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Stay-at-home dad |
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A stay-at-home dad is a term used to describe a male parent who is the main caregiver of the children and the home. Alternative terms include stay at home father, househusband or homemaker.
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Traditional gender roles in Western civilization usually see the private parenting responsibilities go to the mother or housewife, while the public social parenting responsibilities are carried out by the father.
There are two mainly different circumstances contributing to a stay-at-home dad arrangement:
1)Married fathers - Social considerations: For a stay-at-home dad, those private child-rearing duties that are usually assigned to the mother then become the duties of the father, while at the same time the public duties remain his responsibility. While the father takes on more of the private duties of the childrearing tasks, like making sure the kids are fed and warm, their protection from harm, homework help, etc., the bulk of the houselhold chores except for cooking are usually left for the mother to do when she returns home from work.
Economic considerations: Usually in this arrangement the mother can make a higher income than the father, or the father is typically at home from an injury or is on disability, so money is saved by avoiding the usual day care or babysitter and housekeeper expenses. In this arrangement, the male stays at home while the female carries the burden of bringing in the family income from outside or self-employment.
2)Single fathers
Increased divorce rates have also resulted in many more split families, and some fathers are choosing to or out of necessity have no choice but to be the main caregiver rather than the mother.citation needed Some mothers desire to be free of the stigma and burden of taking care of their children after a divorce or separation and choose to allow the father to take primary custody of their children so that they can gain upward social mobility by being more available to their employer or their customers.
As recently as 25 years ago, such an arrangement with the father staying at home was uncommon in many parts of the world, with fathers having less contact with their children than mothers, privately. As the movement towards social acceptability in regards to males staying at home, the prevalence of stay-at-home dads is increasing and attitudes are changing.
In families with a stay-at-home father, the mother may have a full time job and share the child rearing with the father, who may also be a working parent. The mother may have a professional occupation as can the father. Household tasks are shared more than "traditional" Western roles might prescribe. Despite this history, stay at home fathers are becoming more widespread in much of the world.
In these arrangements, the father will share the household chores (cooking, cleaning, and laundry) and childrearing with the mother.
The Michael Keaton movie Mr. Mom (1983) features one of the more famous portrayals of a stay-at-home dad. Many stay-at-home dads dislike being labeled Mr. Mom because of bumbling aspect of the father in the movie, the feeling that stay-at-home dads are trying to be mothers rather than fathers, and the general emasculating tone of such terminology. Many feel that their contributions are as fathers and that is just as important to children, but distinct from mothers' contributions.
A 2004 country song entitled "Mr. Mom" was released by the group, Lonestar.
Published in the United Kingdom in August 2007, the Diary of a Hapless Househusband by Sam Holden is a comic account of the trials of a stay-at-home dad. It has been described by Allison Pearson as 'a very very funny and often touching account of one man's struggle to run Planet Home'. However, much like 'Mr Mom', some of the humour comes from the house-husband being inept and uncommitted to the role, a stereotype some stay-at-home dads may find out-dated. Also, the use of the word househusband is considered a tautology by some grammarians, because house comes from OE: hus, which is one of the same Germanic elements from which "husband" derives. Therefore, "househusband" analyzes as Gmc: *hus-hus-bond(i), making it redundant.
At Home Dad is a Japanese terebi dorama, or sitcom, that tells the story of the Yamamuras, a typical white collar Japanese family. It spanned one series (12 episodes). The family moves into their new house next door to a family in which the husband stays home and takes care of the child and house. Shortly thereafter, Yamamura Kazuyuki, played by Hiroshi Abe, loses his job as a CM director of a major marketing firm and finds himself taking lessons from his neighbor on how to be a stay at home dad. This series may be particularly interesting to westerners because it depicts certain aspects of the social class structure and gender roles in Japan.
64.3 million - number of U.S. fathers
159,000 - number of stay-at-home dads in 2006
2.9 million - number of preschoolers cared for by their dads while mom is at work.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
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