Being a tough guy is as easy as swapping gender roles for Satyan Sharma, until he feels his daughter’s pain
As most dads today undoubtedly know, defining “the modern dad” is an ongoing, work in progress. We walk a fine line between the masculinity that we were raised on and being nurturing, sensitive fathers as our roles in the home get more involved.
Satyan Sharma and his wife have a point, counter-point page on Facebook called called Mom Said, Dad Said. You can also find them on Twitter.
—this post first appeared on NYC Dads Group
—photo by Anders Ljungberg/Flickr
How about crying with your son? Do fathers do that?
Thirty-five years ago, my wife had no hesitation in leaving our twins with me.
If this is new to the writer, he’s in a pretty small group. Everybody else has been doing it for generations.
Thebadman, you don’t even have to go back that far. I’m really getting tired of this. I’m getting tired of being told what men were and are. I’m approaching 60 and being the last of 7 kids, my dad was in his 60’s when I was 20. All this BS about men not feeling and letting their emotions out WAS no more then propaganda to enhance the feminist movement of the 60’s. Men are unfeeling thugs, womanizers and oppressors … blah blah blah. My dad was a man’s man. All muscle beer drinking laborer. He showed emotions but not at… Read more »
And $70 billion in unpaid Child Support……Playing without Paying…..when are men going to get onboard with their own Birth Control ? Or it’s not manly to not sow their seeds ?
So let me get this, as a new age enlightened man who cares & nurtures his daughter & family, if I want to & feel like it I can turn on the faucet on & cry with my daughter when she cries ,hmmm I do understand that it’s more than just a stereo type for men not to cry (moaning) at least in public , as a show of calmness, composure & strength in front of life’s hardships towards the family & society or that specific social sitting, regardless of the reason, what makes the fact that men aspire to… Read more »
Nice article. You might be interested in this quote by one of the “Founding Fathers” of the United States, John Dickinson: April 27, 1777: “Dear Cousin, Yesterday on the Receipt of your Letter; I was preparing to set off for Dover; in order to enquire into the circumstances of the Mortgage you mention, when very unhappily my ride was stop’d by my dear Child’s falling out of a Porch and breaking both Bones of the left fore arm— It was set before Noght— She rested pretty well– The alarming distress occasioned by this Accident, it is not easy to describe.… Read more »
I think these “traditional” stereotypes are just that, stereotypes. If you go back before the industrial revolution there was greater involvement and sharing of responsibilities by all family members.
Lots of old dudes were also nurturing and caring, they just had the added burden of being responsible for work outside the home which left them less time for family.
Cause Mom did it all at home………..Being home is work……..if that is the common goal. The issue is women’s work is “undervalued” and “highly underpaid”……………it’s expected cause that’s what women do……….it’s our nature……haha
Do we have anything empirical that fathers before “modern” weren’t able to cry with their daughters?