An American Dad

...and dad?

When it comes to parenting, it seems like more emphasis is always put on the mother. In the Olympics, after almost every commercial or interview, you hear: "P &G: Proud sponsor of moms." This is only one example out of many. Maybe it has something to do with a woman physically carrying a child during pregnancy. But what about dad? According to a recent New York Times article, dads do in fact play a major role in the health of an unborn child. Using mice (unfortunately) as test subjects, certain experiments were conducted to see the effect of a male's lifestyle on the health of its newborn. "Male rats that are starved before they're mated produce offspring with less blood sugar and altered levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (which helps babies develop)." The connection also exists with age. "Children of men over 50 were 2.2 times more likely to have autism than children of 29 year olds." Factors like health and age do affect a males sperm cells, which ultimately affect the child. Although dads do not physically carry their children, they obviously do play a very large role in their development.

Why is it then, that dads do not get as much general attention as moms? After asking my dad this same question, he responded simply: "I think it's because kids tend to spend more time with their moms." And why is that? Because although the fight for total equality is happening in America, gender roles still exist today. Traditionally, women were expected to stay home and cook, clean, and care for the kids. Since the men were supposed to be out working all day, moms got the attention for raising children. Although many, many women work today, there are still more stay-home moms than dads. According to this ABC news source, in 2008 the ratio was 38 stay at home moms per 1 dad. However, the point of this article is that the ratio of dads who stay home to care for kids is growing. I think this, among other things, is evidence that in America, gender roles are slowly equalizing.