In the last decade or so, fathers have been more involved in parenting, although they still do not completely participate in all aspects of raising children. Major culprit for this new role, growing number of fathers seem to take seriously, is today’s lifestyle. Thus, common belief that women are better parents than men is slowly fading. Further suppression of this age-old stereotype would help men even more to be wholeheartedly committed to the role of being a father, which will ultimately make our society better.
Up until recently, psychologists focused mainly on the role of a mother in the study of child development and education. This has changed over years and today they point out that fathers have equal abilities and are able to be kind and gentle with their children, just like mothers are. Numerous studies have shown that fathers play an important role in child’s physical and mental development and growing up. Children who grow up with fathers who have been actively involved in their upbringing, have a substantial advantage over other children. Parenting has become a more collaborative effort and growing number of moms and dads seem to be in agreement when it comes to raising a child.
Nevertheless, moms lead in this ongoing battle of moms vs. dads. They are far more involved in all aspects of ‘being a good and responsible’ parent than dads are. Aside from being totally devoted to children, moms are multitasking machines. Many may, however, disagree with this acknowledgment. Well, let’s take a moment and do a little Rorschach word test. We’ll point out few words and you need to say the first thing that comes to your mind. Please be honest, though. So let’s begin: ‘Cooking’, ‘Grocery Shopping’, ‘Laundry’, ‘Household Chores’, ‘Vacation Planning’, ‘Back-to-school Shopping’, ‘Attending School Plays or Tournaments’, ‘Having Fun’, ‘Gifts’. If we say you thought of your mom for majority of these phrases, we wouldn’t be mistaken, now would we. No matter how hard we try to equally treat both parents, moms seem to get more love and are being more praised. And even retailers seem to follow this trend as well. There are far more unique and really cool ideas for gifts for mom than there are fathers day gift ideas.
For example, when we think about Mother’s and Father’s Day, majority of us take more time to plan Mother’s Day; spend more hours browsing and searching for a unique gift for a mom then we do for a dad; and definitely spend more money on mom’s gift than we do for a fathers day present. But why? Fathers deserve the same gratitude. After all, dads are surely more fun. They let kids do whatever they want; play with them all day long and ignore the guidelines of mommy’s to-do list. They seem not to be bothered by a big mess of toys, thrown crayons and coloring books and spilled food…they live in the moment and just play with kids. And this is why they deserve our love and appreciation as well. Therefore, pamper your dad with hugs and kisses and surprise him with a bit more original fathers day gift this year. Because he’s worth it.
