Review: Nice read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 1, 2013
This book left me with mixed feelings. Not because of the book itself, but just because of the different ways men are looking at being a stay at home parent. I'm a stay at home mom and this is just how it made me feel.1. I felt a little vindication here. I mean, SAHMs have been saying that what we do is work and men weren't listening. Maybe now they'll listen to other men and understand that just because we don't get paid doesn't mean we aren't working. A part of me felt very "aha! see! now you get it!"2. While SAHD's get a little bit different crap from people, it's not really much different than what we as SAHMs get. While it's more socially acceptable to be a MOM at home, we still get some grief as well. C'mon guys, you're breaking new ground here, so I kind of feel like "get over it". I mean, if the worst you get is a little verbal ignorance, then set them straight and move on. I get this kind of crap all the time. "Well, but you don't work..." "I work!" "Well, y'know, REAL work".3. I'm really impressed that these guys have stepped up and shared their stories, not just for a different POV, but also because they show that being a man doesn't have to be about being the breadwinner and that men are just as capable as women in this regard. I think we as women foster a male ignorance when it comes to child care. We act like only we can do it, and that makes our husbands appear incapable. My husband seemed so ignorant.."well I don't know how" was like a key phrase. It took me some to realize that he wasn't looking at it as common sense as I was. He's a big guy and he didn't want to hurt the babies and I seemed so sure of myself. I encouraged that lack of ability by just doing it myself and not giving him the same opportunity to learn as I was getting. I also wasn't taking the time to understand his fears and respecting his ability to be a father. I admire these men and their wives for not falling into that hole. Giving him that chance and that respect showed me the problem wasn't him, but how I behaved. We woman have much to learn as well.All that being said, I really enjoyed this set of stories. Each of them made me look at their lives in different ways. There's really not much difference between them and me and the lives we live as stay at home parents. I identified with their problems, but seeing it from a male perspective helped me understand how it affects them vs how the same behavior affects me.