Opinion
Opinion | 17 June 2020
Men are crying out for equality too, especially in parenting
We were on the tram, me and two little boys. It was a Saturday evening in June and the three of us were returning from a football match. One child was my son, now seven years old, the other his schoolfriend. Two matronly women noticed the three of us and clicked their tongues approvingly. "You're a good dad," one said with a friendly smile, "taking two kids to the footy all by yourself." It felt good to get affirmation from strangers about my ability to take small children into public places and have them come out the other side alive. But pride at the public acknowledgement didn't last long: what if I was a woman? I could have five kids on the tram and no one would bat an eyelid.
A few weeks later I was reading an article on the Huffington Post website about the ''new breed'' of engaged fathers, in which the author claimed that "fathers [who] have a screen shot of their kids on their iPhone or desktop … [or] change diapers or babysit while Mom goes out to see a movie or have dinner with her girlfriends" were a sign of just how far things have come in parenting equality.
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