In one of the first articles I wrote for Odyssey, I mentioned that the phrase "Mr. Mom" had been used to describe my dad, it annoyed me, and I would discuss it at a later day. Well, my dudes, today is the day.
A "Mr. Mom", as far as I can tell, is when the father of a child is the stay-at-home parent and does most of the housework such as cooking and cleaning. They are the primary parent who takes their kid to the doctor when they get sick suddenly and are the person who gets asked for homework help the most. But to all the "Mr. Moms" out there, I hate to tell you, but there is in fact already a word to describe you. It's called being a dad.
Just because you too can make a grilled cheese sandwich and you're a guy doesn't mean you should automatically get a parent of the year award. Calling yourself a "Mr. Mom" just means that you think you're doing such a great service to mankind by being the parent to stay home and raise your children when honestly gender shouldn't matter of who is the primary caregiver. In an ideal world, both parents would have equal participation in raising their child, but in today's society a lot of times that just isn't feasible.
Don't get me wrong, I have a huge amount of respect for anyone who is a stay-at-home parent; it is definitely not an easy job. Most days it is probably thankless, and as someone who never wants children, shout out to anyone who has the strength to do that. But as someone who grew up with a working mother, I think it's incredibly darn sexist and old-fashioned to automatically assume that the mother is the parent who should feel obligated to raise their kids. My mom was the parent who worked full time because it financially made more sense, and while a lot of my friends' parents who chose to say home tended to be the mom, no one should ever feel obligated to either work full time or become a stay at home because of their gender.
If you want to be a stay at home mom, that's fine! But no one should feel the need to trash on parents' decisions to either stay at home or work. You don't know anything about their living situation, and if you're not the person being affected by their choices and know the child will be safe, maybe you should stop focusing so much on how other parents choose to raise a child and figure out why you feel the need to criticize other people for taking on the incredibly challenging task of raising a human being for at least 18 years.
