Traditionally, most societies considered a man as a breadwinner responsible for the material well-being of his family, whereas a woman performed the role of a hearth keeper in charge of the children and home. However, the situation have changed considerably in the last several decades: men now participate more actively in the upbringing process starting from being present at child’s birth and finishing with some babysitting if their wives choose to pursue a career. However, many people still believe that women are better at parenting than men.
One of the main concerns behind this attitude is that women usually have more housekeeping skills. But personally I believe that they are not something we are born with: women learn them, so why cannot men do the same, especially when electrical appliances have made housekeeping so much easier?
Another idea, which is often referred to, is that women are gentler and kinder in nature, so a child will get more affection. However, this point seems to be only partially true. First of all, men are generally not so hard-hearted. They just do not tend to express their emotions. But their attitude to their child can still be full of love and care, which the child would undoubtedly feel. Secondly, newspapers and TV reports are abundant in stories when mothers, being addicted to drugs, treated their children in an absolutely inhuman way, which proves that love and care are actually the matter of personal features rather than a gender issue.
The only real advantage women have over men as parents is the ability to breastfeed. But let’s face it: if a woman does not care about a baby, she is very unlikely to breastfeed.
To sum up, parenting is more a call of one’s heart rather than an inherent characteristic and a gender issue. So, men can make as good parents as women.