haven't started talking about this yet, but it crossed my mind the other day. I was thinking about how society is changing and women are no longer staying at home raising the kids. They are getting out into the world and having careers of their own. I kind of find it funny how the new thing for men to do is be the 'stay at home dad.' It's like role reversal. Just because the women are out getting jobs, the men stay home. I can understand this, because someone has to take care of the kids. But it seems weird to me because it's almost like the woman is wearing the pants in the family. I was raised in a very traditional family, where my mother stayed home to raise my brother and I, never having a full-time job since we were born. She only had a part-time job for a couple of years. So part of me feels like that's what I should do one day, raise my kids instead of going back to work. But that seems kind of hard these days because of the way our economy is heading. I just have problems thinking about giving up my career that I worked so hard for (in college) to start.
It seems that even Hollywood has caught on to the double-income family, with all their movies portraying two working parents. Hollywood is now empowering women with all these movies of women becoming great leaders and succeeding in their careers, forgetting about creating a family. There are no typical Stepford Wives movies anymore, at least not very many. One exception, which is outdated, which is surprising considering the recent trends, is the movie Mr. Mom with Michael Keaton. Obviously somebody knew what would happen in 30 years. Society is changing, so I guess I better get on the bandwagon.
It’s interesting that this is one of your posts, because I was randomly thinking about this same topic the other day. I, too, was contemplating life and entertaining the idea of the day when I will have children. And that got me thinking: Would I be expected to put my career on hold to raise a family? It’s what my mom did, and I’ve been raised to think that the wife/mother would be the one to stay with the children. But I honestly can’t see myself working this hard in college to get a degree that I’ll someday decide to not use because I want a family.
ReplyDeleteSo, wouldn’t that just mean that my husband and I would reevaluate the changes we wanted to make when we have a family? Shouldn’t he be expected to stay home and take care of the kids too? Why does this responsibility always seem to fall on the mother?
But then again, isn’t it a double standard? If I have a son who sees his father staying home to take care of the kids while his mother leaves everyday to bring home the bacon, wouldn’t he grow up with the expectation that someday he would have to give up a career to take care of the kids? It’s a complicated issue. Society has definitely had a hand in creating this image of the woman staying home with the kids while the man earns the money; but if we reverse it, with stay at home dads, aren’t we putting the same idea into little boys’ heads? I suppose it will come down to each family making the decision: Who stays home, the mom or the dad? Maybe someday it could even out, some moms stay home, some dads stay home, but right now I don’t think the issue will get any less complex.